Our writers
Who writes this
Everything published about Grand Rapids on this site carries a name. Here is who those names belong to, what each of them covers, and how to read everything they have written.
Marguerite Vanderhoff
Senior Editor
Beat: Things to Do, Attractions, Best Time to Visit
Marguerite has edited Midwest city coverage for sixteen years and owns the practical pages here: which attractions are a drive rather than a walk, what the free downtown shuttle actually replaces, and how a lake-effect band changes a Tuesday. She quotes admission in bands because institutions revise them, and says plainly when a figure is unconfirmed.
5 guides · 4 news posts
Theo Brandsma
Food & Brewing Editor
Beat: Breweries & Distilleries, Restaurants & Dining, For Adults
Theo covered West Michigan hospitality through the years the taproom count doubled, and he writes the brewing and dining pages with the turnover in mind: a recommendation here has to survive the year. He maps the three walkable taproom districts rather than ranking beers, tells you which places seat children, and corrects anyone who calls Bell's a Grand Rapids brewery.
2 guides · 1 news post
Ilse Hoekstra
Arts & Design Editor
Beat: Art & Galleries, Things to Do, Free Things to Do
Ilse writes the city's making: the furniture houses that took awards at the 1876 Centennial, the Prairie house Steelcase put back together, the Calder that gave a plaza its name, and the competition that turns 160 downtown venues into galleries each autumn. She has catalogued for a design archive and prefers a maker's mark to a plaque.
3 guides · 3 news posts
These are our own staff bylines. We do not publish guest posts, we do not accept sponsored articles under a staff name, and no page here is signed by someone who did not write it. Portraits are deliberately absent: attaching a stock photograph of a real person to an editorial byline would misrepresent them, so you get initials instead.
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