A few weeks ago, Andrew Huff of Gapers Block issued a fascinating challenge to Tuesday Funk co-host William Shunn: to take a piece of original poster art by Chad Kouri and produce a piece of writing of between 1,500 and 2,500 words to accompany it.

The resulting art/writing combo, along with seven other collaborations between artists and writers, will be on display and on sale at The Coop on May 18th. All the info is below. Hope to see you there, Funkers!

8 x 8
Friday, May 18, 2012
6:00 pm until 10:00 pm

The COOP | A co-working space in River North
230 W Superior, 2F, Chicago, IL 60654

In the spirit of artistic collaboration, The Coop and Gapers Block teamed up to produce 8x8, an experiment in writing and design. Eight Chicagoland designers were paired with eight local writers to create collaborative works, with text informing and influencing art and vice versa. The results of this experiment are presented in limited edition poster form, with writing and design back to back.

Writers:
Patrick Somerville, Claire Zulkey, Ramsin Canon, Kevin Guilfoile, William Shunn, Veronica Bond, Wendy McClure, Scott Smith

Designers:
Jesse Hora, Andy Luce, Chad Kouri, Ina Weise, Letterform, Ryan Sievert, Paul Octavious, Kyle Fletcher

Proceeds benefit Open Books.

More info: http://blog.coworkchicago.com/post/22148593743/the-coop-presents-8x8
RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/375591619149230/

At our April Tuesday Funk reading, Nebula Award-winning author Richard Chwedyk shared with us the prologue of a novel written by a dinosaur who's a character in his ... um, hey, let's just let Rich explain!

And if you enjoyed that, please join us on Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 for more great readings from Samantha Irby, Kristin Lueke, Dion Walton, Jennifer Schaefer, and L.A. Times Book Prize recipient Alex Shakar. Be there!

Greetings, science fiction writers from around the world! This is a friendly reminder that Tuesday Funk wants you as a reader for our September 4th edition!

With the 70th World Science Fiction Convention coming to Chicago from August 30 to September 3rd, we couldn't just sit back and not try to lure some of the best of today's speculative fiction writers into our cozy little lair, so here's the deal.

We're looking for five writers to read for us on September 4th, the night after Worldcon ends. If you're a professionally published science fiction or fantasy writer who will be in town for Worldcon and you plan to stick around Chicago for an extra day or two afterward, please submit a work of up to 2,500 words to tuesdayfunkchicago@gmail.com. This can be a complete short story or a novel excerpt. Use "Post-Worldcon Reading" as your subject line. (Please see our guidelines page for a complete explanation of how to submit.)

Submissions must be received by Tuesday, May 22, 2012, to be considered for one of these five slots. Decisions on the lineup will be made by Tuesday, June 5, 2012, and announced at the Tuesday Funk reading that evening.

In the past we've hosted such names as Jody Lynn Nye, Richard Chwedyk, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Brenda Cooper, and Steven H Silver, and in the months to come we'll bring you Alex Shakar, Holly McDowell, and more. Want to add your name to that roster? Drop us a line!

And if you're a science fiction fan, please mark September 4th on your calendar. It's going to be a terrific evening!

At our April Tuesday Funk reading, Mary Anne Mohanraj shared her (NSFW) short story "The Night Air," and it went a little something like this...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us on Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 for more great readings from Samantha Irby, Kristin Lueke, Dion Walton, Jennifer Schaefer, and L.A. Times Book Prize recipient Alex Shakar. Be there!

Good morning, Funkers! Your humble co-host regrets the tardiness of this debriefing, but (as you know if you were there) he very regrettably was unable to attend our 45th edition this past Tuesday evening. However, by all reports we hear that co-host Sara Ross Witt and substitute co-host Mare Swallow had the evening well in hand, and the readers were as fine as you have come to expect.

In lieu of the usual play-by-play, let us present instead a gallery of photographs from the evening provided by local artist Kevin Swallow. Please enjoy this pictorial recap (click the photo to the right to get started), and then plan to join us again on Tuesday, June 5th for a terrific evening with Samantha Irby, Kristin Lueke, Dion Walton, Jennifer Schaefer, and Alex Shakar!

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!