In the afterglow of Christmas, I found a few lumps of coal in my stocking.

The midwinter became bleaker this month after the Gist Street Reading Series gave away its last ceramic fish Dec. 3 to send the 10-year-old program out on an emotional high.

The decision by co-founders Sherrie Flick and Nancy Krygowski to end their successful series at its peak made sense from an aesthetic view while it punched another hole in the region's literary culture.

The women consistently pulled many of the best young writers in America on a miniscule budget to Pittsburgh, putting them up in private homes and cutting other corners.

For many years, they charged only $5 at the door, encouraged listeners to contribute food and drink and built up a loyal following. Raising the cover to $10 last year never made a dent in the crowds that lined up in front of James Simon's home and studio Uptown, rain or shine.

For the finale, people began arriving around 5:30 p.m. for the 8 p.m. start.

The final Gist Street pairing was poet Jericho Brown and fiction writer Holly Goddard Jones who lamented, "This is my first and last time here. I'm bummed."

Mr. Brown and Ms. Jones were typical of the dozens of rising writers representing the face of the country's literary landscape in the 21st century. He wrote speeches for a New Orleans mayor before moving on to teach at the University of San Diego and releasing his first poetry collection, "Please," last year.

Ms. Jones also published her first book in 2009, a short-story collection titled "Girl Trouble."

After she uttered her last word, Ms. Flick and Ms. Krygowski soldiered on with the hallmark Gist Street raffle of odds and ends including Mr. Simons' fish before tearfully signing off with no maudlin moments.

Added to the departure of the International Poetry Forum in '09, Gist Street's disappearance cuts off another pipeline to the region of national writers. And, while there are a handful of independent reading series doing important work, they focus on the writers already here.

The university-sponsored programs have their own agendas and limitations as well. Until somebody with the ambition and knowledge of the Gist Street gang emerges to start something new, the region's culture is certainly poorer.

While I discussed the closing of the SouthSide Works store earlier this month, its demise was like a missing front tooth in that shopping district's smiley face of boutiques and specialty stores this holiday.

With the exception of Borders East Side in East Liberty and the small Bradley's in Macy's Downtown, bookstore browsers were sent packing to the malls for the chains or to Sewickley for Penguin Books and Oakmont for Mystery Lovers.

How many buyers then went to their Internet browsers to buy online?

The late Stieg Larsson's partner Eva Gabrielsson has signed with the U.S. publisher Seven Stories to write a book about their life together, including their political activity.

Because they never married, Ms. Gabrielsson has shared little in the enormous success of the "Millennium Trilogy" while rumored to have contributed to the writing of it.

Its publication date is June.

With the Republicans set to take over both the state Legislature and the executive branch, a main priority will be budget cutting in the current era of deficits in state government.

The sacrificial lambs in this process are usually libraries and the arts.

If the state chops more from library spending, the fate of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's branches will again be uncertain despite the recent board vote to spare them.