Jennifer Hudson will sing a tribute to Whitney Houston at tonight's Grammy Awards, a person was killed after crashing head-on into a CTA bus, and other news. more ›

Funny Ha-Ha is a monthly reading series at the Hideout, hosted by local author and all-around funny person Claire Zulkey. more ›

Claire Zulkey's "Funny Ha-Ha" at Hideout tonight is loaded with local literary luminaries who host their own shows around town. more ›

Claire Zulkey's lineup for tomorrow's Funny Ha-Ha at Hideout is particularly strong. more ›

Today's listings include an anniversary reading for CHIRP Radio and a Thursday panel looking at the rebirth of Polish Jewish culture. more ›

It's looking to be a heavy week for literary events in Chicago. So strap on your reading glasses and peruse the events on our radar that we think it worthwhile to check out. more ›

Get in touch with what's going on in the Chicago literary scene this week. more ›

It's an ingenious idea for a reading series: get 20 people together, ask them a question, but only give them two minutes to respond. You're going to get some interesting answers. And what brave souls would dare to take the stage at Martyr's and sweat under the lights while trying to answer the question "Who knew?" in such limited time? more ›

Last fall, Claire Zulkey published a book that was 10 years in the making. An Off Year is a young adult novel about Claire Zulkey herself and not about Claire Zulkey herself. She started writing it her freshman year of college when she was the exact same age as Cecily, her book's main character. At the time, Zulkey was facing a lot of the same challenges she gives to Cecily's character. As Zulkey developed this character, a story eventually evolved. Now it is a shiny real live book about a young high school graduate who has every reason to continue along an ambitious and successful path to college. But she is not so sure she feels like being ambitious and successful. And so her "off year" follows. Time Out Chicago describes Cecily's year unfolding "in a haze of television, professional help and vague guilt, as she tries to locate the core of her ambivalence." more ›

Hideout, 1354 W Wabansia Ave, 6:30 p.m., $5 donation more ›

Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S State, 6 p.m., free more ›

Writer Claire Zulkey is bringing the funny back to the Hideout for another round of her excellent Funny Ha Ha series. Funny Ha-Ha rounds up Zulkey’s funny friends for a reading of pieces they’re particularly proud of and a few performance pieces. Low-key literature plus a dash of multimedia from Zulkey’s husband, Steve Delahoyde, equals big laughs at the Hideout next Wednesday. more ›

What do you get when you cross an A.V. Club head writer, a short, liberal, Irish-Catholic from Joliet, an ape, and a slam poet? Funny Ha-Ha. more ›

Funny Ha-Ha is a guaranteed good time. Tonight's edition at The Hideout features a host of writers, but seems to be "headlined" by Eric Zorn. We love Zorn, but find it kind of funny his credit is "Chicago Tribune Columnist & Blogger" while Claire Zulkey's is "Blogger & TV Critic for The Onion & Los Angeles Times." more ›

Ugh, finally: 28 aldermen are filing a petition to U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow demanding the City release the names of the most-complained-about police officers. The Sun-Times's spot-on editorial is completely degraded by heinous illustration that accompanies it, from the same "artist" who also did yesterday's ricockulously bad Stroger drawing. The Book Cellar is hosting "Chicago’s Wittiest Women Writers" tonight. We deeply resent not being invited to participate, but cannot deny the wit of Stacey... more ›

The quarterly comedy writing and performance showcase Funny Ha-Ha rumbles into the Museum of Contemporary Art tonight, the December offering of the MCA’s Literary Gangs of Chicago series. Chicagoist was lucky enough to catch up with the Funny people last spring and was treated to host Claire Zulkey’s Cosmo Quiz satire, Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s musings on everyday life, a revival of Aaron Friedman's before-our-time ‘Council Wars’ routine, and comedy troupe Schadenfreude’s equal-opportunity hating on FM radio personalities. more ›

While the White Sox dismissed the Red Sox and Angels in pretty short order, this series promises to be a much more tightly contested affair. With both teams sporting incredible pitching rotations, the series should be one low-scoring pitchers' dual after another. The Astros look tough with their rotation that includes Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Roy Oswalt. But the White Sox foursome of Jose Contreras, Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland and Freddy Garcia look like they're ready to go toe-to-toe. more ›

Last night Chicagoist, along with about 40 other people, attended "Author's Roundtable: On Authorship, Blogs, and the Changing Literary Landscape" which was moderated by Andrew Huff and featured Chicagoist's own Erin J. Shea as well as Wendy McClure, Kevin Guilfoile, Kevin Smokler and Claire Zulkey. Although Chicagoist is friends with all but one of the featured authors, it was really insightful to hear the panel talk about their experiences. .. because you know, when... more ›

Looking for something fun to do tonight, but want to sound scholarly when you tell your friends where you're going? A number of our favorite Chicago-bloggers-turned-published-book authors will be at the Sulzer Public Library in Lincoln Square tonight, and you should go. Chicagoist's own Erin J. Shea will be participating in a panel hosted by Gaper's Block, along with Wendy McClure, Kevin Guilfoile, and Claire Zulkey. The "Author's Roundtable: On Authorship, Blogs, and the Changing... more ›

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Chicagoist happy hour on Friday night. Attendees included just about all of the Chicagoist staff, Margaret from Time Out Chicago, the fabulous Claire Zulkey, the guys from Glorious Noise, and a bunch of our dear friends and readers. Many drinks were drank, many songs sung, many dances danced. Until next time, enjoy more drunken photos after the jump below. more ›

Chicagoist's nominated token straight Boystown Mayor, Claire Zulkey is now the editor of Media Bistro's new blog MBToolbox. Billing itself as a "catch-all blog about freelance writing and useful resources for journalists," it looks as though the site just launched today. more ›

Stop by the Hideout at 8pm tonight where Claire Zulkey and NPR's John Green will be hosting Funny Ha Ha II, a second night of Chicago's funniest performers and writers. more ›

First lady of Chicago blogdom Claire Zulkey will be on Eight Forty-Eight Wednesday morning as the latest installment of their series "Chicago's Web Sites, Blogs, E-mags, and Zines." Turn your dials to 91.5 FM from 9:35 to 11 a.m. to catch some of Ms. Zulkey's saucy wisdom. more ›

Tomorrow night Claire Zulkey will be hosting a night of Chicago's funniest performers and writers at the Hideout. Titled, "Funny Ha-Ha" the night features sketch comedy from Schadenfreude, a short film from Steve Delahoyde, and readings from The Morning News' Kevin Guilfoile, The Onion AV Club's Nathan Rabin, RedEye's Mark Bazer, and more. more ›

Congrats to our pal Claire Zulkey, who today had her 100th interview.. uh.. interviewee. The lucky #100 is JT Leroy, the co-producer of Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" and co-writer of the script for "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things," an award-winner at Cannes. He has also written a novel called Sarah and is in a band called Thistle. more ›