The Women Who Hate Me: Poetry 1980–1990
Allison, Dorothy. The Women Who Hate Me: Poetry 1980–1990. Firebrand Books, 1991. Softbound. Book and cover design by Betsy Bayley. Before her bestselling success with Bastard Out of Carolina, Allison worked as a maid, nanny, substitute teacher, phone operator at a rape crisis center, and Social Security Administration clerk, returning home evenings to write on a yellow legal pad. Her first book was this poetry collection, originally published in 1983 by Long Haul Press and later released in a new edition by Firebrand, who had also published Allison's short story collection, Trash, in 1988. Like Long Haul, Firebrand grew out of the women's press movement alongside Out & Out Books, Persephone Press, Women’s Press Collective, Naiad Press, and Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Firebrand was also know for publishing Audre Lorde and fostering the career of Alison Bechdel, and the building that once housed the press's headquarters on east State Street in Ithaca, New York, is now a designated local historic landmark.
