NEW LOCATION! This month's Tuesday Funk will take place at The Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago.

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, October 6th:

RAYMOND L. BIANCHI is a native of Chicago and the child of Italian Immigrants. He lived and worked for most of the 1990's in Bolivia and Brazil, first as a volunteer and then in publishing. He is the author of two books of poetry: Circular Descent (2003) from Blaze Vox Books and Immediate Empire (2008) from i.e. Press. He was the guest translation editor for Aufgabe 6 which included a section of 18 Brazilian poets that he translated. His translations of Brazilian poet Sergio Medieros will appear in the fall 2009 edition of Mandorla Magazine from the University of Texas press. He also serves as Publisher and co-founder of Cracked Slab Books of Chicago. In that capacity he served as co-editor for The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century in 2008. He blogs at www.irasciblepoet.blogspot.com.

Following a lifetime career in dance, MAGGIE KAST received an MFA in fiction from Vermont College. She has published stories in The Sun, Nimrod, Kaleidoscope, Rosebud, Paper Street, and Carve. Her essays and memoir excerpts have appeared in Americ2a, Image, Writer's Chronicle, ACM/Another Chicago Magazine, and others. Her book, The Crack between the Worlds: a dancer's memoir of loss, faith and family, has just been published by Wipf and Stock and is available at bookstores and www.wipfandstock.com. Read excerpts at www.maggiekast.com.

ARLENE MALINOWSKI - As actor, educator, and writer Arlene views solo work as an artistic extension of the social justice work she has been doing for the last twenty five years. Her five solo plays including What Does the Sun Sound Like and Aiming for Sainthood have been produced and performed in venues nationwide including St Louis Center of Contemporary Art; 16th Street Theater, Chicago; Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival; HBO Workspace; NoHo Theatre Festival; Ojai Solo Series; National Center on Deafness; West Coast Ensemble; and Blue Sphere Alliance, as well as at numerous colleges throughout the country. Most recently she performed a new piece which was named one of the five best solo shows by Windy City Times.
Her solo work has been honored with an LA Garland Award and nominations for the LA Weekly Award and the Los Angeles Theatre Ovation Award. As an actor she has appeared in numerous theater productions including the world premiere of By the Music of the Spheres at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Other favorite roles include Lovers and Other Strangers, Labor Pains, Chapter Two, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Deaf West, the critically acclaimed In A Different Voice and Faith, Hope and Clarity.
Arlene is also a writer and performer with the nationally touring, multicultural show A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens which was honored with the White House Award for the Initiative on Race. Recent TV credits include CBS Movie Sweet Nothing in My Ear, CSI, ER, The Division, The Practice, The Division, Any Day Now, twelve segments of Fit Spa and Resort and The X Files.
She teaches solo writing and performing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, and coaches individual artists. Her numerous solo students have been honored with Garland Awards, special recognition at the Edinburgh Fringe, LA Weekly Awards, FEM Finalists, Windy City Chicago best solo show, and numerous critics pick. She is a contributing writer for the Week Behind and Selling Lemonade for Free and is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and Artist in Residence at 16th Street Theater. Her newest play Anonymous Donor about sperm banks, technology and mean girls will have a Chicago reading in 2009.

LAURA TIEBERT is a travel writer and author of four guidebooks to Chicago, including Frommer's Chicago with Kids, Frommer's Chicago Day by Day, Chicago for Dummies, and the forthcoming Frommer's Chicago Free and Dirt Cheap. She has ghostwritten eight For Dummies books, ranging from Blues for Dummies with Chicago blues legend Lonnie Brooks, to Beauty Secrets for Dummies with supermodel Stephanie Seymour. Studying with Chicago performance artist Brigid Murphy, she completed her first novel, Sapphire Dunes, a romantic novel about a feisty and chic young Chicago journalist who follows her heart to a Middle Eastern country and comes home with a great feature story... and possibly the love of her life. Laura is currently working on her second novel, Home Economics, about a 45-year-old mom on the verge of a nervous breakdown (the breakdown all moms would like to have but can't afford to), whose dead mother-in-law starts speaking to her through a 1950s Sunbeam mixmaster. (Yes, exactly like the mixmasters on display in Tuesday Funk's former home, Flourish).

We are happy to announce that our October 6th reading will take place upstairs at Hopleaf Bar, 5148 N. Clark Street (just south of Foster) in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood.

For those who haven't been there yet, it's a gorgeous restaurant and bar with some rave reviews and an impressive menu of beer and wine. So arrive early, grab a good table, and order some food before the reading starts at 7 PM.

Here's a preview of Tuesday Funk #17:

RAYMOND L. BIANCHI poet and Cracked Slab Books co-founder joins us from Series A, MAGGIE KAST reads from her newly published memoir The Crack between the Worlds: a dancer's memoir of loss, faith and family, solo performer ARLENE MALINOWSKI will bring her theater work to the Tuesday Funk stage, and LAURA TIEBERT will read from her novel in progress in which a woman's dead mother-in-law starts talking to her from a 1950s Sunbeam mixmaster.

So mark your calendars. Invite your literary friends, your beer drinking friends, and your foodie friends. There's going to be something for everybody!

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, September 1st:

ROBYN DETTERLINE is the cofounder of Another New Calligraphy, a non-profit organization that designs and handmakes books and CDs for local writers and musicians. Robyn also cofounded Literary Writers Network, was the managing editor of 10,000 Tons of Black Ink, and was an organizer for the Prose Show reading series. She received her B.A. in English and creative writing from Loyola University Chicago, and she now lives in Oak Park with her husband, kitty cat, and the ghost of Frank Lloyd Wright.

BILLY LOMBARDO is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Polyphony H.S., a student-run national literary magazine for high school writers and editors. He was born and raised in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, home of the 2005 World Series Champion Chicago White Sox. He is the author of The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories (BkMk Press, 2005) and How to Hold a Woman (OV Books 2009). His novel The Man with Two Arms will be published by Overlook Press in February 2010. Billy teaches English literature and creative writing at the Latin School of Chicago. He has just completed a YA novella called, The Day of the Palindrome.

WILLIAM SHUNN returns to Tuesday Funk with another installment of his memoir The Accidental Terrorist.

DANCING GIRL PRESS presents poets Kristen Orser, Susan Slavier, and Stephanie Anderson.

STEPHANIE ANDERSON is the author of The Choral Mimeographs (dancing girl, 2009) and In the Particular Particular (New Michigan Press). She co-edits Projective Industries and lives in Chicago.

KRISTEN ORSER is the author of Squint (dancing girl press, 2009), Winter, Another Wall (blossombones, 2008); Fall Awake (Taiga Press, 2008); and E AT I, illustrated by James Thomas Stevens (Wyrd Tree Press, 2009).

SUSAN SLAVIERO is the author of Apocrypha (dancing girl press, 2009) and An Introduction to the Archetypes (Shadowbox Press).

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, August 4th:

WILLIAM ALLEGREZZA edits the e-zine Moria and the press Cracked Slab Books. He has published five books, In the Weaver's Valley, Ladders in July, Fragile Replacements, Collective Instant, and Covering Over; one anthology, The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century; seven chapbooks, including Sonoluminescence (co-written with Simone Muench) and Filament Sense (Ypolita Press); and many poetry reviews, articles, and poems. He curates series A, a reading series in Chicago dedicated to experimental writing. In addition, he occasionally posts his thoughts at http://allegrezza.blogspot.com.

JOTHAM BURRELLO is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago where he directs the publishing lab, a resource for emerging writers. His writing has appeared in Eleven Eleven, Drunken Boat, Oyez Review, Pennsylvania English, the Christian Science Monitor and elsewhere. He recently completed his novel, Fall River. He's a former editor of the journal Sport Literate. His multimedia company, Elephant Rock Productions published the anthology All Hands On, The 2nd Hand Reader, and produced instructional DVDs for writers featuring Janet Burroway, Robert Olen Butler, Joe Meno, Rosellen Brown and others. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two little boys.

Recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award and the Margaret Walker Short Story Award, PARNESHIA JONES is published in several anthologies including The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South and America! What's My Name? The Other Poets Unfurl the Flag. She has been featured on Chicago Public Radio - Chicago Amplified and has performed her work all over the United States including the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City and the Art Institute in Chicago. Jones was commissioned by Art for Humanity, and the city of Chicago, to write poetry, for an exhibition, that will be unveiled in Durban, South Africa during the 2010 World Cup.
Parneshia is a member of the Affrilachian Poets, a collective of voices that bridge Africa and Appalachia, and is on the board of the Guild Complex and Uni-Verse of Poetry: A United Nations of Poetry. She is the head of sales and international rights for Northwestern University Press, holds a M.F.A from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky, and has completed her first collection of poems, Waiting for Hurricanes, and is currently working on a trilogy collection of persona poetry.

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, July 7th:

MEGAN FERRELL moved to Chicago from St. Louis almost four years ago, and still won't become a Cubs fan. She earned a B.A. in English from Truman State University longer ago than she'd care to think, and longs for the day when her intermittent part-time writer status gets bumped up to full-time. She penned a novel chronicling many truly heinous dating experiences. Instead of accepting these dates as random horrific events in her life, she explored the spiritual nature of a journey that led her to a diamond in the rough.

MEGAN MILKS is a Ph.D. candidate in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work has been anthologized in Thirty Under Thirty, Wreckage of Reason: An Anthology of Contemporary Xxperimental Prose by Women Writers; and Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire. She won the 2008 Goodnow Award in Prose and was a finalist in DIAGRAM's inaugural $5 Innovative Fiction Contest. Her work can be found in DIAGRAM, Mad Hatters Review, Pocket Myths: The Odyssey, Mildred Pierce, and The Wild.

SANA RAFI is doing an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, New York. She is currently working on a collection of short stories based in Pakistan. She is interested in writing about the lower income-class, raising social and political issues through her fictional characters and their situations. She has been writing since her teenage years and aims to pursue writing as a full-time career.

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, June 2nd:

KRISTIN FITZSIMMONS received her MA from the University of Chicago in 2008. She is currently an Americorps member at the Hull House Association in Uptown where she teaches English as a Second Language and attempts to learn Spanish as a fourth language in addition to French and Dutch. Some of her recent poems are published in the March/April 2009 edition of The Boston Review.

CATHY GILBERT grew up in Central Illinois, and after receiving her MA in the Humanities from the University of Chicago, she returned to that area to become an Instructor of English at Heartland Community College in Normal, IL. She teaches many levels of composition and is excited to teach some creative writing classes in the fall. When she is not frantically planning, teaching, or grading, Cathy turns to poetry to calm her nerves. Her poems have appeared in the Madison Review, Main Channel Voices, and Pank, and can most recently be found in an online journal called r.kv.r.y. Cathy is very grateful for the opportunity to read her poems tonight, here in the great city of Chicago. She's been looking forward to the promised cupcake for over a month.

PARNESHIA JONES

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, April 7th:

ELISABETH BLAIR is a folk vocalist and songwriter. She will be performing as the main vocalist in a performance art piece called "ALAS" May 1, 2, and 3 at Links Hall. For more info, visit www.elisabethblair.net

GINA DiPONIO's work has appeared in Contrary Magazine, Story Week Reader, Traverse Magazine, and others. She teaches literature and writing to every age of student, from 3rd graders to elderly home residents, around Chicago. Any time now, she'll have an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College, Chicago.

WILLIAM SHUNN is a full time writer, known mainly for science fiction. His short fiction has been appearing in the major magazines of the field since 1993, and has spilled beyond the borders of the genre to appear in places like Salon.com and Storyteller Magazine. He's a past nominee for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award (twice), and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Six of his stories were collected in a 2007 chapbook called An Alternate History of the 21st Century. His first novel, Cast a Cold Eye (co-authored with Canadian SF writer Derryl Murphy), will appear sometime late this year from PS Publishing. He's hard at work on a science fiction novel for young adults, called Technomancers. For more info visit his website: https://www.shunn.net.

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, March 3rd:

Originally from Michigan, JOSEPH GIBSON IRVIN earned his MFA from New School University in New York City. His first novel, A FENCE WE CAN CLIMB, is a midwestern gothic tale of two brothers who murder their invalid father for his money. Currently he is working on his literary blog, bookish.us, and seeking representation for his novel.

KRYSTEE WYLDER writes songs for fun and folly, she likes to tell stories about life and also make up nonsensical tapestries of words. She likes cats, coffee and crocheted hats.....she is moving back to chicago after a few months away and is excited to find a new job as a nanny and settle back into her shoes and bicycle in the great big city.

CONNOR COYNE grew up in the East Village of Flint, Michigan, and has lived in Chicago and New York City. He received his Bachelors from the University of Chicago and his Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Fiction) from the New School. He has written plays, poetry, essays, short stories, and novels, and his work has been featured in the Saturnine Detractor and the Dick Pig Review. He is a cofounder of the Gothic Funk Nation and is proud to have helped organize Tuesday Funk.

Tuesday Funk #10

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, February 3rd:

LYNN SUH: Born in Cambridge (MA), and raised in Paris, Chicago, and Seoul (Korea), Lynn has been a bit of a vagabond with few constants in life - his parents, his violin, and his habit of talking to himself. His poetry reflects his personal reflections on human foibles, aspirations, and dignity, and shows his love of literature, music, and nature. His poetry primarily draws inspiration from Czeslaw Milosz and Rainer Rilke. He holds a bachelors degree from U.C. Berkeley, and a masters degree from the University of Chicago. Presently, he is working both as a part-time tutor and freelance musician, and is hoping to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy.

JONATHAN WILLIAMS hails from the sleepy state capital of Tallahassee, which he fled to pursue Statistics at the University of Chicago. There he first ran across the Gothic Funk crowd, as well as the U of C Scavenger Hunt. First a participant and later a judge, he still helps out with the Hunt despite having collected two degrees and so losing any further pretense for hanging around campus. His interests include origami, the intelligence community, and forgetting grad school.

HALLIE GORDON is the author of several plays including Imaginary Nostalgia, Trick of the Light and Dry Lightning. She is currently working on a first novel titled Dreaming of Heaven. Hallie is proud to be one of the organizers of Tuesday Funk.

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, January 6th:

SPENCER DEW is the author of the story collection Songs of Insurgency (Vagabond Press, 2008). His fiction and essays have appeared in numerous journals. He is a regular reviewer for Rain Taxi Review of Books and is completing a PhD at the University of Chicago on the novels of Kathy Acker. His website is www.spencerdew.com.

EIREN CAFFALL was born in New York City, a year and a day after the first Earth Day, raised in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts. She spent her childhood creating language for the landscapes she encountered, reading, and establishing imaginary countries in the forest.
She is a freelance writer living and working in Chicago, and has written for travel guides, created book reviews for Punk Planet Magazine, taught creative writing workshops to students from ages 4-18. She has recorded several albums of original music; her latest was Civil Twilight, completed in 2004.
She is currently at work on a book-length collection of essays. She lives on Chicago's north side with her husband Jason and son Dexter, where they are only two blocks from Lake Michigan.

ELIZABETH WETMORE is a 2002 graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a 2006 - 2007 recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as several grants from the Illinois Arts Council. A recent story -- "Listening for Grace" -- appeared in the journal Salt Flats Annual and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Other stories have appeared in Hayden's Ferry Review, Black Warrior Review, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals. She is currently at work on a novel set in West Texas and a collection of short stories set in Phoenix, Arizona.