Author Dorothy Allison will participate in a public discussion of her novel “Bastard Out of Carolina” at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 19, in the A.K. Hinds University Center’s theater at Western Carolina University. 

Part of the “WNC Read-for-All” program, the event will begin with a feature on Allison, highlighting her achievements as a writer, and move into the dominant issue of domestic violence.

“Bastard out of Carolina,” published in 1992, tells the story of a poor, extended Southern family and a girl who forges a positive identity in the face of abuse. Along with being translated into more than 12 languages, the novel won the Ferro Grumley prize, was a finalist for the National Book Award and became both a bestseller and award-winning movie.

Rob Neufeld of the Asheville Citizen-Times will act as emcee. Audience participation is encouraged, and an online audience will interact on the Citizen-Times Web site, Citizen-Times.com. Representatives from REACH and the Jackson County Community Table also will attend the event.

Allison, born in Greenville, S.C., began to gain recognition in 1988 with “Trash,” a collection of stories that turned family turmoil into fictional truth. After she published five other books, an expanded edition of “Trash” came out in 2002. More recently, she published the best-selling novel “Cavedweller,” and in 2007 she received the Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

The event is funded by WCU’s Parris Distinguished Professorship in Appalachian Cultural Studies. Courtesy of City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, books will be available to purchase for signing.

For more information about the event, contact WCU’s English department at (828) 227-7264. To contact WNC Read-for-All, call (828) 505-1973.

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Last modified Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009.