Poet JOHN BARGOWSKI lives on a couple of acres of rich Jersey loam along the Delaware River, where he enjoys gardening and spending time with his family. He is the recipient of a New Jersey State Council of the Arts fellowship and the Theodore Roethke Prize.

ELLEN BASS’s poetry books include The Human Line (Copper Canyon Press) and Mules of Love (BOA Editions). She teaches in the mfa writing program at Pacific University.

MARK BRAZAITIS is the author of An American Affair: Stories (Texas Review Press), which won the 2004 George Garrett Fiction Prize. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Morgantown, West Virginia, and prefers swimming, hiking, bike riding — just about any recreational activity — to golf.

ROBERT P. COOKE retired from his job as a pipe fitter and welder, then returned to work, and now he thinks almost every day about retiring again. He lives in Highland, Indiana.

ARNIE COOPER is a freelancer based in Santa Barbara, California, who has written for Dwell, Esquire, and the Wall Street Journal. Lately he’s been spending much of his time trying to convince his Akita pup, Kenta, to stop eating rocks and wood chips.

DOUG CRANDELL was born in Wabash, Indiana, the first electrically lighted city in the world and the hometown of singer Crystal Gayle. He wishes he had even a fraction of her hair. He lives with his family in Douglasville, Georgia.

GLORIA BAKER FEINSTEIN is the author of two books of photographs: Convergence and Among the Ashes (both Yellow Bird Press). She lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

In addition to his photography, GARY M. HASKINS writes poetry, makes pottery, and practices sumi-e — Japanese ink painting. He lives in Hawthorne, Florida.

RICHARD LEHNERT lives in northern New Mexico with his wife. His poems are forthcoming in Chautauqua Literary Journal and Zone 3. His book of poems, A Short History of the Usual, was published by Backwaters Press in 2003.

G. ALAN MYERS lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

PATRICIA RICHARDS takes photos of what she knows: her home, family, friends, and neighbors in Plano, Texas.

LINDA SOLE had a winning photograph in the MILK (Moments of Intimacy, Laughter, and Kinship) competition, sponsored by New Zealand publisher PQ Blackwell. She lives in Bellac, France.

DEBRA SUGERMAN is a photographer and filmmaker from Austin, Texas.

LIZA TAYLOR's fiction and essays have appeared in Sojourner, the Los Angeles Times, and the Santa Monica Review. Her novel The Drummer Was the First to Die (St. Martin's Press) continues to be required reading in epidemiology courses across the country. Her loves include horticulture, bluegrass guitar, fabric art, world travel, and lying on the couch with a good novel and a glass of something cold. She lives in Michigan with her hunk of a husband and their two radiant, unruly sons.

MORGAN TYREE, who lives in Powell, Wyoming, rode with and photographed a trucker for eight thousand miles through twenty states last summer. His work has appeared in Montana Quarterly and Referee. He is seeking a book publisher for his photographs of high-school football.

SUZI Q. VARIN is a self-described “punk-rock tomboy” who photographs weddings for a living.

HIROSHI WATANABE made commercials for Japanese television for twenty years before he quit to devote himself full time to fine-art photography. He lives in West Hollywood, California.

LYNNE JAEGER WEINSTEIN’s photographs have been published in Orion, Parenting, and O, the Oprah Magazine. She lives in Putney, Vermont, where she likes to take pictures of people doing domestic chores.

LISA WILTSE is a freelance photojournalist who lives in Brooklyn, New York.

GENIE ZEIGER recently began singing international music in a chorus. Her book What Happened Was . . . : Writing Memoir and Personal Essay is forthcoming in 2009 from White Pine Press. She lives in Shelburne, Massachusetts.