At our recent January 3rd reading, co-host William Shunn ushered us into a rather unusual comedy club to enjoy a little "Stand Up"...
And if you enjoyed that, please join us for our next event on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, when we'll bring you great readings from Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins.
At our recent January 3rd reading, Chicago author Holly McDowell read us this stunning excerpt from her novel-in-progress Farah Minor:
And if you enjoyed that, please join us for our next event on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, when we'll bring you great readings from Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins.
At our recent January 3rd reading, author Stephen Markley shared with us some of the secrets behind, and therefore within, his "premature memoir" Publish This Book: The Unbelievable True Story of How I Wrote, Sold and Published This Very Book:
And if you enjoyed that, please join us for our next event on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, when we'll bring you great readings from Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins.
At our recent January 3rd reading, our guest Lawrence Santoro shared with us this evocative and shocking recipe for "Root Soup, Winter Soup." You may, in fact, be able to hear the gasps from our audience...
And if you enjoyed that, please join us for our next event on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, when we'll bring you great readings from Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins.
If you were part of our standing-room crowd at Tuesday Funk this past January 3rd, you probably had not just your socks but your shoes blown off too. It was as strong an evening of readers as we've had at Hopleaf, and we've had some strong ones. (We've also ordered a few strong ones from Johnny at the bar, but that's a different, if simultaneous, story.)
The night started out with a bang as Christopher Sweet took us back to his college days and painted us a funny and discomfiting portrait of "El Amor Brujo." Holly McDowell explored the frustrations of being an ambitious girl in the France of yesteryear, with an excerpt from her novel Farah Minor. And co-host William Shunn showed that he's a "Stand Up" guy with a story about a most unusual comedy performance.
After a break for beer and a poem about Bill's cousin the burglar, we welcomed Lawrence Santoro to the microphone to lead us through a most unsettling recipe for "Root Soup, Winter Soup." Then Stephen Markley finished out the evening by attempting to explain to us (and to his idiot friends) what goes into a book about the process of publishing that book.
But don't worry if you weren't there! We'll be posting video of the evening's performances over the coming days and weeks, so watch this space. And of course Tuesday Funk will be back February 7th with work from Julia Borcherts, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Margie Skelly, Dustin Monk, and Lillian Huang Cummins. Be sure to be there, and strap your shoes on tight.
Come in out of the cold! Tuesday Funk has an amazing show full of warmth and cheer all laid out for its 41st big episode—and maybe a few laughs and chills on tap, too, not to mention all that great Hopleaf beer.
Our cozy yet crackling lineup tonight includes Stephen Markley, Lawrence Santoro, Holly McDowell, Christopher Sweet, and William Shunn, not to mention, if you're lucky, one of our patented bonus Poems By Bill. So "like" us today on Facebook, arrive early, grab one of dozens of varieties of beer from the bar, and get set for a evening of entertainment that will warm the cockles of your heart and make you glad to be alive in 2012.
Start your new year right with Tuesday Funk. Resolve to be there!
Hopleaf 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 for 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.
You know William Shunn as a co-host of Tuesday Funk, the guy who does those wacky poems every month. But he's also a blogger, a podcaster, a programmer, a designer, an inventor, a collector, a cabinetmaker, a bowler, a moviegoer, a foodie, a traveler, a tinkerer, a priest, an atheist, a curmudgeon, a felon, a photographer, a chauffeur, a skeptic, a rube, a ruffian, a layabout, a lurker, a dilettante, a poseur, a pundit, a primate, an ancestor, an earthling, an alien, a canvas, a convenience, an improvisation, an illusion, and occasionally a writer. His latest project is a young-adult science fiction novel which currently goes by the name Waking Vishnu, and which you can read a very brief snippet from here. He also wishes you would bug him more about going to the gym.
Please join us to hear Bill read an actual short story on Tuesday, January 3, 2012, at 7:30 pm in Hopleaf's upstairs bar, together with our great lineup of Stephen Markley, Lawrence Santoro, Holly McDowell, and Christopher Sweet!
Holly McDowell was already a writer, an artist, a computer geek and a day trader before she moved to Chicago three months ago. Now, she's also a drinker of glögg, a frequenter of Hopleaf and, most importantly, a collector of boots and winter coats. Her serialized novel series, King Solomon's Wives, begins in 2012. Look for the first episode from Amazon.com and Coliloquy, on e-devices everywhere.
Hear Holly read on Tuesday, January 3, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf's upstairs bar!
Award-winning writer and narrator, Lawrence Santoro began writing dark tales at age five.
In 2001 his novella "God Screamed and Screamed, Then I Ate Him" was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. In 2002, his adaptation and audio production of Gene Wolfe's "The Tree Is My Hat," was also Stoker nominated.
In 2003, his Stoker-recommended "Catching" received Honorable Mention in Ellen Datlow's 17th Annual "Year's Best Fantasy and Horror" anthology. In 2004, "So Many Tiny Mouths" was cited in the anthology's 18th edition. In the 20th, his novella, "At Angels Sixteen," from the anthology A DARK AND DEADLY VALLEY, was similarly honored.
Larry's first novel, "Just North of Nowhere," was published in 2007. A collection of his short fiction, DRINK FOR THE THIRST TO COME, was published in 2011.
He lives in Chicago and is working on two new novels, "Griffon and the Sky Warriors," and "A Mississippi Traveler, or Sam Clemens Tries the Water"
Stop by Larry's blog, At Home in Bluffton at: http://blufftoninthedriftless.
You
can friend him at: http://www.facebook.com/
Join Tuesday Funk on January 3, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf's upstairs bar to hear Larry read!
Chris has been writing for more than the requisite 10,000 hours. "Yet still no word from Publisher's Clearinghouse," as the New Yorker cartoon caption read, oh, about ten years ago, I'd say.
He enjoys literary genres where the writer talks about himself in the third person. It reminds him of growing up in Kansas City, where his parents would frequently reference him as if he were absent, though he were standing between them. For example:
Father: Has he washed his hands for dinner?
Me: Who? What are you talking about?
Mother: I don't know, you'll have to ask him yourself.
Father: He ought to know what's expected of him.
Me: Hello, Dad, Mom! I'm here.
Mother: I'm sure I have no idea what he thinks he knows...
His favorite comedic rant is from the British television
sitcom Coupling, the episode where the Steve goes shopping with Susan for
furniture, and ends up losing his composure over cushions.
Not to fear, Chris won't rant for you at Tuesday Funk. As Steve says, "I can't have opinions in a place like this!"
Instead, Chris will read you a story about his misspent youth. He promises "something for everyone."
When not on stage reading, the writer enjoys bicycling, drinking coffee, and "jotting down notes," while waiting for Quinn The Eskimo to get here. Subtext: Godot.
Time's a whirligig.
Of the four elements, fire, earth, air, and water, he most enjoys "hey, ho, the wind and the rain," wild words and wet cheeks, laughter and tears, comedy and the other thing.
But that's all one...
Join Tuesday Funk on January 3, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf's upstairs bar to hear Chris read!
