Laura Vosika – Author (The Books)
Laura Vosika is a writer, poet, and musician. Her time travel series, The Blue Bells Chronicles, set in modern and medieval Scotland, has garnered praise and comparisons to writers as diverse as Diana Gabaldon and Dostoevsky. Her poetry has been published in The Moccasin and The Martin Lake Journal 2017.
She has been featured in newspapers, on radio, and TV, has spoken for regional book events, and hosted the radio program Books and Brews. She currently teaches writing at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
As a musician, Laura has performed as on trombone, flute, and harp, in orchestras, and big bands. Laura is the mother of 10 children. She now lives in the Appalachian Mountains with her husband, their Irish Wolfhound Liadan and Bernese Mountain dog Zeph, and numerous sheep, New Zealand White rabbits, and chickens, operating Glenmirril Farms. Updates are more frequent at their FB page.
Michael Agnew – Certified Cicerone (The Brews)
As well as being an avid reader, Michael Agnew is Minnesota’s first Certified Cicerone®. As the owner of A Perfect Pint, he organizes beer tastings and beer dinners for private parties and corporate events. He has taught classes on beer appreciation and beer/food pairing at Cooks of Crocus Hill, the University of Minnesota, and many other locations. Michael’s Liquid Assets beer column can be read the first Thursday of every month in the Taste section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. You can also catch his writing in his own Perfect Pint Beer Blog, Seriouseats.com, and The Growler Magazine, whose readers voted him Minnesota’s best beer writer for three consecutive years. Michael’s has published two books. Craft Beer for the Homebrewer – published by Voyageur Press – is a collection of commercial beer recipes scaled down for to homebrew batch sizes. A Perfect Pint’s Beer Guide to the Heartland – published by the the University of Illinois Press – is a guide to 236 breweries in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. www.aperfectpint.net
facebook.com/aperfectpint
@aperfectpint on Twitter and Instagram.
Chris R. Powell – Co-host and Cocktail Expert (The Other Co-Host)
Dr. Chris Powell is an author, poet, musician (piano, guitars, drums and more), engineering and management consultant, systems engineering genius, inventor, university instructor, a Kentucky Colonel, and father/stepfather of ten.
Dr. Powell’s book has been described by Kirkus Reviews as having similarities to Joan Didion’s 2005 book The Year of Magical Thinking, which investigated the nature of grief, but Dr. Powell’s book investigates the nature of illness itself as he meticulously details his late wife Bonnie’s every procedure and symptom, and every failure of modern medicine to provide her with relief.
He lives on his farm in Tennessee with his wife and co-host, Laura, their dogs Liadan and Zeph, numerous rabbits, sheep, and chickens, and his Kubota tractor with multiple attachments.
If You’ve Enjoyed Books & Brews, Consider Helpling Us Stay on Air:
If you enjoy our interviews or have benefitted from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews. A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
* Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosikaandMichaelAgnew
* Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN
* Books and Brews products: https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
*Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com