Posts Tagged ‘Reading’

Tuesday Funk #16

August 26th, 2009 by Connor

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, September 1st:

ROBYN DETTERLINE is the cofounder of Another New Calligraphy, a non-profit organization that designs and handmakes books and CDs for local writers and musicians. Robyn also cofounded Literary Writers Network, was the managing editor of 10,000 Tons of Black Ink, and was an organizer for the Prose Show reading series. She received her B.A. in English and creative writing from Loyola University Chicago, and she now lives in Oak Park with her husband, kitty cat, and the ghost of Frank Lloyd Wright.

BILLY LOMBARDO is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Polyphony H.S., a student-run national literary magazine for high school writers and editors. He was born and raised in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood, home of the 2005 World Series Champion Chicago White Sox. He is the author of The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories (BkMk Press, 2005) and How to Hold a Woman (OV Books 2009). His novel The Man with Two Arms will be published by Overlook Press in February 2010. Billy teaches English literature and creative writing at the Latin School of Chicago. He has just completed a YA novella called, The Day of the Palindrome.

WILLIAM SHUNN returns to Tuesday Funk with another installment of his memoir The Accidental Terrorist.

DANCING GIRL PRESS presents poets Kristen Orser, Susan Slavier, and Stephanie Anderson.

STEPHANIE ANDERSON is the author of The Choral Mimeographs (dancing girl, 2009) and In the Particular Particular (New Michigan Press). She co-edits Projective Industries and lives in Chicago.

KRISTEN ORSER is the author of Squint (dancing girl press, 2009), Winter, Another Wall (blossombones, 2008); Fall Awake (Taiga Press, 2008); and E AT I, illustrated by James Thomas Stevens (Wyrd Tree Press, 2009).

SUSAN SLAVIERO is the author of Apocrypha (dancing girl press, 2009) and An Introduction to the Archetypes (Shadowbox Press).

Tuesday Funk #15

July 27th, 2009 by Connor

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, August 4th:

WILLIAM ALLEGREZZA edits the e-zine Moria and the press Cracked Slab Books. He has published five books, In the Weaver’s Valley, Ladders in July, Fragile Replacements, Collective Instant, and Covering Over; one anthology, The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century; seven chapbooks, including Sonoluminescence (co-written with Simone Muench) and Filament Sense (Ypolita Press); and many poetry reviews, articles, and poems. He curates series A, a reading series in Chicago dedicated to experimental writing. In addition, he occasionally posts his thoughts at http://allegrezza.blogspot.com.

JOTHAM BURRELLO is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago where he directs the publishing lab, a resource for emerging writers. His writing has appeared in Eleven Eleven, Drunken Boat, Oyez Review, Pennsylvania English, the Christian Science Monitor and elsewhere. He recently completed his novel, Fall River. He’s a former editor of the journal Sport Literate. His multimedia company, Elephant Rock Productions published the anthology All Hands On, The 2nd Hand Reader, and produced instructional DVDs for writers featuring Janet Burroway, Robert Olen Butler, Joe Meno, Rosellen Brown and others. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two little boys.

Recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award and the Margaret Walker Short Story Award, PARNESHIA JONES is published in several anthologies including The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South and America! What’s My Name? The Other Poets Unfurl the Flag. She has been featured on Chicago Public Radio – Chicago Amplified and has performed her work all over the United States including the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City and the Art Institute in Chicago. Jones was commissioned by Art for Humanity, and the city of Chicago, to write poetry, for an exhibition, that will be unveiled in Durban, South Africa during the 2010 World Cup.
Parneshia is a member of the Affrilachian Poets, a collective of voices that bridge Africa and Appalachia, and is on the board of the Guild Complex and Uni-Verse of Poetry: A United Nations of Poetry. She is the head of sales and international rights for Northwestern University Press, holds a M.F.A from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky, and has completed her first collection of poems, Waiting for Hurricanes, and is currently working on a trilogy collection of persona poetry.

Tuesday Funk #14

July 1st, 2009 by Connor

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, July 7th:

MEGAN FERRELL moved to Chicago from St. Louis almost four years ago, and still won’t become a Cubs fan. She earned a B.A. in English from Truman State University longer ago than she’d care to think, and longs for the day when her intermittent part-time writer status gets bumped up to full-time. She penned a novel chronicling many truly heinous dating experiences. Instead of accepting these dates as random horrific events in her life, she explored the spiritual nature of a journey that led her to a diamond in the rough.

MEGAN MILKS is a Ph.D. candidate in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work has been anthologized in Thirty Under Thirty, Wreckage of Reason: An Anthology of Contemporary Xxperimental Prose by Women Writers; and Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire. She won the 2008 Goodnow Award in Prose and was a finalist in DIAGRAM‘s inaugural $5 Innovative Fiction Contest. Her work can be found in DIAGRAM, Mad Hatters Review, Pocket Myths: The Odyssey, Mildred Pierce, and The Wild.

SANA RAFI is doing an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, New York. She is currently working on a collection of short stories based in Pakistan. She is interested in writing about the lower income-class, raising social and political issues through her fictional characters and their situations. She has been writing since her teenage years and aims to pursue writing as a full-time career.

Tuesday Funk #13

May 27th, 2009 by Connor

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, June 2nd:

KRISTIN FITZSIMMONS received her MA from the University of Chicago in 2008. She is currently an Americorps member at the Hull House Association in Uptown where she teaches English as a Second Language and attempts to learn Spanish as a fourth language in addition to French and Dutch. Some of her recent poems are published in the March/April 2009 edition of The Boston Review.

CATHY GILBERT grew up in Central Illinois, and after receiving her MA in the Humanities from the University of Chicago, she returned to that area to become an Instructor of English at Heartland Community College in Normal, IL. She teaches many levels of composition and is excited to teach some creative writing classes in the fall. When she is not frantically planning, teaching, or grading, Cathy turns to poetry to calm her nerves. Her poems have appeared in the Madison Review, Main Channel Voices, and Pank, and can most recently be found in an online journal called r.kv.r.y. Cathy is very grateful for the opportunity to read her poems tonight, here in the great city of Chicago. She’s been looking forward to the promised cupcake for over a month.

PARNESHIA JONES

Tuesday Funk #12: Our One Year Anniversary!

April 2nd, 2009 by Connor

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, April 7th:

ELISABETH BLAIR is a folk vocalist and songwriter. She will be performing as the main vocalist in a performance art piece called “ALAS” May 1, 2, and 3 at Links Hall. For more info, visit www.elisabethblair.net

GINA DiPONIO’s work has appeared in Contrary Magazine, Story Week Reader, Traverse Magazine, and others. She teaches literature and writing to every age of student, from 3rd graders to elderly home residents, around Chicago. Any time now, she’ll have an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College, Chicago.

WILLIAM SHUNN is a full time writer, known mainly for science fiction. His short fiction has been appearing in the major magazines of the field since 1993, and has spilled beyond the borders of the genre to appear in places like Salon.com and Storyteller Magazine. He’s a past nominee for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award (twice), and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Six of his stories were collected in a 2007 chapbook called An Alternate History of the 21st Century. His first novel, Cast a Cold Eye (co-authored with Canadian SF writer Derryl Murphy), will appear sometime late this year from PS Publishing. He’s hard at work on a science fiction novel for young adults, called Technomancers. For more info visit his website: http://www.shunn.net.

Tuesday Funk #11

February 26th, 2009 by Connor

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, March 3rd:

Originally from Michigan, JOSEPH GIBSON IRVIN earned his MFA from New School University in New York City. His first novel, A FENCE WE CAN CLIMB, is a midwestern gothic tale of two brothers who murder their invalid father for his money. Currently he is working on his literary blog, bookish.us, and seeking representation for his novel.

KRYSTEE WYLDER writes songs for fun and folly, she likes to tell stories about life and also make up nonsensical tapestries of words. She likes cats, coffee and crocheted hats…..she is moving back to chicago after a few months away and is excited to find a new job as a nanny and settle back into her shoes and bicycle in the great big city.

CONNOR COYNE grew up in the East Village of Flint, Michigan, and has lived in Chicago and New York City. He received his Bachelors from the University of Chicago and his Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Fiction) from the New School. He has written plays, poetry, essays, short stories, and novels, and his work has been featured in the Saturnine Detractor and the Dick Pig Review. He is a cofounder of the Gothic Funk Nation and is proud to have helped organize Tuesday Funk.

Tuesday Funk #10

January 28th, 2009 by Connor

Tuesday Funk #10

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, February 3rd:

LYNN SUH: Born in Cambridge (MA), and raised in Paris, Chicago, and Seoul (Korea), Lynn has been a bit of a vagabond with few constants in life – his parents, his violin, and his habit of talking to himself. His poetry reflects his personal reflections on human foibles, aspirations, and dignity, and shows his love of literature, music, and nature. His poetry primarily draws inspiration from Czeslaw Milosz and Rainer Rilke. He holds a bachelors degree from U.C. Berkeley, and a masters degree from the University of Chicago. Presently, he is working both as a part-time tutor and freelance musician, and is hoping to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy.

JONATHAN WILLIAMS hails from the sleepy state capital of Tallahassee, which he fled to pursue Statistics at the University of Chicago. There he first ran across the Gothic Funk crowd, as well as the U of C Scavenger Hunt. First a participant and later a judge, he still helps out with the Hunt despite having collected two degrees and so losing any further pretense for hanging around campus. His interests include origami, the intelligence community, and forgetting grad school.

HALLIE GORDON is the author of several plays including Imaginary Nostalgia, Trick of the Light and Dry Lightning. She is currently working on a first novel titled Dreaming of Heaven. Hallie is proud to be one of the organizers of Tuesday Funk.

Tuesday Funk #9

December 30th, 2008 by Connor

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, January 6th:

SPENCER DEW is the author of the story collection Songs of Insurgency (Vagabond Press, 2008). His fiction and essays have appeared in numerous journals. He is a regular reviewer for Rain Taxi Review of Books and is completing a PhD at the University of Chicago on the novels of Kathy Acker. His website is www.spencerdew.com.

EIREN CAFFALL was born in New York City, a year and a day after the first Earth Day, raised in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts. She spent her childhood creating language for the landscapes she encountered, reading, and establishing imaginary countries in the forest.
She is a freelance writer living and working in Chicago, and has written for travel guides, created book reviews for Punk Planet Magazine, taught creative writing workshops to students from ages 4-18. She has recorded several albums of original music; her latest was Civil Twilight, completed in 2004.
She is currently at work on a book-length collection of essays. She lives on Chicago’s north side with her husband Jason and son Dexter, where they are only two blocks from Lake Michigan.

ELIZABETH WETMORE is a 2002 graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a 2006 – 2007 recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as several grants from the Illinois Arts Council. A recent story — “Listening for Grace” — appeared in the journal Salt Flats Annual and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Other stories have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Black Warrior Review, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals. She is currently at work on a novel set in West Texas and a collection of short stories set in Phoenix, Arizona.

Tuesday Funk #7

September 16th, 2008 by Connor

Please join us for the next reading on Tuesday, October 7th:

BRYAN ALASPA Bryan Alaspa has been writing in one form or another since he first sat down in front of his mother’s electric typewriter in the third grade. At that time he typed out his first three-page, punctuation-deprived piece of fiction. It has been downhill ever since.
Despite a brief detour into the world of broadcasting via radio, Bryan has been passionate about writing from that day forward.
Bryan wrote his first full-length novel, The Ballad of the Blue Denim Gang, just after college. Right after that he wrote a mystery novel, The Vanished Child. He took a break, writing mostly articles and business-related materials before returning to fiction with his powerful and disturbing look at small town life called Dust.
Bryan has also recently ventured into non-fiction thanks to Schiffer Publishing. His book Ghosts of St. Louis: the Lemp Mansion and Other Eerie Tales was released in 2007. He has since written the book Chicago Crime Stories: Rich Gone Wrong which will be released in spring of 2009. He has a book about famous Chicago disasters in the works for Schiffer as well.
RIG is his first foray into the genre that made Bryan want to start writing in the first place: horror fiction. While he wrote the book shortly after Dust, it took him time to rewrite and fine-tune the story for publication.
Bryan still lives in Chicago and is working on both fiction and non-fiction works while also writing articles, columns and reviews for various print and online publications. He still hopes to some day write the definitive book on Chicago.

JETT McALLISTER received an MFA in poetry writing from the University of Virginia, where he was a Henry Hoyns Fellow and served as the editor of the journal Meridian. He is currently writing a dissertation on sublimity and contemporary poetry at the University of Chicago. His poems have recently appeared in the Columbia Poetry Review, Center, Hunger Mountain, Bitter Oleander, and other journals.

DARYL MURPHY received an MFA from the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop and has published poetry and fiction in journals including The Black Scholar, Passages North, and The MacGuffin. Daryl has been creative writing faculty at various colleges and universities since 1985.

REINHARDT SUAREZ wonders why the king sent all his horses to help put Humpty Dumpty together after his unfortunate fall off the wall. This is principally due to two things: the common horse’s animal intellect (which is woefully inadequate for the complex surgical work involved) combined with a distinct lack of oposable thumbs. Reinhardt Suarez, on the other hand, does not lack opposable thumbs. He has used his thumbs–along with his other fingers–to write his recently completed novel, Guessing and Keeping Still, as well as other sundry tales of derring-do. He lives in Chicago, where several other people live, too.

Flourish Bakery Cafe: Our New Host!

September 16th, 2008 by Connor

Starting on October 7th, Tuesday Funk will be hosted by the Flourish Bakery Cafe conveniently located at 1138 West Bryn Mawr, just steps from the Bryn Mawr Red Line stop.