Eat Your Words

Naysayers continue to bleat on about the death of print and the ever-evaporating pool of readers, but somehow they never get around to explaining River Styx and its 34 years of publication. The literary journal of St. Louis beats ever onward, waves against the shore, while the world's taste changes for the immediate and bloggy — and yet River Styx still provides safe haven for writers and lovers of the word. Funny how good writing beats out trendiness, innit? And so once again, River Styx marks another year with its annual Art and Literary Feast at Duff's Restaurant (392 North Euclid Avenue; 314-533-4541 or www.riverstyx.org). Your $45 gets you dinner and a pair of readings, one by poet Mary Jo Bang and one by Appalachian firebrand/fiction writer Pinckney Benedict, as well as dinner music by Phil Dunlop of Jazz St. Louis. The feast runs from 6:30 to 10 p.m., or thereabouts. Good words have no natural boundaries of time and space, after all.
Mon., May 4, 2009