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.
A collection of interviews with the American writer, filmmaker, dramatist and cultural critic, Susan Sontag (1933-2004) that cover the period from 1967 through 1993. Many are translations of interviews that originally appeared in French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, or Swedish periodicals. Several are published here for the first time in any language.