Steve Bellinger was born and raised on the West Side of Chicago by a single mom who worked nights for a printing company. She would bring home books and magazines to encourage her kids to read. This is how Steve discovered Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and the other masters of classic science fiction. It didn't take long for him to get the itch to write.
Over the years he's written everything from newspaper articles, comic strips and radio drama to short stories and fan fiction.

Two of the original Trekkies, Steve and his wife Donna plan to renew their wedding vows with a full Star Trek-themed ceremony; he'll wear an admiral's dress uniform, and she will be decked out in a custom-made leather-and-lace Klingon wedding dress. Steve and Donna live in Lincoln Park with a cat to be named later.

Please join Steve and all our amazing readers on Thursday, August 18, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 8:15 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Come early and watch a special episode of live lit/sketch comedy show Cassandra at 7pm, and stay afterward for Quit it! Ma, They're Looking at Me! at 9:30pm!

Remember to RSVP on Facebook. This 21-and-older event is free.

The parties' national conventions were on Andrew's mind as we got to the Aug. 2, 2016 edition of Tuesday Funk.

The Republican
National Convention
was all negative.

The Democratic
National Convention
presented some hope.

Belief in science
should not be controversial.
And yet here we are.

James Gordon is an international award winning author and poet, champion storyteller, and an acclaimed actor from Chicago's Southside. He is the author of books from several genres (Mystery and Suspense, Children's, Poetry, and Erotica). James can be seen on epsiodes of the "Steve Harvey Show," "Chicago Med," "Chicago Fire," "Empire," "Chicago PD," "The Patriot," "APB" and "Shameless." He can aso be found on Twitter at gr8estpoetalive and at his website iblowyourmind.net.

Please join James and all our amazing readers on Thursday, August 18, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 8:15 pm as part of Lit Crawl Chicago. Come early and watch a special episode of live lit/sketch comedy show Cassandra at 7pm, and stay afterward for Quit it! Ma, They're Looking at Me! at 9:30pm!

Remember to RSVP on Facebook. This 21-and-older event is free.

It's been a hot summer, but the August 2 edition of Tuesday Funk was very cool.

Connie Voisine led off with poems about life in New Mexico, followed by Vojislav Pejovic with an excerpt of his book about a fraudulent plastic surgeon on the run. Cohost Andrew Huff read a couple topical haiku (including a birthday wish to his long-suffering wife, whose birthday it was), and then Ines Bellina read an essay about how the roots of her family tree have entwined with politics.

After the intermission, cohost Eden Robins read a micro-essay, and Angel Simmons told the story of a near-death experience she had crossing the street. Ryan Bartelmay closed out the show with a bittersweet short story about a group of teenagers looking for "a good time."

We'll be back twice in the next few weeks: We'll be part of Lit Crawl Chicago on Thursday, Aug. 18 with Rosamund Lannin, James Gordon, Steve Bellinger and Jasmine Davila, and then back to our regular schedule with Virginia Bell, Fred Sasaki, Ryan DiGiorgi, Gina DeLuca and KB Jensen on Tuesday, Sept. 6. Hope to see you there!

Tuesday Funk will be participating in Lit Crawl Chicago on Thursday, Aug. 18! Join us in our usual space (Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St.) on an unusual day (Thursday) for a slightly abbreviated version of your favorite eclectic reading series. We'll be featuring readings by Jasmine Davila, James "GPA" Gordon, Steve Bellinger and Rosamund Lannin, and it all starts at 8:15pm sharp!

Come by at 7pm and watch a special episode of live lit/sketch comedy show Cassandra, and stay afterward for Quit it! Ma, They're Looking at Me! at 9:30pm! It's all free, and open to anyone 21 or older.

Learn more about Lit Crawl Chicago, and remember to RSVP on Facebook. See you there!

Join us tonight for the likes of Ryan Bartelmay, Ines Bellina, Vojislav Pejovic, Angel Simmons, and Connie Voisine... and of course, your faithful co-hosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins!

Our readings take place at Hopleaf Bar, 5148 N. Clark St. in Chicago. We get started promptly at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge. Arrive early if you want a seat -- but no earlier than 7:00 pm. Our readings are free, but only those 21 and over will be admitted. No food can be brought in from the restaurant. See you there!

Angel Simmons is a Chicago south-sider who was raised in Englewood. She has a BA from Columbia College and does it all as a speaker, mentor, coach, runway and print model, president and CEO of The Message, Inc., and the current Ms. Worldwide Illinois Ambassador for the Live Out Loud Charity. She has been featured in books, magazines, the Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago Business, in Christian music, and as a guest on both radio and television. Angel is the author of Love's Great Design (also her blog), and columnist for both Fabulous & Money Savvy and She Can magazine. She is the co-host of Do Not Submit: Englewood and has graced some of the city's finest storytelling stages for Homewood Stories, Is This a Thing?, Loose Chicks, Miss Spoken, The Frunchroom, This Much Is True! and Story Club South Side.

Please join Angel and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, August 2, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Vojislav Pejovic (1972, Montenegro, former Yugoslavia) is a neurobiologist by training. His second book, American Sfumato (a novella in nine stories), was published in Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia and is being considered for the Mesa Selimovic Prize, the most prestigious annual award for a novel published in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The book was also a bilingual project, with four stories appearing (or about to appear) in US literary journals. He also wrote a few movie scripts and published translations of Charles Simic's poetry. Vojislav lives in Evanston, IL, with his wife and their two sons.

Please join Vojislav and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, August 2, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Ryan Bartelmay graduated from the University of Iowa in 1998, where he was a member of the Undergraduate Writer's Workshop, and then went on to Columbia University to receive an MFA in fiction writing in 2005. His debut novel, Onward Toward What We're Going Toward, was released in August 2013 by IG Publishing.

His short fiction has appeared in The Greensboro Review, Sycamore Review, Opium, Phoebe: A Journal of Arts and Letters, and Sweet Fancy Moses. Ryan has published non-fiction and other miscellanea in The Believer, Time Out: Chicago, Gadfly, and more. He is the Dean of General Education at Kendall College in Chicago and has been a member of the Gotham Writers' Workshop faculty since 2005. You can find him online at ryanbartelmay.com.

He lives in Chicago with his wife, daughter and two cats.

Please join Ryan and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, August 2, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Ines Bellina is a writer, translator and performer. She is the co-founder of the monthly Live Lit show, Is This a Thing? and has read at Story Club, Serving the Sentence, 20X2, The Marrow, Miss Spoken, Essay Fiesta, and other events around town including the Chicago Women's Funny Festival. Ines is also one of the hosts of XX,Will Travel, a podcast geared towards independent women travelers. When she's not over scheduling herself or working on a YA novel, she sings love songs to her bulldog, Charlie.

Please join Ines and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, August 2, 2016, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.