CONTRIBUTORS ENCORE
Elizabeth Kerlikowske
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Writing about Margaret DeRitter’s new book of poetry for this issue gave Elizabeth the opportunity to ask her friend some nosy questions. After their interview, Elizabeth, who is also a poet, says she went home and, inspired by Margaret’s work, spent two days putting her own book together instead of writing her article. “I wanted the book to be as straightforward and honest as Margaret’s,” she says. Elizabeth’s poems and flash fiction have appeared most recently in Novelty, KYSO Flash, McQuinterly’s, Harbor Review, Pudding and New Verse News.
Chris Killian
When Chris stumbled upon an Instagram video showing artist Aaron Shafer’s pyrography, he knew there was a story there. “Knowing about his visual impairment, I was taken by the uniqueness of what he was doing and impressed by his skill as a fine artist,” says Chris. “I felt the greater community needed to know about this great young man and what he is doing.” Chris is a travel-loving freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Detroit Free Press, Grand Rapids Press and Kalamazoo Gazette and on radio station WMUK.
Donna McClurkan
Evaluation & Care of Trees and Shrubs Kalamazoo, MI • 269-381-5412 • www.arboristserviceskzoo.com 6 | ENCORE MARCH 2020
Donna is a Kalamazoo mother, garden farmer and climate activist who says she is “never not thinking about climate change,” which is why she wanted to write about local efforts to deal with the “climate emergency.” “In just six months in 2019, there occurred a groundswell of energy within our community around climate change: the formation of a coalition to unite local climate action groups, the youthled Global Climate Strike, and climate emergency declarations passed by three municipalities,” she says. “These initiatives, plus the Kalamazoo Public Library’s choice of a book on the climate crisis for Reading Together 2020 felt like a story that had to be told. The unprecedented collaborations being formed among organizations and community members around these issues speak volumes about our capacity and potential for resiliency and adaptation.”
