We've put together an April lineup for Tuesday Funk fit to melt your cold heart at the end of this long winter. The roster will feature Mary Robinette Kowal, Jeremy Jasper, Wesley Chu, Reagan Keeter, and Tuesday Funk co-founder Reinhardt Suarez. Throw in one of our patented Poems by Bill, not to mention your pick of cold beers from around the world, and you've got all the ingredients for the perfect spring thaw. We'll also be welcoming our new host, Gapers Block's Andrew Huff, so you won't want to miss it!

The evening gets underway with your hosts William Shunn and Andrew Huff on Tuesday, February 5th, 2012, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago. Arrive early for a table and grab a beer from Mark at the bar (where credit cards are now accepted!). 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. See you there!

It was a small but hardy crowd that braved the roaring snow to make it out to this week's edition of Tuesday Funk. The thirty-odd folks in attendance were treated to a strong program featuring some returning readers, some first-timers, a whole lot of laughs, and maybe a sniffle or two. (Hey, it's cold out, okay?)

We kicked off the festivities with Dana Norris, who brought us a painfully funny reminiscence of her quest to lose her fear of hell. Mairead Case followed that up with a tantalizing excerpt from her novel-in-progress about teenagers in a small midwestern town. And Zoe Zolbrod took us through the Thai countryside on a quest for sex and opium in her essay "Pai Foot," from The Beautiful Anthology.

After a break for beer, our Poem by Bill was "Time Is Not on My Side." Bill followed that up (subbing in for a travel-stranded Lania Knight) with a chapter from his recently completed young-adult science fiction novel, Root, which is set right here in Tuesday Funk's very own Chicago neighborhood. (Or is it?) And CP Chang brought the scripted portion of the show to a lovely, contemplative close with his meditation on race and belonging, "Tribes," from the 2nd Story anthology Briefly Knocked Unconscious by a Low-Flying Duck.

It was then that we bid a fond and slightly choked-up farewell to our departing co-host Sara Ross Witt, who will now be focusing more on her own writing (and who will next be appearing on our program as a reader on May 7th!). Thanks for all the great work, Sara, and we look forward to what you'll produce in the months to come.

All in all, it was a program that seemed to delight our (unusually polite) audience, but if you couldn't be there don't despair. We'll bring you plenty of video excerpts in the weeks to come, and then we'll be back Tuesday, April 2, 2013, with a program featuring Mary Robinette Kowal, Jeremy Jasper, Wesley Chu, Reagan Keeter, and Tuesday Funk co-founder Reinhardt Suarez, not to mention the debut appearance of our new co-host, Gapers Block's Andrew Huff. Don't miss it!

And like Bill exhorted us Tuesday night, don't procrastinate.

Listen up, Funkers! Lest we've been unclear, let me break it down for you. We are not canceling Tuesday Funk tonight because of a little snow. Repeat, Tuesday Funk is on, baby. Bring it.

Tuesday Funk is putting you on notice, Winter Storm! We didn't cancel the show during the legendary blizzard of 2011, and we're not canceling it tonight either.

Remember, Funkers, your presence is requested tonight for Tuesday Funk's 55th episode, featuring Mairead Case, CP Chang, Dana Norris, Zoe Zolbrod, and co-host William Shunn (filling in for Lania Knight, who's stranded out of town). Plus, it's our farewell party for longtime co-host Sara Ross Witt. Please don't miss it!

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!

At our Not Your Parents' Valentine's Day Edition of Tuesday Funk, Patricia Ann McNair read us her essay "Return Trip," from the anthology Briefly Knocked Unconscious by a Low-Flying Duck, and it went just a little like this...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013, upstairs at Hopleaf, for an evening with Mairead Case, Lania Knight, Dana Norris, Zoe Zolbrod, and 2nd Story's CP Chang!

As announced at February's Tuesday Funk, I, Sara Ross Witt, will be hosting this exciting reading series for my last time on Tuesday, March 5th. I cannot express how fun it has been to see this reading grow into what it is, and how fun it has been to help it along in the minuscule ways that I have.

While I am resigning as co-producer and co-host of Tuesday Funk, I am not leaving. This is not good-bye. Instead, this is my chance to say what I've kept in my heart these last three years: thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.

To our readers, you are wonderful and inspiring. Each and every one of you have been very sweet to me, to Bill, to our series. Thank you to our fans and supporters, seeing you every month melts away any stress I carry with me for at least two magical hours.

To Reinhardt Suarez who recommended me for the position, thank you for sharing Tuesday Funk with me. I'm grateful every day to have met you at New School many years ago and to have continued our friendship through yet another reading series!

To Hallie Palladino and Connor Coyne, thank you for placing the care of your beloved series into our hands and thank you for trusting us with its care and growth.

Thank you to Hopleaf, Johnny, and Mark for providing us with a fabulous space, friendship, and tasty drinks. Most especially I want to thank my co-host William Shunn and his lovely wife Laura. They are the heart and soul of Tuesday Funk, growing and innovating the series, as well as turning it into a warm, welcoming family. Bill and Laura, thank you for all that you do for Tuesday Funk, for being my second family and supporting me through the ups (marriage, baby) and downs (major car accident!) of my life, and for believing in me.

I am also delighted to introduce my successor Andrew Huff, founder of Gapers Block. I know he and Bill will do amazing things with Tuesday Funk. I look forward to sitting in the audience the first Tuesday of every month, listening to the talented readers, enjoying a drink (or two) and watching the series evolve!

So please join us for my farewell party and to hear our outstanding readers on Tuesday, March 5, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf?

Dana Norris is the founder and host of Story Club. She once went on a lot of internet dates and she writes about those mistakes for the websites In Our Words and Role Reboot. She blogs at her website dananorris.net. She has been published in The Rumpus, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, the Tampa Review, and her stories have been featured on Vocalo.org (89.5 FM). She performs around Chicago with Mortified, The Paper Machete, The Kates, Essay Fiesta, This Much is True, Write Club, Beast Women, and many others.

Hear Dana and the rest of our outstanding readers on Tuesday, March 5, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf.

At our Not Your Parents' Valentine's Day Edition of Tuesday Funk, Mary Pat Bohan read her personal essay "Brutally Honest," and it went just a little like this...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013, upstairs at Hopleaf, for an evening with Mairead Case, Lania Knight, Dana Norris, Zoe Zolbrod, and 2nd Story's CP Chang!

Zoe Zolbrod's first novel, Currency received a 2010 Nobbie Award and was a Friends of American Writers prize finalist. Short stories and nonfiction have appeared in The Chicago Reader, Knee-Jerk Offline, Fish Stories Collectives, and Maxine, a zine she co-founded in the 1990s. She's a contributor to the literary websites The Nervous Breakdown and The Rumpus, and lives in Evanston, IL, with her husband and two children, where she works as a senior editor for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Hear Zoe and the rest of our outstanding readers on Tuesday, March 5, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf.

At our Not Your Parents' Valentine's Day Edition of Tuesday Funk, Hanna Martine read us a steamy scene from her paranormal erotic novel A Taste of Ice, and it went just a little like this...

And if you enjoyed that, please join us at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013, upstairs at Hopleaf, for an evening with Mairead Case, Lania Knight, Dana Norris, Zoe Zolbrod, and 2nd Story's CP Chang!