Fanning the Flames

The plentiful natural disasters of this year -- not to mention the brutal summer St. Louis just endured -- has more people talking about the Mayan end times supposedly predicted for 2012. Even literary magazine River Styx devoted its most recent issue (Number 88, September) to the apocalypse. Tonight the River Styx at the Tavern reading series welcomes a poet and fiction writer to St. Louis to share their thoughts on the lure of the end. Alison Pelegrin (pictured) of Louisiana is no stranger to natural disaster, and yet her poem "Provisional Minutes of the Last Meeting of the Society for End Time Preparedness" ends with images of childhood and hope; that's the subtle attraction of all this devastation. We believe new growth will follow the fire. Pelegrin and Michael Nye, who just published his short story collection Strategies Against Extinction, read at 7:30 p.m. at the Tavern of Fine Arts (313 Belt Avenue; www.tavern-of-fine-arts.com). Admission is $4 to $5.
Mon., Nov. 19, 2012