Clayton Smith is a writer of speculative fiction whose work includes the play Death and McCootie and the novels Apocalypticon, Anomaly Flats, and Mabel Gray and the Wizard Who Swallowed the Sun. Some of his nonsense has been featured on Write City Magazine and Dumb White Husband, and his plays have been produced rather mercilessly all over the country.

Please join Clayton and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Bill Savage teaches Chicago literature, film, history, and culture at Northwestern University and the Newberry Library of Chicago. He regularly writes book reviews for the Chicago Tribune, op-ed essays for Crain's Chicago Business, various random things for other publications with "Chicago" on their mastheads, as well as performing live-lit essays for The Paper Machete and other venues. His most recent book project, with Paul Durica, was an edited and annotated edition of Chicago by Day and Night: The Pleasure-Seeker's Guide to the Paris of America, an in-the-know guide Chicago nightlife during the 1893 World's Fair. He is currently at work on edited and annotated editions of Ben Hecht's autobiography and George Ade's The Old-Time Saloon, both forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press. You can follow him on Twitter @rogersparkman.

Please join Bill and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

The chill is in the air and the holiday season is well under way, but make sure to leave room for you favorite! eclectic monthly reading series! We are back in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., on Tuesday, Dec. 1 with guests Clayton Smith, Gint Aras, James Gordon, Bill Savage and Britt Julious. Eden Robins and Andrew Huff co-host, and Jason will be behind the bar to provide you with libations.

Doors open at 7:00 pm -- no earlier, we're serious. Don't ruin it for everyone else. But do get there as close to 7 as you can, because the room fills up quickly (hence no admittance before 7). The show starts at 7:30 pm. Admission is free, but you must be 21 or older.

Don't forget to RSVP on Facebook and bring a friend. And if you're not already, become a fan so you never, ever miss an invitation to one of our readings.

Co-host Andrew Huff read a fresh crop of topical haiku at the Nov. 3rd edition of Tuesday Funk.

That familiar phrase,
"Wait till next year," once again
echoes through Wrigley.

A runaway blimp
held our attention as long
as most school shootings.

Governor Rauner
jousts with Rahm while the budget
sleeps with the fishes.

Halloween candy
has a clear hierarchy.
What's last on your list?

El Nino pattern
promises a warm winter.
But our lake needs snow.

Too nice a winter
could precede drought next summer.
A Faustian bargain.

Not to brag, but Tuesday Funk #87 was another stellar show! First up, Nick DiSabato told us why we should buy six-packs for the kitchen staff and waxed humorous on his ambivalence about camping. Then Kyle Thiessen made his Tuesday Funk debut with a story about people running from zombies... who board themselves up in a haunted house. Then co-host Eden Robins read a microessay about baseball and failure, and then Sarah Hollenbeck brought the house down with an essay about disability, invisibility, and the decision to have children.

We took a break for Jason and his drinks.

After the half, Elaine Hegwood Bowen read two essays from her collection Old School Adventures From Englewood-South Side of Chicago about buying cars and life in Englewood in the 1960s. And finally, former co-host William Shunn stunned us with an excerpt from his memoir The Accidental Terrorist (out November 10!) about his days as a reluctant Mormon missionary.

And, of course, we're doing it all again next month! Join us on December 1 for Tuesday Funk #88, featuring Clayton Smith, Gint Aras, James Gordon, Bill Savage, and Britt Julious!

Nothing spooky here, just great readers reading great stuff! Great readers like: Sarah Hollenbeck, Nick DiSabato, Kyle Thiessen, Elaine Hegwood Bowen, and former co-host William Shunn! And, of course, your favorite 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!

Kyle Thiessen emerges from creative hibernation every few years to half-ass things that could have been really good. Previous endeavors include 2011's YouTube parody—the hastily researched but marginally entertaining “Fake Month at the Museum”—as well as a short film in 1999 that won him a trip to the Golden Globe awards, where he peed next to John Lithgow. In addition to YouTubing and peeing, Kyle has spent his adult life as a caricature artist, an IMAX projectionist, and a corporate Powerpoint designer for a multinational conglomerate of high tech weapons systems and golf cart manufacturers. Until he fills the hole in his resume where “zamboni driver” should be, he'll be hard at work on the perfect Die Hard screenplay and occasionally tweeting @lazycartoonist.

Please join Kyle and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, November 3, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Elaine Hegwood Bowen is a veteran journalist and native South-Sider who has covered both Chicago's urban and suburban communities. Elaine has been writing for the Chicago Crusader newspaper since 1994. In her book, Old School Adventures from Englewood--South Side of Chicago, Elaine shares her recollections of what life was like growing up in Englewood, when her parents migrated to Chicago in the early 1950s and purchased a home in 1959. She grounds her stories in exciting childhood adventures, as well as the cultural happenings of the time, discussing such issues as Dr. Martin Luther King, race riots, and integration. She provides a glimpse into what the neighborhood was once like. Elaine has taught at City Colleges of Chicago and Roosevelt University, where she earned undergraduate and graduate Journalism degrees. Her book, and its universal theme, has been covered in local and national broadcast and print media. In her spare time, Elaine covers local and national film festivals & pens movie reviews for www.filmmonthly.com.

Please join Elaine and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, November 3, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Sarah Hollenbeck has published personal essays in Dogwood and TriQuarterly. Her essay "A Goldmine" was nominated for a Pushcart and received a Notable Mention in Best American Essays 2014. She has performed at Story Club, Guts & Glory, Essay Fiesta, Story Sessions, and The Bodies of Work Festival, among other live lit shows. Sarah is currently (very slowly) writing a collection of essays that explores the experiences of women living with invisible and visible disabilities. But she's been a little distracted from her writing since buying Women & Children First, one of the last remaining feminist bookstores in the country. As the store's co-owner she has been featured in New City's Lit50 issue and in Publisher's Weekly Star Watch, an annual list that recognizes 40 youngsters within the U.S. book trade who have distinguished themselves as future leaders of the publishing industry.

Please join Sarah and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, November 3, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

William Shunn is a former host and producer of Tuesday Funk. His memoir, The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary, will appear from Sinister Regard Publishers on November 10th. Of the book, Cory Doctorow has said, "This just may be my favorite true-life amazing-but-true tale--never has threatening an aircraft been funnier or more thought-provoking."

Since his first publication in 1993, Bill's short fiction has appeared in Salon, Storyteller, Bloodstone Review, Newtown Literary, Asimov's Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Science Fiction Age, Realms of Fantasy, Electric Velocipede, and various anthologies and year's-best collections. His work has been shortlisted for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. His chapbook An Alternate History of the 21st Century appeared from Spilt Milk Press in 2007, and his novella Cast a Cold Eye, written with Derryl Murphy, came out from PS Publishing in 2009.

He currently lives in New York City with his wife, Laura Chavoen, and their soft-coated wheaten terrier, Ella the Wonder Dog. For more fun, visit www.shunn.net or follow @shunn on Twitter.

Please join Bill and all our amazing readers on Tuesday, November 3, 2015, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.