Contributors: October 2015

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Jeff Waraniak

When Associate Editor Jeff Waraniak started talking about this month’s story “Life in the Cadaver Lab,” people asked if he was nervous about stepping into a room full of dead bodies. He wasn’t — until he actually did it. “It definitely messes with your head a little bit,” Waraniak says. “We spend so much time avoiding death and looking away from it, but really, the healthy thing to do is to turn toward it and see it up close.” When he’s done using his own body, he will gladly donate it to science, as long as a part of him eventually makes it to some tranquil nature scene with a forest and a creek.

Stephanie Shenouda

Stephanie Shenouda is a senior at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While she’s a dual major in English and political science, Shenouda is interested in all things related to journalism and digital media, as well as telling people’s stories. She’s a former editor at The Michigan Daily and has also worked in publishing and corporate communications. She’s absolutely loved working at Hour Detroit and the creativity that accompanies magazine writing. When she’s not on deadline, Shenouda enjoys exploring the city of Detroit, pretending to be a foodie, and teaching her dog to fetch.

Kelsey Smith

When she isn’t chugging coffee or attending music festivals, Hour Detroit intern Kelsey Smith can be found telling people’s stories. Ever since she could pick up a pencil, she has constantly been writing. As a senior at Central Michigan University, she has studied journalism and found a way to share unique stories through her writing. Her dream is to write for an arts and culture magazine and move back to her hometown of Chicago after graduation in December. Working at Hour Detroit, she has been able to build on that dream and further her career in magazine journalism.

Mark Kurlyandchik

Mark Kurlyandchik left his post as senior editor at Hour Detroit for grad school at UC-Berkeley in 2013, a few months before Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr announced an appraisal of the DIA’s collection in preparation for the city’s looming bankruptcy. “I followed the proceedings in the news, helplessly, from 2,000 miles away,” he says. “But most of the media were focused on the art, with little to say about the employees who worked there whose livelihoods were at stake.” For this issue, Kurlyandchik wanted to highlight some of the people who keep one of the city’s cultural gems running — in good times and bad — like his friend and the DIA’s Vice President of Museum Operations Elliott Broom.