James Gordon better known as G.P.A. (Greatest Poet Alive) is an international award winning author and poet and was recently named UBAWA's Children's Author of the Year. He can be seen on episodes of Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Chicago Med, Empire, and Shameless, as well as the movies "Animals " and "A Slice of Life."

Please join G.P.A. and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Gint Aras is the author of the cross-generational family epic, The Fugue, set for release in December from The Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. His writing has appeared in The St. Petersburg Review, Quarterly West, Curbside Splendor, Antique Children, Dialogo and other publications. He's a photographer and the author of the cult novel, Finding the Moon in Sugar.

Please join Gint and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Britt Julious is a journalist, critic and essayist. She currently serves as the local music columnist for the Chicago Tribune and contributes regularly to Vice magazine, The Guardian, Pitchfork, and MTV News where she is interested in writing about the intersection of race, gender, pop culture and sexuality. In 2014, Buzzfeed named her one of the "21 Amazing Role Models for Twentysomethings," fulfilling her dream of being on some form of a 30 under 30 list before turning 30. She currently hosts "The Back Talk," an award-winning podcast featuring original stories from young women of color. Talk to her after this show if you're obsessed with "Jane the Virgin."

Please join Britt and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Clayton Smith is a writer of speculative fiction whose work includes the play Death and McCootie and the novels Apocalypticon, Anomaly Flats, and Mabel Gray and the Wizard Who Swallowed the Sun. Some of his nonsense has been featured on Write City Magazine and Dumb White Husband, and his plays have been produced rather mercilessly all over the country.

Please join Clayton and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Bill Savage teaches Chicago literature, film, history, and culture at Northwestern University and the Newberry Library of Chicago. He regularly writes book reviews for the Chicago Tribune, op-ed essays for Crain's Chicago Business, various random things for other publications with "Chicago" on their mastheads, as well as performing live-lit essays for The Paper Machete and other venues. His most recent book project, with Paul Durica, was an edited and annotated edition of Chicago by Day and Night: The Pleasure-Seeker's Guide to the Paris of America, an in-the-know guide Chicago nightlife during the 1893 World's Fair. He is currently at work on edited and annotated editions of Ben Hecht's autobiography and George Ade's The Old-Time Saloon, both forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press. You can follow him on Twitter @rogersparkman.

Please join Bill and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

The chill is in the air and the holiday season is well under way, but make sure to leave room for you favorite! eclectic monthly reading series! We are back in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., on Tuesday, Dec. 1 with guests Clayton Smith, Gint Aras, James Gordon, Bill Savage and Britt Julious. Eden Robins and Andrew Huff co-host, and Jason will be behind the bar to provide you with libations.

Doors open at 7:00 pm -- no earlier, we're serious. Don't ruin it for everyone else. But do get there as close to 7 as you can, because the room fills up quickly (hence no admittance before 7). The show starts at 7:30 pm. Admission is free, but you must be 21 or older.

Don't forget to RSVP on Facebook and bring a friend. And if you're not already, become a fan so you never, ever miss an invitation to one of our readings.

Co-host Andrew Huff read a fresh crop of topical haiku at the Nov. 3rd edition of Tuesday Funk.

That familiar phrase,
"Wait till next year," once again
echoes through Wrigley.

A runaway blimp
held our attention as long
as most school shootings.

Governor Rauner
jousts with Rahm while the budget
sleeps with the fishes.

Halloween candy
has a clear hierarchy.
What's last on your list?

El Nino pattern
promises a warm winter.
But our lake needs snow.

Too nice a winter
could precede drought next summer.
A Faustian bargain.

Not to brag, but Tuesday Funk #87 was another stellar show! First up, Nick DiSabato told us why we should buy six-packs for the kitchen staff and waxed humorous on his ambivalence about camping. Then Kyle Thiessen made his Tuesday Funk debut with a story about people running from zombies... who board themselves up in a haunted house. Then co-host Eden Robins read a microessay about baseball and failure, and then Sarah Hollenbeck brought the house down with an essay about disability, invisibility, and the decision to have children.

We took a break for Jason and his drinks.

After the half, Elaine Hegwood Bowen read two essays from her collection Old School Adventures From Englewood-South Side of Chicago about buying cars and life in Englewood in the 1960s. And finally, former co-host William Shunn stunned us with an excerpt from his memoir The Accidental Terrorist (out November 10!) about his days as a reluctant Mormon missionary.

And, of course, we're doing it all again next month! Join us on December 1 for Tuesday Funk #88, featuring Clayton Smith, Gint Aras, James Gordon, Bill Savage, and Britt Julious!

Nothing spooky here, just great readers reading great stuff! Great readers like: Sarah Hollenbeck, Nick DiSabato, Kyle Thiessen, Elaine Hegwood Bowen, and former co-host William Shunn! And, of course, your favorite co-hosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins.

Our readings take place at Hopleaf Bar, 5148 N. Clark St. in Chicago. We get started promptly at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge. Arrive early if you want a seat--but no earlier than 7:00 pm. Our readings are free, but only those 21 and over will be admitted. No food can be brought in from the restaurant. See you there!

Kyle Thiessen emerges from creative hibernation every few years to half-ass things that could have been really good. Previous endeavors include 2011's YouTube parody—the hastily researched but marginally entertaining “Fake Month at the Museum”—as well as a short film in 1999 that won him a trip to the Golden Globe awards, where he peed next to John Lithgow. In addition to YouTubing and peeing, Kyle has spent his adult life as a caricature artist, an IMAX projectionist, and a corporate Powerpoint designer for a multinational conglomerate of high tech weapons systems and golf cart manufacturers. Until he fills the hole in his resume where “zamboni driver” should be, he'll be hard at work on the perfect Die Hard screenplay and occasionally tweeting @lazycartoonist.

Please join Kyle and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, November 3, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.