Good morning, Funkers! Your humble co-host regrets the tardiness of this debriefing, but (as you know if you were there) he very regrettably was unable to attend our 45th edition this past Tuesday evening. However, by all reports we hear that co-host Sara Ross Witt and substitute co-host Mare Swallow had the evening well in hand, and the readers were as fine as you have come to expect.

In lieu of the usual play-by-play, let us present instead a gallery of photographs from the evening provided by local artist Kevin Swallow. Please enjoy this pictorial recap (click the photo to the right to get started), and then plan to join us again on Tuesday, June 5th for a terrific evening with Samantha Irby, Kristin Lueke, Dion Walton, Jennifer Schaefer, and Alex Shakar!

Power up and get on down to Hopleaf tonight for the 45th big outing from your friends at Tuesday Funk!

Our illustrious lineup tonight includes Chris Mendius, B.C. Bell, Susanna Lang, Julie Rosenthal, and Tom Underberg, not to mention 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 host Sara Ross Witt and guest host Mare Swallow. You can thank us later.

Oh, and one more thing. Tonight will be the last night that Johnny Wider is with us as bartender. He's being moved to the downstairs bar on Tuesday nights, and has been training his replacement Mark, who will be our new Tuesday Funk bartender. If you won't turn up for the readers, please come out to give Johnny a happy send-off. He's been with us nearly every month since we moved to Hopleaf!

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.

B.C. Bell is the author and creator of Tales of The Bagman, Chicago's own pulp hero! Bell has written numerous pulp hero adventures--among them The Avenger, Secret Agent X, and Dan Fowler G-Man--for Airship 27, Pro Se Press, and Moonstone Books. His short story "How Pappy Got Five Acres Back and Calvin Stayed on the Farm" was a winner of SFReader.com's annual short story contest, and has been featured on the Tales To Terrify Podcast. He is currently working on the sequel to Tales of The Bagman, and plans to work every genre he can. He has yet to write that Western...

Chicago author Chris Mendius earned a BSME from University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and an MBA from University of Chicago. He started writing after college and produced a terrible screenplay, a mediocre first novel and some decent short stories. He finally hit a bullseye with Spoonful , a story influenced by his own experiences living in Bucktown in the late '90s and drawing on his sordid past to provide its authenticity. The book was released by local press Anything Goes Publishing LLC in February 2012 and awarded the Kirkus Star of Remarkable Merit. Chris lives with his family in Oak Park. Spoonful is his first published novel.

Hear Chris read on Tuesday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Hopleaf's upstairs bar!

Tom Underberg writes speculative fiction and raises children. He also obsessively documents bricks, sidewalks and manhole covers for his blog on invisible infrastructure. Before his twins were born he had real jobs in software and consulting. He lives with his wife and children in Evanston in an old house with a big porch.

Hear Tom read on Tuesday, Monday 1 at Hopleaf's upstairs bar at 7:30 p.m.

Julie Rosenthal is a freelance writer in Chicago. Her fiction has been recognized by ChiZine and has appeared in Kaleidotrope, A cappella Zoo, and Columbia College's annual Story Week Reader. Another story is forthcoming later this year in Breaking the Bow, an anthology from India-based Zubaan Books.

She is working on a novel about the unsolved murder of King Edward the Martyr of England.

Julie adds, "Thanks very much to Bill and Sara -- and to all of the loyal supporters of Tuesday Funk."

Hear Julie read Tuesday, May 1 at Hopleaf's upstairs bar at 7:30 p.m.

Susanna Lang's first collection of poems, Even Now, was published in 2008 by The Backwaters Press. A chapbook, Two by Two, was released in October 2011 from Finishing Line Press, and a new collection, Tracing the Lines, will be published by Brick Road Poetry Press in fall 2012.

She has published original poems and essays, and translations from the French, in such journals as Little Star, New Letters, The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, The Green Mountains Review, The Baltimore Review, Kalliope, Southern Poetry Review, World Literature Today, Chicago Review, New Directions, and Jubilat. Book publications include translations of Words in Stone and The Origin of Language, both by Yves Bonnefoy.

She lives with her husband and son in Chicago, where she teaches in the Chicago Public Schools.

Hear Susanna read on Tuesday, May 1st at Hopleaf's upstairs bar at 7:30 p.m.!

There's a strong spring wind blowing a great evening your way! Our 45th episode of Tuesday Funk will feature readings from Chris Mendius, B.C. Bell, Susanna Lang, Julie Rosenthal, and Tom Underberg! 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, May 1, 2012, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago. Arrive early for a seat, and grab a beer from Johnny 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. See you there!