| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
|---|---|---|
Amy Emberling | Amy Emberling has been an avid food lover and baker since her childhood in Nova Scotia, Canada. After high school, she moved to Cambridge, MA, and received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. She then followed her passion for food and learned to cook and bake at L’ecole de Gastronomie Francaise at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, France and Michigan restaurants. In 1999 she received her MBA from Columbia University. Amy came to Zingerman’s Bakehouse when it opened in 1992 as one of the original bakers on the staff of eight. She soon became the first manager of the bread bakery, and then the manager of the pastry kitchen. In 2000, Amy became Managing Partner at Zingerman’s Bakehouse. She is the co-author of the cookbook Zingerman’s Bakehouse. As well as teaching at BAKE! Amy presents for ZingTrain on business practices. A few of the Bakehouse items she is personally responsible for developing are the Old School Apple Pie, Buenos Aires Brownies, and our Gingerbread Coffee Cake. In addition to developing items, Amy is a promoter of classic bakery favorites from many cultures and has brought traditional standards to the Bakehouse such as Paris Brest, Hummingbird Cake, and Dobos Torta. Amy lives in Ann Arbor with her husband Geoff, their two grown children, Jake and Ruby, daughter in-law Emily and grandson Miles. |  |
Roy Sexton | Roy Sexton leads Clark Hill’s marketing, branding, and communications efforts in collaboration with the firm’s exceptional team of marketing and business development professionals. He has nearly 20 years of experience in marketing, communications, business development, and strategic planning. Roy also advises attorneys on marketing and business development strategy. He has been heavily involved regionally and nationally in the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) as a board member, content expert, and presenter. Roy posts movie musings on Facebook, much to the chagrin of true arbiters of taste. He tends to go see whatever film has been most obnoxiously hyped, marketed, and oversold in any given week…art films? Bah! Won’t find too many of those discussed here. Roy is a published author of two books: Reel Roy Reviews, Volumes 1 and 2. | |
Rick Coppens | Rick Coppens is a retired sales rep who lives on a small farm in southeastern Michigan with his wife, Kathy, a former Ann Arbor educator. He is a musician, songwriter, and storyteller whose free time includes traveling the country with Kathy and spending time with their five wonderful children and four beautiful grandkids. | |
Bernice Baran | Bernice Baran started her website, Bakery Baran, as a place to document all of the adventures in her everyday life. It was a creative outlet on days off of working as a nurse, and a place to come and look back on 10 years from now and see all her photos and thoughts from this time in her life. That quickly and exclusively turned into her baking and sharing her recipes. Over the last five years, Bernice stopped nursing, had two babies, and took Baran Bakery full-time. She wrote a cookbook, Frosted, and hosts cake decorating workshops. She can't wait to see what the next five years bring, but whatever it is, she knows it'll be sweet. |  |
Rodolfo Alvarado | Rodolfo Alvarado is an eclectic American writer living in Michigan. His fictional work has been published by Arte Público Press' Piñata Books, The Americas Review, The Latino Book Review, Texas A&M University Press, Caballo Press, and Somos en escrito: The Latino Literary Online Magazine. His academic works have been published by the University of Michigan Press, Michigan State University Press, The Texas Observer, Texas A&M University Press, and Alpha Books of New York. In 2020 and 2021, he was named an Emerging Latino Author by The Latino Book Review. His biography, The Untold Story of Joe Hernandez: The Voice of Santa Anita won the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award. He holds a Fine Arts Ph.D. and an MFA in Playwriting from Texas Tech University, as well as an MA in History from Eastern Michigan University, where he was a University Fellow and a Parks/King/Chavez Fellow. | |
Katherine Larson | Katherine Larson illustrated the covers for the Ann Arbor Observer for 22 years and her book “Ann Arbor Observed, the stories behind the Ann Arbor Observer Covers” tells her unique story. Katherine is also a classical singer and muralist who is known to many from her solo guest appearances with the Ann Arbor Symphony and UMS. She is an accomplished fine artist as well as an illustrator and has made her living as an artist from her youth. Her book about Ann Arbor is unique in that it reveals her painting techniques as well as what was happening in her life at the time of each painting. It gives the reader an inside look at life in Ann Arbor from the perspective of an artist and singer. The book is a large, hardbound “coffee table” size which showcases each cover illustration in a large format. Subjects include the University of Michigan, local events, neighborhoods and downtown landmarks. It makes a great gift for anyone who loves Ann Arbor. |  |
Devika Dibya Choudhuri | Devika Dibya Choudhuri is a Professor of Counseling at Eastern Michigan University. A Professional Counselor (MI/CT), Board-Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Approved Clinical Supervisor, and Certified EMDR Therapist. She has 20 years of clinical experience with refugees, immigrant and multicultural populations, as well as trauma survivors of violence, sexual assault, grief, and loss. Her scholarship focuses on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access issues in counseling, supervision and pedagogy. She served as Director and Chair on the National Board of Certified Counselors from 2009-2015, the Minority Fellowship Advisory Council from 2015-2018, and as President of the Association for Specialists in Group Work in 2020. She is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, the Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development, and a Reviewer for Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. She is a recipient of several awards and a 2015 American Counseling Association Fellow. | |
Scott Rick | Scott Rick is a marketing professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, where he has won awards for research and teaching. He holds a PhD in Behavioral Decision Research from Carnegie Mellon, where he was a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow. His research on consumer behavior has been covered in outlets such as NPR, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He has published in premier journals spanning marketing, psychology, and economics. His first book, Tightwads and Spendthrifts: Navigating the Money Minefield in Real Relationships, was published in January 2024 by St. Martin’s Press. |  |
Jennifer Vivekanand | When she’s not being defeated in board games by her family, Michigan-based author Jennifer Vivekanand likes to read, travel and make weird sandwiches. Jennifer has a B.F.A. from Kendall College of Art & Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan, including certificates of summer studies at the Royal College of Art in London, England, and the Academy of Fine Arts Pietro Vannucci, in Perugia, Italy. Most recently, she spent a productive month working on her second novel while eating girl dinners and old-school sauna-ing as a Writer- in-Residence at The Arteles Creative Center in Haukijärvi, Finland. For a fun Michigan facts FAQ and to watch the book trailer of her Debut YA Thriller, Welcome To Nightjar, visit her author website www.stuffbyjenn.com | |
Marianne K. Martin | Marianne K. Martin is one of the best-selling lesbian romance authors in the history of the genre, and her books have gained a wide international readership. She is the author of eleven novels. Her highly successful novels include the Lambda Literary Award finalists Tangled Roots, Under the Witness Tree, Mirrors, and For Now, For Always. In 2012, she was honored with the Trailblazer Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society and in 2013 she was inducted into the Saints & Sinners Hall of Fame. Marianne is also one of the founding partners of Bywater Books. Her responsibilities include managing general operations, as well as the Bywater Prize for Fiction, and working with Bywater’s new writers. | |
| Author | Biography | Book Cover(s) |
