We know our audience, and we know that nothing can hold you back from great writing or from great beer. Tuesday Funk has both on tap for you tonight in our 42nd big episode, so bring a friend and bust on in. No bolt-cutters necessary.

Our insanely gifted lineup tonight includes Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins, not to mention one of our patented Poems By Bill. So "like" us today on Facebook, arrive early, grab one of dozens of varieties of beer from the bar, and get set for a evening of no-holds-barred entertainment.

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.

Happy Monday, Funk buddies! Can you spot one of our elusive co-hosts, approximately nine years younger, in this recently unearthed 2004 segment from the Trio network television series Parking Lot? We'll give you one small hint: not in costume!

But whether or not you can, you can find both our co-hosts plus a bulging roster of great readers tomorrow night, Tuesday, February 7, 2012, at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, when we'll bring you great readings from Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins.

Don't get stuck in the parking lot! Be there early to be sure of a seat.

Yearning for a fix of that good funny shit this weekend, Funkers? You know, a taste to tide you over until our amazing 42nd episode next Tuesday? You couldn't do any better than to check out Ian Belknap tomorrow night in his solo show Uncle Dad Is Ripshit, You Guys at the Prop Theatre.

You know Ian as the puppetmaster behind Write Club, the live pugilistic prose phenomenon that is (no joke) sweeping the globe. He's also half of the irby + ian tag-team blogging duo, and a Tuesday Funk alum besides. Tomorrow night's show will feature the best of his comedy writings from the past year. It's only $12 in advance, $15 (or pay what you can) at the door.

Do it up.

At our recent January 3rd reading, co-host William Shunn ushered us into a rather unusual comedy club to enjoy a little "Stand Up"...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us for our next event on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, when we'll bring you great readings from Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins.

Lillian Huang Cummins is a psychologist, writer, and mom but never all three at the same time and not necessarily in that order. You probably haven't seen anything she has published unless you read the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry or other similar magazines. She was a finalist for the Fall 2011 Orlando Prize in Flash Fiction.

Margie Skelly lives in Chicago with her husband, a 22-year-old daughter, two cats and a dog, several fish, and too much seemingly insurmountable clutter.

Her awards for poetry include first place from the Jo-Anne Hirshfield Poetry Memorial Awards, second place from the Niles Public Library Poetry Contest, third place from Tall Grass Writers' Guild/Outrider Press in the anthology Falling in Love Again, and first and second places in the 1990 Poets and Patrons Contest. Her short story awards include second place in the National Organization for Women Fiction Contest in 2000.

In 2010, she was awarded a scholarship to the Rope Walk Writers Conference in New Harmony, Indiana. She was twice a scholarship recipient in Writing and Singing from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for One State: Together in the Arts Conference, co-convened by the Illinois Arts Council and the Illinois Arts Alliance.

Her poetry has been published in Cram 2011, several Tall Grass Writers Guild anthologies put out by Outrider Press, Korone, Rambunctious Review, and Black Maria (where her short story "Bus Fare" was nominated for an Illinois Arts Council Award) while her fiction has been published in Primavera and her creative non-fiction in The Village Rambler.

Other distinctions include Finalist for the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Contest through the Guild at the Chopin Theater, Semi-finalist for the 2011 Word Works Washington Prize for a book-length collection of poetry, Contest Judge for the 33rd Evanston only high school contestants for the Jo-Anne Hirshfield Memorial Poetry Awards. Her work, "My Father Is Waiting for Me," was taught in an Advanced Placement English class at Buffalo Grove High School.

Her love of singing with the North Shore Choral Society of Evanston, Illinois, in particular Mozart's Requiem, was part of her inspiration for writing the piece in The Village Rambler titled "Listening to Mozart."

She has recently taught poetry writing at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago and poetry and fiction writing at the Eisenhower Library in Harwood Heights, Illinois, where she will once again teach fiction writing (with a new twist!) in April 2012. Forthcoming is publication of a poetry chapbook in early 2012 by Puddin'head Press of Chicago.

At our recent January 3rd reading, Chicago author Holly McDowell read us this stunning excerpt from her novel-in-progress Farah Minor:

And if you enjoyed that, please join us for our next event on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, when we'll bring you great readings from Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins.

Dustin Monk is a graduate of Clarion Writers' Workshop. His work is forthcoming from or has appeared in Bull Spec, Shimmer, Digital Science Fiction, and Prime Mincer Literary Journal, among others.

On his blog, spiralzine.blogspot.com, he began documenting the adventures of the club-hopping, gin-guzzling orb-weaver that had made his home outside his kitchen window but they had a falling-out, the details of which Dustin does not want to get into though if bought a sour ale may be obliged to divulge one or two juicy bits. Follow him on twitter at @dustinjmonk.

Join us Tuesday, February 7, at 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf's upstairs bar to hear Dustin read!

Lauryn Allison Lewis writes fiction, essays, interviews, book and bakery reviews, and everything in between. She is a managing editor at Curbside Splendor Press, assistant editor at Barrelhouse Magazine, and co-editor of Literary Chicago. Her novella, Solo Down, will be published this spring by The Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, and her debut novel, The Beauties, will be released later this year by Silverthought Press.  

Join us Tuesday, February 7, at 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf's upstairs bar to hear Lauryn read!

At our recent January 3rd reading, author Stephen Markley shared with us some of the secrets behind, and therefore within, his "premature memoir" Publish This Book: The Unbelievable True Story of How I Wrote, Sold and Published This Very Book:

And if you enjoyed that, please join us for our next event on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, when we'll bring you great readings from Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins.