Lisa Alther
Lisa Alther is an American author born on July 23, 1944, in Kingsport, Tennessee. Raised in a supportive family that valued education, she graduated from Wellesley College in 1966 with a degree in English. Alther's literary career began with her debut novel, *Kinflicks* (1975), which garnered acclaim for its humorous and insightful exploration of female coming-of-age experiences. Her subsequent works, including *Original Sins* (1981) and *Other Women* (1985), often feature complex female characters navigating relationships and identity crises, particularly in the context of lesbian and bisexual experiences.
Alther's writing is distinguished by her ability to address serious themes—such as societal expectations and struggles with identity—while maintaining a humorous tone. Her novels frequently depict the challenges faced by women in unsupportive family environments and their journeys towards self-discovery and fulfillment. In addition to fiction, she has authored nonfiction works exploring family heritage and historical narratives. With a career spanning several decades, Alther has established herself as a significant voice in lesbian literature, known for her candid and engaging storytelling.
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Subject Terms
Lisa Alther
- Born: July 23, 1944
- Birthplace: Kingsport, Tennessee
Author Profile
Writer. Lisa (pronounced Liza) Alther was born in Kingsport, Tennessee, in 1944 to parents who encouraged her curiosity and her literary education. She grew up with four siblings, three brothers and a sister. After attending public schools, she enrolled at Wellesley College, graduating in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in English. She married the painter Richard Alther (they later divorced), had a daughter, and began working in the publishing industry in New York. She then moved to Vermont to raise her daughter and dedicated herself to writing. She later split her time between Vermont and Tennessee and held teaching positions at St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont, and East Tennessee State University.
Alther is best known for her novels, especially her first, Kinflicks (1975), a female-centered humorous coming-of-age story that won favorable reviews and became a bestseller. It was followed by Original Sins (1981), Other Women (1985, Bedrock, (1990), Five Minutes In Heaven (1995), and Washed in the Blood (2011). She also delved into nonfiction with Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree—The Search for My Melungeon Ancestors (2007) and Blood Feud: The Hatfields and the McCoys: The Epic Story of Murder and Vengeance (2012). She also published Stormy Weather & Other Stories in 2012, an autobiographical account of Alther's childhood and her perspective of growing up in nature. In 2015, she collaborated with Françoise Gilot to write About Women: Conversations Between a Writer and a Painter and in 2020, she published Swan Song: An Odyssey, a comical tale set onboard a cruise ship. In 2021, she self-published a nonfiction introduction to her novel entitled An Introduction to Birdman and the Dancer.
The female characters at the center of Alther’s fictions have similar experiences. They come from families that are nonsupportive and are dominated by parents with unrealistic expectations for their children. The heroines grow up with the assumption that heterosexuality is the only kind of sex. At some point in the protagonists’ lives they find fulfillment with other women and realize that they are either lesbian or bisexual.
Several of these characters are married and have children. The marriages of these characters break up. At some point in their lives, the characters have what can be called an identity crisis. This may be the result of a conscious or subconscious recognition that they seem to bring death to those close to them, or it may be a result of a perception that they would be more secure in a marital relationship. The characters may try suicide before deciding that life is better than the alternative. The characters may try psychotherapy, with positive results.
A major theme of Alther’s fiction is the difficulty of finding permanent satisfaction in a lesbian relationship. This is to some extent the result of societal disapproval of such relationships, but it often seems to result from an inherent failing within the relationships. Only in Bedrock, in which two women who have been friends for many years embark on an affair in their forties, is there a novel with a lesbian pairing that does not end badly. Her frank depiction of such subject matter has made Alther a significant voice of lesbian identity in literature.
Alther’s handling of what could be controversial or depressing material is, in most of these novels, delicate and humorous. Especially in Kinflicks and Bedrock the problems of the characters are lightened by humor. Such matters as adolescence and mishandled suicide attempts become, in Alther’s prose, funny. Even in the darker world of Other Women there are flashes of amusement. The novels deal realistically with serious problems, but the telling of the stories of these characters is less grim than it could be.
Bibliography
Carey, Allison E. Doubly Erased: LGBTQ Literature in Appalachia. State U of New York P, 2023.
Ferguson, Mary Anne. “Lisa Alther.” Contemporary Fiction Writers of the South: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook, edited by Joseph M. Flora and Robert Bain, Greenwood, 1993.
---. “Lisa Alther: The Irony of Return?” Southern Quarterly, vol. 21, summer 1983. Reprinted in Women Writers of the Contemporary South, edited by Peggy Whitmen Prenshaw, UP of Mississippi, 1984.
Hall, Joan Lord. “Symbiosis and Separation in Lisa Alther’s Kinflicks.” Arizona Quarterly, vol. 38, winter 1982.
Kawada, Louise. “Liberating Laughter: Comedic Form in Some Lesbian Novels.” Sexual Practice, Textual Theory, edited by Susan J. Wolfe, Blackwell, 1993
Peel, Ellen. “Subject, Object, and the Alternation of First-and Third-Person Narration in Novels by Alther, Atwood, and Drabble: Toward a Theory of Feminist Aesthetics.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, vol. 30, winter 1989.
Roth, John K., editor. American Diversity, American Identity: The Lives and Works of 145 Writers Who Define the American Experience. Holt, 1995.