Tuesday Funk is proud to be a supporter of the inaugural Chicago Writers Conference, taking place September 14-16 at Tribune Tower. We're even more proud to announce a rare special Friday edition of Tuesday Funk in conjunction with the Chicago Writers Conference, to take place the evening of Friday, September 14th, at the non-profit Open Books bookstore.

We're currently looking for three conference participants to fill out the roster for this very special evening of fiction and poetry. If you'd like to be considered as a reader, please email us at cwc@tuesdayfunk.org. Tell us a little about yourself and about your work. Include the piece(s) you'd like to read by pasting the text into the body of your email. (We prefer not to download attachments.) For fiction, limit your submission to a total of 2,000 words or less. For poetry, send a sample of four or five poems. Readings will be limited to 10 minutes or less.

We are open to any type or genre of fiction and poetry, so long as it's entertaining to listeners. But since we won't be at our usual adults-only location on September 14th, please keep the contents to a mild R rating. And remember, you must be a registered Chicago Writers Conference attendee to participate. (And yes, we will check.)

Submissions are due by Saturday, August 25th. The three readers selected to participate will be contacted by no later than September 1st. Good luck!

Sara Ross Witt is a co-producer and co-host of Tuesday Funk and a graduate of The New School MFA in Creative Writing Program. She was raised in Ohio as a psychic by her biological mother, a detail she writes about in some of her short stories. Since leaving Ohio, she has lived in New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis and has pursued a very non-psychic career as a technical writer for the United States Government, which included writing for the Office of the President. During her pregnancy, she authored Pregphobic and Pregnant, a blog mostly about pregnancy, some crafting, and the occasional reference to the movie Alien.

Sara lives with her husband, their 8-month old son, and two cats in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood.

Please join Sara and the rest of our crew of excellent readers in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf on August 7th. The fun gets underway at 7:30 pm.

Holly McDowell lived in Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina before discovering the magical city of Chicago. She can be spotted drinking glögg, searching for the world's best tapas bar, and writing in coffee shops all over the windy city. The first episode of her serialized novel, King Solomon's Wives, is available for Kindle, Nook and Android, and it's interactive! If you read to the end, you get to vote on which character she has to write about next. Google her for details, or visit http://www.hollymcdowell.com.

Please join Holly and the rest of our crew of excellent readers in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf on August 7th. The fun gets underway at 7:30 pm.

Scott Smith is 37 years old and the Director of Digital Strategy for Chicago magazine. Scott cites his years attending college in Ohio as his most formative, and his years since, living in Chicago, as his most enriching. In his spare time, Scott enjoys comic books, whiskey, video games and the oeuvre of The Faces. He lives on the South Side in Beverly with his wife, Erin, and daughter, Abigail. Follow his further exploits at ourmaninchicago.net.

Please join Scott and the rest of our crew of excellent readers in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf on August 7th. The fun gets underway at 7:30 pm.

Tuesday Funk is eternally grateful to Hopleaf Bar for giving us such an atmospheric and welcoming home every month. In return, we'd like to congratulate Michael Roper not just on Hopleaf's recent beautiful expansion, but also on its appearance earlier this month on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives with Guy Fieri. But be careful, Michael! We sense an up-and-coming TV star in chef Ben Sheagren!

We just hope we'll still be able to get a seat!

Hey, Funkers! There's a bounteous harvest of literary goodness coming in August, with the 47th big episode of Tuesday Funk. We'll bring you great readings from Holly McDowell, Scott Smith, Sara Ross Witt, Jesse Jordan, and Vacation on the Island of Ex-Boyfriends author Stacy Bierlein! You'll also get a new Poem By Bill, not to mention your pick of dozens of varieties of cold beer at the bar.

The evening gets underway with your co-hosts Sara Ross Witt and William Shunn on Tuesday, August 7th, 2012, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at the newly expanded and renovated Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago. Arrive early for a seat, and grab a beer from Mark at the cash-only bar. 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. Same Funk time, same Funk channel!

As you know, we like to take things easy during the month of July. Therefore on this pre-holiday morning on which we'd normally be mounting a live episode of Tuesday Funk we present instead a poem from nearly a year ago, on the subject of living forever...

And if you enjoyed that, you'll get another new Poem by Bill at our next Tuesday Funk, Tuesday, August 7th, 2012, which will also feature great readings from Stacy Bierlein, Holly McDowell, Scott Smith, Jesse Jordan, and our very own Sara Ross Witt. Have a great Fourth of July!

Our latest edition of Tuesday Funk at Hopleaf was a real humdinger. Were our audience members trying to hold onto their dinners because they were laughing so hard, or was there some other reason? If you weren't there, I'm afraid, you may never know.

The memorable evening started out strong with fiction from Jennifer Schaefer, poems from Kristin Lueke, and a sweet, affecting memoir from Dion Walton.

But after a break for beer and a biking poem by Bill—well, that's where the evening took a turn for the indelible. Seriously, we don't think anyone who heard it will ever forget the personal essay by Samantha Irby that brought the house down. We wish, seriously, that we could show it all to you, and not just the excerpt you'll find below, but it was so scorchingly vile that it must have broken our camera, because somehow the audio track became corrupted. We could only salvage the last few lines from Sam's reading, but we think you'll find that it conveys the, er, flavor of the piece quite well.

No one could possibly have followed that reading, but somehow Alex Shakar managed it, with an engrossing chapter from his L.A. Times Book Prize-winning novel Luminarium. We look forward to sharing that video with you soon.

So that's it—a Tuesday Funk for the ages. But if you missed it, don't fret. After a break in July, we'll be back on August 7th with our guests Stacy Bierlein, Jesse Jordan, Holly McDowell, Scott Smith, and our own Sara Ross Witt. Be sure to join us! The airsickness bags will be optional.

Tuesday Funk is proud and excited that the 70th World Science Fiction Convention will be coming to Chicago from August 30 to September 3rd, 2012!

It so happens that our September reading will take place Tuesday, September 4th, 2012, the day after Worldcon ends. We plan to put on an evening of great science fiction readings that night—a veritable Science Fiction Spectacular—with a group of terrific science fiction and fantasy writers we wouldn't normally be able to bring together in Chicago.

We're very pleased to announce our stellar September 4th lineup of Daryl Gregory, Rae Carson, Rajan Khanna, Adam Rakunas, and Gregory A. Wilson! We look forward to telling you much more about these amazing writers as the convention draws closer.

And whether you're a science fiction fan or just a lover of great writing, mark September 4th on your calendar. It's going to be a terrific evening!

You can chalk it up to the beautiful weather, but tonight at Hopleaf for our 46th episode, your friends at Tuesday Funk are bringing you our most dynamic lineup of all time. Believe it.

This stellar evening will feature Alex Shakar (author of the L.A. Times Book Prize-winning novel Luminarium), not to mention Samantha Irby, Dion Walton, Kristin Lueke, Jennifer Schaefer, and one of our patented Poems By Bill.

So "like" us today on Facebook, grab one of dozens of varieties of beer from the bar, and get set for an evening of entertaining and provocative live literature with your hosts Sara Ross Witt and William Shunn. You'll be glad you did.

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.