Sexy Litquake 'Password' to Prohibition At Thursday night's "Password: A Literary Speakeasy," a group of writers and other eccentrics will dress up and read as luminaries from the Prohibition era. While San Francisco has a long history as a literary city, Volz says Litquake has revitalized the community. Since its inception in 1999, the annual event has become the largest literary festival on the West Coast. "Password" will be an especially glamorous event, with a jazz pianist and singer, and an artist sketching New Yorker-style caricatures. For us to have an environment where writers and other intellectuals can go into public, out of the basement, and meet other people of similar interests, and seek inspiration and relate as part of a community, is a vital and precious thing.