Now in its 10th year, the Words Afire Festival puts the spotlight on the work of student playwrights in UNM's MFA Dramatic Writing Program. The Directed Readings, held this Friday, Nov. 13, through Sunday, Nov. 15, allow the public to hear these pieces voiced for the first time. Here's the schedule of events, held at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (1701 Fourth Street SW). All readings are free, and three of the plays will be fully staged in April. For a synopsis of each play, got to theatre.unm.edu/waf.

The end of the world is very in right now. Along with zombies, apocalyptic tales are enjoying another heyday. But iconic Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood isn’t a trend follower; her first foray into speculative fiction was 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Her newest book, The Year of the Flood, a companion book to her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, explores the same late 21st-century dystopia as the earlier work.