What's better on a hot August evening than a cold beer and your favorite eclectic monthly reading series? Nothing! Join us on Tuesday, August 7 in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf for readings by Mare Swallow, Dayna Bateman, Gina DeLuca, Annabel Lang and Kimberly Dixon-Mays.

As always, admission is free, but you must be 21 to attend. Doors open at 7pm sharp (don't dawdle if you want a seat!) and the show will start at 7:30pm. Please RSVP on Facebook -- and don't forget to like our page so you get our announcements right in your stream.

Sponsored by the Chicago Review of Books.

Let's be honest, when we scheduled a show for the night before the Fourth of July, we were a little worried nobody would show up. But wow, so many of you did! Thanks for packing the house, Tuesday Funk fans!

Episode 118 of your favorite eclectic monthly reading series got started with a pair of short essays on Barbie and self-image by Tiffany Gholar. Alison Thumel followed her with some fantastic poetry, then Ted McClelland shared the fantastical story of the Hodag from his new book Folktales and Legends of the Middle West.

Bartender Leah refilled everyone's drinks during intermission, then cohost Eden Robins read an essay about villainy and the current state of America, which you can read on the LA Review of Books' website. Next, Siobhan Adcock read an excerpt from her new dystopian novel set in Chicago, The Completionist. Closing out the evening, Mary Winn Heider shared a portion of her own brand-new novel, The Mortification of Fovea Munson.

Wish your summer involved more live lit? You're in luck. We're going to do it again on Tuesday, August 7, with readings by Mare Swallow, Dayna Bateman, Gina DeLuca, Annabel Lang and Kimberly Dixon-Mays. Hope to see you there!

Alison Thumel is a Chicago-based writer. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago where she was awarded the Elsie F. Filippi Memorial Prize in Poetry. Her work has recently appeared in DIAGRAM, The Rumpus, and Salt Hill. She is the author of the chapbook life of, which won Salt Hill's Dead Lake Chapbook Contest in 2016. Her second chapbook is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press in late 2018.

Please join Alison and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, July 3, 2018 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Tiffany Gholar is a lifelong resident of Chicago, Illinois. She studied art as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and interior design at Harrington College of Design and has a masters degree in painting from Governors State University. Her work has been exhibited in several Chicago area venues, including solo exhibitions at The Harold Washington Library and the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as in group shows at The Chicago Children's Museum and The Chicago Center for Green Technology. When she is not painting, she works as a freelance interior designer.

Please join Tiffany and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, July 3, 2018 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Mary Winn Heider writes for kids, but has also worked as a public radio reporter, a high school teacher, and a bartender on a train in Alaska. She has an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and teaches writing to kids in Chicago Public Schools with the theater company Barrel of Monkeys. Her debut middle grade novel, The Mortification of Fovea Munson, is on shelves now.

Please join Mary Winn and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, July 3, 2018 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Edward McClelland is the author most recently of Folktales and Legends of the Middle West. A past Tuesday Funk reader and Gapers Block contributor, he has also written for The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Reader, where he was a staff writer. He has lived in Rogers Park since 1997, and can often be found at Sol Cafe or the Lighthouse Tavern.

Please join Ted and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, July 3, 2018 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Siobhan Adcock is the author of two novels: The Barter, a ghost story about motherhood published by Dutton in 2014, and The Completionist, a dystopian mystery set in Chicago, published by Simon & Schuster and named one of the Best New Books of June 2018 by The Chicago Review of Books. Her short fiction has been published in Triquarterly and The Massachusetts Review, and her essays and humor writing have appeared in Salon, The Daily Beast, and Huffington Post. As a humor writing and creative writing instructor, she has worked with veterans, maximum-security prison inmates, New Yorkers, and most chillingly of all, undergraduates. A native of beautiful Bolingbrook, Illinois, she now lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn.

Please join Siobhan and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, July 3, 2018 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Photo by Sara Bonisteel

Spend part of your holiday week with your favorite eclectic monthly reading series! Tuesday Funk is setting off fireworks in the upstairs lounge of Hopleaf on Tuesday, July 3 — readings by Mary Winn Heider, Ted McClelland, Siobhan Adcock, Alison Thumel and Tiffany Gholar!

As always, admission is free, but you must be 21 to attend. Doors open at 7pm sharp (don't dawdle if you want a seat!) and the show will start at 7:30pm. Please RSVP on Facebook -- and don't forget to like our page so you get our announcements right in your stream.

Sponsored by the Chicago Review of Books.

Cohost Andrew Huff's grandmother passed away in May at 97. His haiku at the June show were a remembrance of her.

My grandmother died
having lived in two countries:
Italy and here.

She immigrated
at 8, speaking no English,
to near Taylor Street.

No one in her class
would speak to her -- none except
a little black boy.

She left Taylor Street
and then Austin, in white flight,
for "safe" Mount Prospect.

In Arizona,
widowed, Fox News her comfort,
she never forgot.

Racism, fear, hate
melted away when she thought
of that kind black boy.

It was a lovely June evening, and Tuesday Funk #117 was in the air. The crowd settled in, and Mark Rader got us started with an excerpt from his forthcoming novel. Joshua Landsman followed with one of the parables from his book The Tale of The Teller of Tales, and Tracy Harford-Porter closed out the first half with a scene from a science-fiction novel in progress.

Bartender Leah refilled our drinks, and cohost Andrew Huff got the second half started with some haiku about his late grandmother. Then Sara Ross Witt shared a portion of the witchy YA book she's working on, and Elizabeth Gomez rounded out the evening with an essay about love and self-image.

If you weren't there, you missed a good one once again. But never fret, your favorite eclectic monthly reading series will be back in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf on Tuesday, July 3, with readings by Ted McClelland, Siobhan Adcock, Alison Thumel, Tiffany Gholar and Mary Winn Heider. There's bound to be fireworks — join us, won't you?