Ryan Bartelmay graduated from the University of Iowa in 1998, where he was a member of the Undergraduate Writer's Workshop, and then went on to Columbia University to receive an MFA in fiction writing in 2005. His debut novel, Onward Toward What We're Going Toward, was released in August 2013 by IG Publishing.

His short fiction has appeared in The Greensboro Review, Sycamore Review, Opium, Phoebe: A Journal of Arts and Letters, and Sweet Fancy Moses. Ryan has published non-fiction and other miscellanea in The Believer, Time Out: Chicago, Gadfly, and more. He is the Dean of General Education at Kendall College in Chicago and has been a member of the Gotham Writers' Workshop faculty since 2005. You can find him online at ryanbartelmay.com.

He lives in Chicago with his wife, daughter and two cats.

Please join Ryan and all our top-notch, cat-loving readers on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

At the December 2013 edition of Tuesday Funk, co-host Andrew Huff read some of his patented seasonal haiku ...tinged with a little sadness.

O'Hare and Midway
I-90 and toll roads,
packed with travelers.

Football on TV,
Black Friday shopping plans made,
family's all here.

Roast turkey, stuffing,
green bean casserole and pie.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Tonight Tuesday Funk
loses co-host Bill Shunn
...to New York City!?

But we're not bitter.
We'll see him again. Meanwhile,
welcome Eden Robins.

And if you enjoyed that, please come out to our next event on Tuesday, January 7, 2014, which features readings from Ryan Bartelmay, Kelly Swails, Christa Desir, Jasmine Davila, and Christopher Sweet — as well as more haiku from Andrew and the debut of new co-host Eden Robins. Start the new year right!

Jasmine Davila started her first blog in 2000, and has been over-sharing on the internet ever since. She is a contributor for Gapers Block, the greatest Chicago-centric blog that ever blogged, and Asian pop culture blog Disgrasian.com. Jasmine has read essays about her non-existent love life (and her part-time cat-sitting business) at Solo in the 2nd City and That's All She Wrote, and recently performed in 20x2 Chicago.

Jasmine is a graduate of The University of Chicago, that little school on the South Side that originally brought her to Chicago almost 20 years ago. Despite this, Jasmine insists that she is still a New Yorker, and will buy you all the "soda" in the world to prove it.

Please join Jasmine and all our talented regional dialect aficionados on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Christa Desir writes dark contemporary fiction for young adults. Her first book, Fault Line, came out this fall. Her second book, Bleed Like Me, is due out in October 2014. She lives with her husband, three small children, and overly enthusiastic dog outside of Chicago. She has volunteered as a rape victim activist for more than ten years, including providing direct service as an advocate in hospital ERs. She also works as an editor at Samhain Publishing. Visit her at ChristaDesir.com.

Please join Christa and all our multi-talented readers on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Christopher Sweet worked in education for many years. He is one of those schoolers who has two advanced degrees - an MA in English and an MSJ from a now-defunct "School of Journalism." He learned to write in the Fiction Department of Columbia College, Chicago. But he bids that you do not hold that against him, stranger. His favorite "quote of the day" is, "Ecrassez l'infame!" Don't hold that against him, either.

Please join Christopher and all our fantastic, potentially Francophile readers on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Kelly Swails is a writer and editor who pays the bills by editing an online scientific journal. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies including Coins of Chaos and Boondocks Fantasy. She relocated to Chicago this past summer and has been busy exploring her new home. When she's not writing or working she watches geeky TV and pretends she's not a crazy cat lady. There's a rumor she sleeps on occasion, but that has yet to be proven. You can find her online at www.kellyswails.com.

Please join Kelly and all our awesome, potentially sleep-deprived readers on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

We've put together a terrific lineup for our January edition of Tuesday Funk. The roster will feature Ryan Bartelmay, Kelly Swails, Christa Desir, Jasmine Davila, and Christopher Sweet. We'll also have a round of Haiku by Andrew, and new co-host Eden Robins most likely has something special in store as well. Add in delectable beers from around the world and you've got an evening that will warm your brain and your belly.

The evening gets underway with your hosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014, 7:30 pm, in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago. Doors open at 7:00 pm, no earlier -- arrive early for a table and grab a beer from Mark at the bar. 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!

In his final appearance as a Tuesday Funk co-host, author William Shunn read an excerpt from his novelette “After the Earthquake a Fire,” a story of mice, missionaries, and misery set in the northern Idaho of the 1980s:

If you enjoyed that, please come out to our next event on Tuesday, January 7, 2014, which features readings from Ryan Bartelmay, Kelly Swails, Christa Desir, Jasmine Davila, and Christopher Sweet — as well as more haiku from Andrew and the debut of new co-host Eden Robins. See you there!

At our October reading, James Kennedy delivered the rousing first chapter of his new novel The Magnificent Moots. If you were there, you know it was a multimedia marvel and a technological triumph. If not, well, feast your eyes and ears on this...

And if you enjoyed that, please come out to our next event on Tuesday, January 7, 2014, which features readings from Ryan Bartelmay, Kelly Swails, Christopher Sweet, and more. You won't want to miss it!

If it was a bittersweet affair earlier this week at Tuesday Funk, it was also a raucous one. We might have said goodbye to a longtime co-host, but we certainly didn't say goodbye to the eclectic and irreverent spirit of the series!

We kicked things off in fine fashion with plagiarized tweets and a madcap tale of elder care from a very animated Davis Schneiderman. Jocelyn Geboy followed that up with the funny and painful tale of her week in a psych ward. Our regular feature Haiku by Andrew delighted us with topical verse. And J. Michael Grey closed out the first half of our program leading four players in a staged reading of his short play about fathers and fortune and homophobia and more, all set in an Irish pub.

After a break for beer from Mark at the bar, we were treated to a brief history of Poems by Bill (including return visits to "Dogwalker's Algorithm" and "Under Their Skirts"), along with one last new poem for the occasion. G.P.A. arrived just in the nick of time to bring us the stirring and heartbreaking tale of the bully who stole his chocolate milk. And finally, in his final appearance as a co-host, William Shunn delivered a new short story about Mormon missionaries, mouse murder, and an elderly Russian Jew in northern Idaho.

So that's what you missed out on if you missed out on Tuesday Funk, but never fear! We'll bring you plenty of video excerpts in the weeks to come, and then we'll be back on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014, for an evening with Ryan Bartelmay, Kelly Swails, Christa Desir, Jasmine Davila, and Christopher Sweet. Please don't miss it!