Hey, Funkers! You'll definitely want to tune in for our very special 46th episode of Tuesday Funk, which will feature readings from Samantha Irby, Kristin Lueke, Dion Walton, Jennifer Schaefer, and recent L.A. Times Book Prize winner Alex Shakar! You'll also get a new Poem By Bill, not to mention your pick of dozens of varieties of cold beer at the bar.

The evening gets underway with your co-hosts Sara Ross Witt and William Shunn on Tuesday, June 5th, 2012, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago. Arrive early for a seat, and grab a beer from Mark at the cash-only bar. We start seating at 7:00 pm and no earlier. Admission is always free, but you must be 21 or older. And come early or stay late after for some great Belgian-style food downstairs.

Please bring plenty of friends, and become a fan of Tuesday Funk on Facebook so you never miss an invitation to one of our readings. Same Funk time, same Funk channel!

Power up and get on down to Hopleaf tonight for the 45th big outing from your friends at Tuesday Funk!

Our illustrious lineup tonight includes Chris Mendius, B.C. Bell, Susanna Lang, Julie Rosenthal, and Tom Underberg, not to mention one of our patented Poems By Bill.

So "like" us today on Facebook, grab one of dozens of varieties of beer from the bar, and get set for an evening of entertaining and provocative live literature with host Sara Ross Witt and guest host Mare Swallow. You can thank us later.

Oh, and one more thing. Tonight will be the last night that Johnny Wider is with us as bartender. He's being moved to the downstairs bar on Tuesday nights, and has been training his replacement Mark, who will be our new Tuesday Funk bartender. If you won't turn up for the readers, please come out to give Johnny a happy send-off. He's been with us nearly every month since we moved to Hopleaf!

Hopleaf Bar is at 5148 N. Clark St. in Chicago. The reading begins at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge. The lounge opens at 7:00 pm. Arrive early if you want a seat.

As always, the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf is cash-only and 21 and over. Remember also that no food can be brought in from the restaurant.

At our April Tuesday Funk reading, co-host William Shunn shared this short poem, "Old Man Walking an Old Dog"...

And if you enjoyed that, though Bill himself will be absent, you'll get another new Poem by Bill at our very next Tuesday Funk, tomorrow night, Tuesday, May 1st, 2012, which will also feature great readings from B.C. Bell, Chris Mendius, Julie Rosenthal, Susanna Lang, and Tom Underberg. Be there!

B.C. Bell is the author and creator of Tales of The Bagman, Chicago's own pulp hero! Bell has written numerous pulp hero adventures--among them The Avenger, Secret Agent X, and Dan Fowler G-Man--for Airship 27, Pro Se Press, and Moonstone Books. His short story "How Pappy Got Five Acres Back and Calvin Stayed on the Farm" was a winner of SFReader.com's annual short story contest, and has been featured on the Tales To Terrify Podcast. He is currently working on the sequel to Tales of The Bagman, and plans to work every genre he can. He has yet to write that Western...

Chicago author Chris Mendius earned a BSME from University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and an MBA from University of Chicago. He started writing after college and produced a terrible screenplay, a mediocre first novel and some decent short stories. He finally hit a bullseye with Spoonful , a story influenced by his own experiences living in Bucktown in the late '90s and drawing on his sordid past to provide its authenticity. The book was released by local press Anything Goes Publishing LLC in February 2012 and awarded the Kirkus Star of Remarkable Merit. Chris lives with his family in Oak Park. Spoonful is his first published novel.

Hear Chris read on Tuesday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf's upstairs bar!

You may be sick of hearing about this, Funkers, but you have less than 36 hours left to help fund the Kickstarter campaign for this September's Chicago Writers Conference. They still have more than $1,500 to raise to meet their funding goal.

We've told you already why you should support it. Now it's your turn to just do it. Please hurry.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chiwritersconf/make-the-chicago-writers-conference-a-reality

Tuesday Funk sends its heartiest congratulations to Chicago's own Alex Shakar, whose novel Luminarium was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction this past Friday evening!

Alex will be joining us on June 5th to read from Luminarium, an evening you won't want to miss. And you also won't want to miss our upcoming May 5th program, featuring Chris Mendius, B.C. Bell, Susanna Lang, Julie Rosenthal, and Tom Underberg. It all gets underway at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf. We'll see you there!

Tom Underberg writes speculative fiction and raises children. He also obsessively documents bricks, sidewalks and manhole covers for his blog on invisible infrastructure. Before his twins were born he had real jobs in software and consulting. He lives with his wife and children in Evanston in an old house with a big porch.

Hear Tom read on Tuesday, Monday 1 at Hopleaf's upstairs bar at 7:30 p.m.

Hi, Funkers. We're not going to make another long pitch here. We're just going to note that, if you're a writer in Chicago, you need the Chicago Writers Conference. And the Chicago Writers Conference needs you back.

Only five days remain in their Kickstarter funding drive, and there's still more than $2,500 left to be raised. The conference only gets funded if the campaign reaches its goal, so please please help!

But don't just take it from us. Take it from Boing Boing. And take it from conference organizer Mare Swallow herself:

So please, again, dig deep and DONATE NOW.

Julie Rosenthal is a freelance writer in Chicago. Her fiction has been recognized by ChiZine and has appeared in Kaleidotrope, A cappella Zoo, and Columbia College's annual Story Week Reader. Another story is forthcoming later this year in Breaking the Bow, an anthology from India-based Zubaan Books.

She is working on a novel about the unsolved murder of King Edward the Martyr of England.

Julie adds, "Thanks very much to Bill and Sara -- and to all of the loyal supporters of Tuesday Funk."

Hear Julie read Tuesday, May 1 at Hopleaf's upstairs bar at 7:30 p.m.