The weekly Entrepreneurship Hour speaker series is back every Friday during the academic year, free and open to the public to attend.

Amanda Lewan is a writer and entrepreneur. After moving home to Detroit in the middle of the great recession, she endeavored to create work that moves our changing region forward.

Amanda spent time working at a variety of startups in marketing and operations, before launching Bamboo. One of the first co-working spaces in Detroit, Bamboo specializes in building collaborative work spaces and community. She bootstrapped Bamboo from a $5,000 loan to 500+ members expanding to multiple locations, and serving as a catalyst for Detroit’s ecosystem. Her leadership at Bamboo has been honored locally and nationally.

Amanda’s writing is also inspired by our region and country’s economic changes and healing past. After winning a national essay competition by The Nation in college, she went on to study fiction writing in graduate school. Her work has been published and honored by The Rumpus, Glimmer Train, Rust Belt Magazine, Belt Publishing, The Journal of Americana, Lumina Magazine, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize & Best of Net.

Amanda holds a BA in Professional Writing from Michigan State and an MA in English from Wayne State. She sits on the board for Fierce Empowerment, Venture Catalysts, and Co-leads the Detroit Writers Collective writers group.