ELLEN BASS’s fourth book of poems, The Human Line, was published in 2007 by Copper Canyon Press. She lives in Santa Cruz, California, and teaches writing retreats in some of the most beautiful places on the planet.

DOUG BEASLEY lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, in a small wooden house surrounded by trees, where he tends his Japanese gardens. He is a lover of late-night discussions and strong morning coffee.

TOM BECKER’s latest photography project centers on the county fairs of northwest Iowa. He lives in Orange City, Iowa.

BRIAN BUCKBEE divides his time between Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Missoula, Montana. His short story in this issue is from a book he is completing titled Dear Dipshit: Letters to My Dumb, Future Self. His work has appeared in Threepenny Review, Mid-American Review, and Shenandoah.

MICHELLE CACHO-NEGRETE lives in Wells, Maine, where she is relishing the brief break between spring’s black flies and summer’s mosquitoes. Her work has appeared in Sierra and Psychotherapy Networker, and she teaches writing both in person and online.

WILLIAM CARTER has been taking photographs for five decades. He lives in Los Altos Hills, California.

ALAN CRAIG is the pseudonym of a writer who lives in Massachusetts. He writes: “On my last birthday, I decided to work my way up to fifty-six push-ups, one for every year I’ve been alive. After a few weeks I got up to thirty; then my shoulder gave out. I couldn’t lift my arm over my head for months. Next time I get the urge to do push-ups, I’m going to watch television until it safely passes.”

DIANNE DUENZL loves to photograph foggy, dreamlike landscapes, which are rare where she lives, in the bright glare and drought of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

DUNCAN GREEN first discovered his love of photography at YMCA camp when he was eleven. He lives in Olympia, Washington, and is staff photographer for the Washington State House of Representatives.

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

TRICIA HILL lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and dabbles in photography. She admits her first-grade teacher was correct that she’s a “worry-wart,” but she no longer believes that she will develop warts all over as a result.

JASON LANGER’s book of photographs is titled Secret City (Nazraeli Press). He lives in Los Angeles.

ALISON LUTERMAN blogs about art, life, performance, and poetry at www.seehowwealmostfly.blogspot.com. She lives in Oakland, California.

ALAN MASS is a photographer who lives in Brooklyn, New York.

JULIE McCARTHY is a freelance photographer living in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She says that she fully intends to die with camera in hand — just not anytime soon.

JULIE REICHERT writes, teaches, and makes movies in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

DAVID ROMTVEDT’s most recent book of poems is Some Church (Milkweed Editions). He lives in Buffalo, Wyoming, where he plays dance music of the Americas with his band, the Fireants.

JOHN ROSENTHAL lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His book of photographs is called Regarding Manhattan (Safe Harbor Books).

SY SAFRANSKY is editor and publisher of The Sun.

CARLA SHAPIRO lives in Chichester, New York. Her photograph in the December 2004 issue is of her grandmother.

CHIP THOMAS is a photographer and family physician on the Navajo nation reservation in Shonto, Arizona.

HARRY WILSON is retired after teaching photography at Bakersfield College for thirty-four years. He lives in Bakersfield, California.

ANGELA WINTER resists carrying a cellphone, doesn’t own a tv, and still writes letters on real paper. She works as The Sun’s associate publisher in charge of digital media and operations and lives in Carrboro, North Carolina, where she maintains a polarity-therapy practice and sings every chance she gets. 

BILL WITT is a photographer who has also been a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan, an assembler of tractor transmissions, and an Iowa state legislator. He lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa.