Every episode of Tuesday Funk at Hopleaf seems to feature some emergent, unintended theme, and Tuesday night's show was no exception. The major theme seemed to be old men, with subthemes of brown liquor and Martian exploration. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Jesse Jordan kicked things off for us with an intriguing and somewhat painful excerpt from his new novel Gospel Hollow. Chicago Magazine's Scott Smith followed that up with a wonderful meditation on growing old, setting the evening's themes in motion (see video below), after which Holly McDowell brought us a poignant and thrilling chapter from her serial novel King Solomon's Wives.
After a break for beer, co-host William Shunn broke with tradition by reading not a poem but instead a brief essay about Curiosity Rover. Next, co-host Sara Ross Witt delivered a powerful short story about a factory town in decline. And Stacy Bierlein brought the old man theme full circle with a wonderfully steamy story from her new collection A Vacation on the Island of Ex-Boyfriends.
But if you missed out, don't despair. We'll be bringing you more video from the evening over the next few weeks, and then we'll be back on September 4th with our Chicago Post-Worldcon Science Fiction Spectacular featuring Daryl Gregory, Rae Carson, Rajan Khanna, Gregory A. Wilson, and Adam Rakunas. Be sure to join us!
