Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium

“I brought my southern Baptist roots to queer politics, to always stand up for my convictions and to help my people—women, the poor and queer people,” Dorothy Allison, the author of “Bastard out of Carolina,” said while speaking at Connecticut College’s 19th Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium on Creative Arts and Moral Vision.

Allison received mainstream recognition for “Bastard out of Carolina,” a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award. The novel was also adapted into a film starring actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Allison, who also wrote the national best-seller “Cavedweller,” was speaking with Michael Denneny, editor of “Christopher Street.” The two held a conversation entitled “Gay Culture and Courage after the Stonewall Rebellion.”

The symposium, which included a book signing, was hosted by Blanche McCrary Boyd, the Roman and Tatiana Weller Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence. Boyd was recently named a finalist for the 2019 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her latest novel, “Tomb of the Unknown Racist.”

The Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium was established in 1989 to create a positive, living memorial to Daniel Klagsbrun, a 1986 graduate of Connecticut College. Through the generosity and commitment of Daniel’s parents, Emilie and Herbert Klagsbrun, the symposium has brought to the College an amazing array of authors, including: Dorothy Allison, Saul Bellow, Joseph Brodsky, Sandra Cisneros, Michael Cunningham, E.L. Doctorow, Jhumpa Lahiri, Wally Lamb, Colum McCann, Jay McInerney, Adrienne Rich, David Sedaris, Jessica Soffer ’07, Art Spiegelman, Amy Tan, Hannah Tinti ‘94, Elie Wiesel and Tobias Wolff.