ROB AMBERG is a freelance documentary photographer who lives in the mountains of western North Carolina. His book of photographs and writing Sodom Laurel Album (University of North Carolina Press) won the 2002 Thomas Wolfe Literary Award.

ANN BAUER’s first novel, A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards (Scribner), was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post. She teaches creative nonfiction at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has become an avid long-distance motorcycle rider. She lives in Minneapolis.

WALTER O. BEATON spent twenty-two years in banking before walking away to become an artist. He lives in New York City.

TIMOTHY BYARS is a photographer who lives in Lafayette, California.

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.

PEG DÍAZ is a photographer who lives in Barstow, California.

DUNCAN GREEN began taking photographs at ymca camp in Ohio when he was eleven. He is a staff photographer for the Washington State House of Representatives and lives in Olympia, Washington.

ETHAN HUBBARD is the author of Salt Pork & Apple Pie (RavenMark), a collection of essays and photographs celebrating a disappearing generation of farmers, loggers, and others who live close to the land. He lives in Chelsea, Vermont.

TOM IRELAND lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and edits books for the Museum of New Mexico and the Smithsonian Institution. His last book was Birds of Sorrow (Zephyr Press), and he’s working on an essay collection called Head Noise.

LYN LIFSHIN is working on a collection titled Poets (Mostly) Who Have Touched Me, Living and Dead. Texas Review Press recently published her collection of poems The Licorice Daughter: My Year with Ruffian, about the famous, short-lived race horse. She lives in Vienna, Virginia.

R.A. McBRIDE is working on a book of photographs about San Francisco movie theaters. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

DION OGUST lives in Woodstock, New York, and is a staff photographer for the Woodstock Times. Her portraits of writers and musicians have appeared on book and CD covers.

KIMBERLEY PITTMAN-SCHULZ lives with her wildlife-biologist husband and her cat on the East Fork of the Lewis River in Battle Ground, Washington. When not writing poems or hiking in the woods, she raises and manages charitable funds for Clark College.

BRUCE HOLLAND ROGERS lives in Eugene, Oregon, where the winter rains have taught him to swallow antidepressants. He is the author of Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer (Invisible Cities Press).

EMILY ROGERS is the pseudonym of a writer who was raised in the Assemblies of God Church and presently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, with her husband and son. She juggles family life with writing, getting her PhD, teaching English literature at a community college, and working as a television closed-captioner.

LEE ROSSI is the perfect company man. He has no hobbies or interests outside his job. He barely remembers his wife’s name, and indeed has forgotten the names of his two children. He believes that if no one notices him, maybe Death will overlook him too.  He is the author of two books of poetry: Ghost Diary (Terrapin Press) and Beyond Rescue (Bombshelter Press). He lives in Culver City, California.

SY SAFRANSKY is editor and publisher of The Sun.

MATTHEW SEPTIMUS is a freelance photographer living in New York City. He works with Unseen America, an organization that teaches photography to groups that are socially and politically underrepresented.

WENDY STONE is a licensed massage therapist whose passions are photography, professional cycling, and travel. She is currently enrolled at the University of Connecticut, where she’s majoring in photography.

MARK TOWNSEND lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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.

SHARON WHARTON lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she takes portraits and wedding photographs.

THERESA WILLIAMS can pick up pens and pencils with her toes, whistle out of the side of her mouth, and spell most words correctly most of the time. She is the author of a novel called The Secret of Hurricanes (MacAdam/Cage). She teaches literature and creative writing at Bowling Green State University and lives in Bradner, Ohio.