What's It Like In Someone Else's Head? Asks Author Monica McFawn

by Zinta Aistars
for WMUK 102.1 FM
Arts and More Program
Kalamazoo, Michigan's NPR affiliate station
Aired September 9, 2014

Monica McFawn

Grand Rapids, Michigan author, poet, and playwright Monica McFawn’s book Bright Shards of Someplace Else recently won the Flannery O’Connor award for short fiction. It’s a collection of 11 short stories based on that little assumption that we know exactly what someone else is thinking.

McFawn will be reading from her work Thursday night at 6 p.m. at Michigan News Agency in Kalamazoo.

Where's the Dialogue?

Though McFawn is a playwright and has written a few screenplays, you won't find much dialogue in her latest book. McFawn says she's interested in the contrast between people's thoughts and what they actually say. Most of the time we only say a fraction of what we're thinking and sometimes we don't express those thoughts very well or even hide them. 

"I think the majority of conversations I have are in my head," says McFawn. "And that's not because I'm an anti-social person, but because you spend so much time imagining what you would say or ...

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT WMUK.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW AS IT AIRS ON WMUK RADIO. (4:31)

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW. (25:53)

Grand Rapids' inaugural Midwest Climate Ride cruises toward success

by Zinta Aistars
Published in Rapid Growth Media
August 28, 2014

Photography by Adam Bird of the WMEAC team

This is no casual bike-for-a-cause event. Next weekend, the Grand Rapids team riding in the Midwest Climate Ride will bike from Grand Rapids to Chicago. Along the way, they'll raise money for several local organizations who are working to combat climate change right here in West Michigan. Zinta Aistars finds out what makes this group spin.


Emily Loeks responded without thinking when a friend told her about Midwest Climate Ride: “That’s crazy!”

And it was. Wasn’t it? A bike ride of approximately 300 miles (that’s 60 to 80 miles per day), from September 6 to September 9, beginning in Grand Rapids and finishing in Chicago, Illinois, would bring innovators, entrepreneurs, and everyday people together to support more than 60 environmental and active transportation organizations, locally and nationally, working in the areas of sustainability, renewable energy, climate change, public health, and bicycle advocacy. Some 150 bicyclists had already signed up to participate.

Two nights later, after a bit of tossing and a bit of turning, Loeks woke with a revised thought: “That sounds awesome!”

Loeks, the director of community affairs for the chain of family-owned movie theatres known as Celebration Cinema, trotted down her basement steps to look for her old bike. It was down there somewhere …


“I’m going to be riding that same bike,” Loeks smiles. “It’s been in the basement for about ten years, but I turned 40 this year, and I thought, well, why not? I’d always enjoyed riding.”

The bike got dusted off and tuned up, odometer attached and new tires put on. Loeks hopped back on her bike, and her 6-year-old son, Joshua, was watching.

“Joshua rode his bike along with me, and on his first time, he took right off!” Loeks’ pride in her son shines through.

Her pride in the cause that inspired her to get back on her bike shines through, too. A Grand Rapids resident, Loeks loves her city and her community. She serves on the boards of two of the beneficiaries of the Midwest Climate Ride, and she has chosen to raise funds for four organizations: Local First, Well House, Greater Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition, and West Michigan Environmental Action Council.

Loeks says: “I care passionately about the place my children are growing up into. Climate change has become a hot button issue—but it seems obvious to me that climate is having an effect in our area. Science bears it out. We have to look to the long term.”

Looking to the long term is what Tom Tilma, executive director of Greater Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition, does best. Seven team members from GGRBC will be on the Midwest Climate Ride.

“We advocate with and advise local governments with the goal of building a bicycle-friendly infrastructure,” Tilma says. Participating in the Climate Ride, he says, “benefits our work in Grand Rapids, benefits the economy, the health and environment of our area, and it underscores our commitment to make Grand Rapids a more sustainable region.”

Yet another benefit of participating in the Climate Ride, Tilma says, is ...

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT RAPID GROWTH MEDIA.

 Photography by Adam Bird.

Collapse of the Soviet Union and Brotherly Love Featured in New Novel

by Zinta Aistars
Airing on WMUK 102.1 FM Radio
August 19, 2014

Josh Weil

Josh Weil will debut his novel, The Great Glass Sea, Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. atBookbug in Kalamazoo along with friend and author Mike Harvkey. Weil describes his book as a "fraternal love story."

It's about two Russian brothers whose parents are unable to care for them and so they become each others' support in life. But when they near adulthood and the Soviet Union collapses, the brothers are desperate to hold on to the close relationship they had as kids.

The Soviet Union and Russia

Weil spent some time in Russia and noticed that the people he talked to there were still trying to grapple with the dramatic change between Soviet Russia and modern capitalist Russia. Weil says there are several characters that represent different factions in this tumultuous time. There are old communists, anarchists who are anti-work called the 'leisurists,' and an oligarch that represents capitalism. Weil says oligarchs were able to thrive under capitalism because they had been involved in the black market and knew how the system worked. Though there are many philosophical issues in the book, Weil says he is careful not to...

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