JON AMBURG is a photographer and painter who lives and works in Boston.

KAREN S. BARD is a writer and photographer living in Pomfret Center, Connecticut.

NICOLE BLAISDELL is a photographer who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

SARAH BLODGETT is a commercial and fine-art photographer who lives in Ancram, New York. Her work has appeared in Fine Gardening, Martha Stewart Living, and the Knot.

VAL BRINKERHOFF lives with his family in Elk Ridge, Utah, and teaches photography at Brigham Young University, in nearby Provo.

Poems from DAVID BUDBILL’s latest book, Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse, are frequently featured on Garrison Keillor’s National Public Radio program The Writer’s Almanac. Budbill lives in the mountains of northern Vermont and edits the Judevine Mountain Emailite, an online magazine.

MICHELLE CACHO-NEGRETE lives in Wells, Maine, and her essays appear in The Sun’s new book The Mysterious Life of the Heart and in Thoreau’s Legacy, an anthology from the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. She teaches writing both in person and online and is recovering well from surgery, thanks to Dr. Jeff Thurlow.

MARSHALL CLARKE’s photographs have appeared in Photographer’s Forum and the Photo Review. He lives in Butler, Maryland.

STEVE DONOSO is the director of the International Film Festival of the Spirit. He lives in Rockland, Maine.

BILL EMORY has been a janitor, plumber, auto mechanic, and cat-scan technologist and has also taken photographs for more than thirty-five years. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

ROBERT HECHT’s photographs have been published in B&W and Lenswork. He lives in San Rafael, California.

JEFFREY HERSCH is a photographer who has unloaded cod from fishing boats and mucked out horse stalls. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

GILLIAN KENDALL is the editor of Something to Declare: Good Lesbian Travel Writing. She recently sold her house in Australia and is traveling in the Balkans and beyond, seeking work, a life-changing haircut, and a home.

DAN KOECK is a professional photographer living in Fargo, North Dakota. His photographs have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

ALISON LUTERMAN makes a mean bowl of chili. Her secret? Black olives, mustard, and red wine. She lives in Oakland, California.

Photographer RUSS MCCLINTOCK lives and works in Chicago.

LORENZO W. MILAM is the author of Sex & Broadcasting (Mho & Mho Works) and a contributing editor of RALPH: The Review of the Arts, Literature, Philosophy, and the Humanities. He lives in San Diego, California.

JAIME O’NEILL writes regularly for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee. He hopes to continue writing and teaching for a long time, though he is significantly more than half finished. He lives in Magalia, California.

SUSAN PARKER’s memoir Tumbling After (Crown) has been optioned for film rights by HBO. She teaches writing classes in the Bay Area.

JAMIE PASSARO lives with her husband and their two daughters in Eugene, Oregon. They recently dug up their front lawn to plant a vegetable garden, and she has grown to love a good kale smoothie with breakfast.

LESLIE PIETRZYK lives in Virginia and is the author of two novels: A Year and a Day (William Morrow/HarperCollins) and Pears on a Willow Tree (HarperPerennial).

SY SAFRANSKY is editor and publisher of The Sun.

GORDON STETTINIUS is an artist, teacher, and photographer living in Richmond, Virginia. His work has been exhibited in New York City, the Netherlands, and Seattle, Washington.

SARAH PEMBERTON STRONG is the author of the novel Burning the Sea (Alyson). She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, where she is at work on her second novel, The Fainting Room.

MARK TOWNSEND lives in Brooklyn, New York.

HARRY WILSON’s photos have appeared in Fifth Wednesday Journal, Fourteen Hills, and Alligator Juniper. “In other words,” he says, “I am an unknown photographer.” He lives in Bakersfield, California.