Yaa Gyasi, a 2014 graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, arrived on the literary scene two years later with the publication of Homegoing, her deservedly acclaimed debut novel. Homegoing brought to life an extensive family tree, following the triumphs, tragedies and simply everyday humanness of generations of a single family with branches in Ghana and the United States - the latter taking root due to the horrors of the slave trade.
Grand Rapids Business Journal
A local construction firm continues to add to its team.
For its Holland office, EV Construction recently hired Mike O’Connor as a project manager for the facilities services division (FSD), Rick Boone as a firestopping technician and Erik Butzer as an assistant preconstruction manager.
In his position as a project manager for the facilities services division, O’Connor will oversee estimating, preconstruction, scheduling and project execution for some of EV’s FSD projects. FSD typically focuses on smaller-type projects with quick turnaround times.
Prior to coming to EV, O’Connor worked as the chief engineer/director of engineering at the new Embassy Suites in downtown Grand Rapids. He earned a Bachelor of Science in facilities planning and management from Ferris State University.
Sat., December 12, 2020
Pulitizer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley s young adult novel is about a different kind of family - animal friends
Perestroika in Paris
Jane Smiley was inspired to write her book about a talking horse by her own horse, Paras. (Jane Smiley)
Jane Smiley
author / By Rob Cline, correspondent
The idea for “Perestroika in Paris” first came to Jane Smiley just as she was getting to work on her massive and exceptional “Last 100 Years Trilogy” (“Some Luck,” “Early Warnings,” and “Golden Age”). The story of a horse who finds herself living in a Paris neighborhood not far from the Eiffel Tower had to wait while she worked on her ambitious story of an Iowa farm family, tracing their lives from 1920 to 2020 (the final volume was published in 2015, and from our current vantage point Smiley’s vision of the last five years seems pretty appealing).