The interviews in this collection portray the many sides of the Harlem-born author and activist. She was also a rebellious child of Caribbean parents, a mastectomy patient, a blue-collar worker, a college professor, a student of African mythology, an experimental autobiographer in her book titled Zami, a critic of imperialism, and a charismatic orator.
Dorothy Allison gives voice to issues dear to her: poverty, working-class life, domestic violence, feminism and women's relationships, the contemporary South, and gay/lesbian life. The interviews detail Allison's working-class background in Greenville, South Carolina, as the daughter of a waitress. Allison discusses her upbringing, her work (novels, short stories, essays, poetry) and her active participation in the women's movement of the 1970s.