Litquake pays tribute to the late, great Dorothy Allison with a marathon reading of her debut novel, Bastard Out Of Carolina, at Arion Press in Building B, First Floor, at Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture. The reading takes place on Sunday, October 12, 2025, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Dorothy Allison’s debut novel Bastard Out of Carolina was a revelation on its release: a blazing, unflinching, thoroughly original tale grounded in the author’s working-class Southern upbringing and written with her distinctive, razor-sharp wit. Lauded by the New York Times Book Review as “one of those once-in-a-blue-moon occasions when the jacket copy seems inadequate and all the blurbs are examples of rhetorical understatement,” Bastard Out of Carolina remains a powerful, provocative, and lyrically gorgeous fixture of American letters more than 30 years after its release.

In remembrance of Allison’s legacy as a writer, lesbian feminist, and advocate for sexual freedom, Litquake is proud to join the author’s estate in presenting a cover-to-cover marathon reading of Bastard featuring a lineup of readers who knew and loved Allison in life, as well as those who continue drawing inspiration from her trailblazing work. Select chapters are staged by Crowded Fire Theater, Poltergeist Theatre Project, and Word for Word. Artistic direction is handled by Sean Owens and Hyazinth Baumann from Fancypants Productions.

Book sales for this event are coordinated by Noe Valley Books.

Free Admission ($10 to $15 suggested donation)

This event is sponsored by the Allison-Layman Family Trust.

Co-presented with the Bay Area Lesbian Archives, the GLBT Historical Society, the James C. Hormel LGBTQiA Center at the San Francisco Public Library, and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History & Culture.