Our contributors and editors
Joe Ross
Ross has spent his entire life running around Colorado. Along the way, he picked up a degree at Metro State and learned a lot from family and friends. He married a woman with two daughters 29 years ago and learned even more about life. His spouse still energizes him more than a Colorado Avalanche appearance in the Stanley Cup finals (and that’s a helluva lot). The first half of his career was a thrill ride with various community newspapers. Magazines and advocacy publications have kept things exciting for the past 18 years. Yep, he was in the game of words when computers were still the new, big deal (“go to file” and “save often”).
Emily Baker
Baker is a Denver native and lifelong resident of the metro area. With a background in classics and education, she has been a writer for most of her life, including multiple online and print publications. In her spare time, she can be found hiking with her dogs, riding horses, frequenting independent bookstores, and exploring the restaurant and brewery scene. When not writing professionally, she spends time working on her own fiction novel.
Kristian DePue
Born and raised in northern Indiana, Kristian DePue is a Hoosier who was surrounded by cornfields, dairy farms and gravel roads growing up. His rural hometown, Winamac, is located along the Tippecanoe River in Pulaski County. After high school, Kristian lived in Winona Lake, also in Indiana, for several years — a couple of which he rented a space in a bicycle shop on a canal.
In the last four years, he’s worked as a contributing writer for various publications throughout Colorado. In addition to writing, Kristian enjoys acting, watching films, and listening to both music and stand-up comedy. He loves summer and fall, and Halloween is his favorite holiday.
After a brief stay in Santa Clarita, California — between Indiana and the Centennial State — he’s lived in Colorado Springs since May 2017, and he’s thrilled by the thriving artisan culture throughout the Pikes Peak Region.
When not storytelling, he can often be found in a speakeasy, distillery or craft cocktail lounge. “I’m not much of a hiker, but the view of the mountains never gets old. The way the sunlight shines on Pikes Peak and the Front Range is unique and incredible each day.”
Dustin Doskocil
Doskocil is a Colorado-based photographer who started his business 16 years ago while obtaining a degree in advertising and fashion photography in Austin, Texas. After graduating, he moved to Dallas, where he spent seven years building his portfolio while assisting some of the best photographers from around the world. From there he moved to Colorado in order to delve deeper into the mountains and adventure scene. This has led to more editorial and commercial assignments with large and small businesses, capturing and sharing moments of people doing what they love to do. Focusing on people’s passions encourages curiosity and spreads more passion throughout the community and beyond.
John Garvey
Garvey is the Chief Storytelling Officer at Garvington Creative, bringing together business impact and belly laughs through story-driven marketing. He has written for Entrepreneur, ColoradoBiz, InnovatioNews, Thirst Colorado, and over a dozen other blogs and magazines. His most authoritative writing has been on cannabis, clean energy R&D, and the built environment. John is also an author/illustrator at Creative Follies, where he bears the distinction of being the world’s most prodigious and sought-after T-Rex unicycling artist. His children’s book, “A T-Rex Shouldn’t Ride a Unicycle,” and business writing guide, “Lethal Business Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing for Work in 5 Illustrated Lessons,” are to be published later this year.
Steve Graham
Graham is the digital media manager and assistant editor for Thirst Colorado. He graduated from CU Boulder with a journalism degree, and he can’t bear to move away from Colorado’s people, mountains, music and craft libations. His perfect summer day would be a ride up Lookout Mountain in the morning, an afternoon board game with his kids at a neighborhood brewery, then a concert with his beautiful wife at Red Rocks. Steve has been a contributor to Thirst Colorado since our first issue, and he is a former Colorado newspaper reporter and editor.
Kyle Kirves
Kyle Kirves prefers “man of letters” to “English Major” when responding to questions about his degrees from Ohio University and the University of Dayton. Writing professionally since 1992, he’s primarily covered people, places, and events in the arts, craft culture, and leisure communities, most recently for Arts Enthusiast, the Longmont Downtown Development Authority, ArtsLongmont, and, of course, Thirst Colorado. He is an avid road/trail runner, amateur historian, passable guitar player, lousy fly-fisherman, and devotee of 1950’s and 60’s jazz, especially Miles. He lives in Longmont, with his wife, artist Joanne Kirves, and has two children, Nate and Nora. When he sleeps, he dreams of meatball sandwiches and cold craft beer.
Kristen Kuchar
Kuchar has written about travel and the beverage industry for 15 years in a variety of national and local publications. For Thirst, she covers wine, cider, beer and other beverages. She has contributed to VinePair, Zymurgy, The Beer Connoisseur, Craftbeer.com, Beer Advocate, Brew Your Own, All About Beer, DRAFT, and dozens more. Currently, she is a Certified Cicerone Beer Server and has a Level 1 Wine Certification with the Wine & Spirits Education Trust, and she continues to pursue further wine and beverage education.
Malena Larsen
Larsen is a writer and Minnesota-to-Colorado transplant. Her favorite subjects to write about are craft beer, outdoor adventures, and any topic where she gets to learn something new. In her free time, she enjoys trail running, taking photos of mountain goats, and checking out breweries with her pals.
Natasha Lovato
Lovato graduated from the Metropolitan State University of Denver with a degree in journalism and spends her days freelance writing about all things Colorado. As a native of the Centennial State, she thrives on outdoor experiences like kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, hiking, biking, and enjoying a Holidaily brew or two along the way. She takes any chance she gets to enjoy the outdoors with her partner, Daniel, and their rescue dog, Mazy. On poor weather days, you’ll find her curled up on the couch with a good book next to her cats, Benny and June.
Jay McKinney
McKinney is a Colorado native who grew up south of Denver in Sedalia. In 2020, he graduated from the Metropolitan State University of Denver with a bachelor’s degree in communications and shortly after, he began contributing to Thirst Colorado. He is passionate about promoting the Colorado lifestyle and the independent craft businesses that make the state a magnet for creative people. During his free time, he enjoys playing golf, shooting pool and hiking throughout Colorado and neighboring Utah.
Eric Peterson
Peterson is a freelance writer who covers travel, business, and real estate as well as Colorado’s craft beverage industry. In his spare time, he likes to create hard listening music, oddball art, and psychedelic videos. Eric lives in Denver with his wife, Jamie, and their faithful mutts, Aoife and Ogma.
Melissa Voss
Voss is a South Dakota native who recently moved to Colorado to find her next adventure. Her writing goes beyond working with Team Thirst, as she is working on her first novel. In her free time, she’s hiking with her dog, writing poetry with her cat on her lap, or adding to her growing collection of Colorado-based coffee and brews.
David Young
Young is a freelance writer based in Fort Collins. He specializes in beer, whiskey, and outdoor writing. David has been published in SKI Magazine, GearJunkie, 5280 Magazine, USA Today, and The Denver Post. Learn more at davidyoungcommunications.com.