And your dad packed your bags and moved you both to San Francisco. MARTIN: Your mom died in a car accident when you were very young. He would illustrate some of these books with my drawings or quote me in his poems. And so, he would pose me for the cover of different books. I think because he was a single father - and didn't have someone to help look after me or couldn't maybe afford a babysitter - he brought me into his world of writing. My father was a poet and a writer but he didn't want to sort of leave me out his creative process. Were you kind of playing it up for the camera in the moment? Or was that a reflection of you as a little girl?ĪBBOTT: I think that for us making believe was a way of making art, so putting on costumes, going into character, and also being poetic. You have such a serious look on your face. MARTIN: A little bit actually, now that you mention it. Looking sort of like members of the Addams Family, I suppose. And we were each asked to put on our finest clothing, but we are presented looking very serious looking straight at the camera. My father had taken me out of school for the day so that I could pose with him for the cover of what was to be his third book of poetry. MARTIN: So there is a rather haunting image on the cover of your book, and I wonder if you could describe it and tell us the story behind that photo.ĪBBOTT: This was a picture that was taken when I was about 10 years old. Thanks very much for being here.ĪLYSIA ABBOTT: Thank you so much for having me. It is called "Fairyland: A Memoir of my Father."Īlysia Abbott joins us now to talk more about the book. That was the frame of Alysia Abbott's childhood.
Now on top of all that, imagine being raised by a single, gay father in the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in the San Francisco of the 1980s. Childhood is a complicated journey for most of us: trying to fit in, trying to stand out wanting to distance yourself from your parents one minute, wanting to grab onto them the next.
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