POE BALLANTINE’s latest book is 501 Minutes to Christ (Hawthorne Books). He lives in Chadron, Nebraska, where he is a school custodian. He says, “It feels good to be back in education.” 

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.

TOM BECKER’s latest project is photographing the county fairs of northwest Iowa. He lives in Orange City, Iowa.

MAUREEN BEITLER is a photographer and nurse living in New York City. She received a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for her photographs of Harlem.

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

ANDY CHARNAS lives and takes photographs in San Francisco.

LESLIE CLOSE is a photographer who lives in Eugene, Oregon. She is currently working on a master’s thesis about women who are getting out of prison.

ERIC DILLENBERGER has been taking photographs for forty years. He lives in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

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.

JENNIFER ESPERANZA’s work has been published in the New York Times, Shots, and National Geographic Adventure, and she has self-published a book of her photographs called Tears of Venus: It’s All the Goddess to Me at www.blurb.com. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

STEVE FELLNER is an assistant professor of English at SUNY Brockport. His essays have appeared in Northwest Review, North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Quarterly West, among others. He lives in Brockport, New York.

SARA GOLDENTHAL is a photographer who currently makes her living as an artist’s model in Portland, Maine. She also sings with a jazz trio and is working on a book of cat drawings.

CARLOS GUSTAVO lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His photographs have been published in Harper's, Elle, and Vogue.

KAUI HART HEMMINGS is the author of House of Thieves (Penguin Press), a collection of stories. Her fiction has appeared in Story Quarterly and Zoetrope: All-Story. She lives in San Francisco.

MICHELE A. HUBBS’s photographs have been published in Shots. She lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she consumes chocolate in criminal quantities.

JON HUGHES is a self-taught photojournalist who began taking pictures more than twenty years ago at the age of forty. Although he has been on assignment around the world, he considers Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lives, to be his main documentary project.

STUART KESTENBAUM is the author of two books of poems, Pilgrimage (Coyote Love Press) and House of Thanksgiving (Deerbrook Editions). He lives in Deer Isle, Maine.

STEVE KOWIT sent the army a letter of resignation in 1969 and was visited soon after by army intelligence officers with a tape recorder. He later received a transcript of his interview that the army wanted him to sign. A San Francisco lawyer said his testimony was excellent — and that he should get out of town fast. Kowit and his wife spent the next several years in Mexico. He now lives in Potrero, California.

TIM McKEE is the author of No More Strangers Now: Young Voices from a New South Africa (DK Publishing). He lives in Bynum, North Carolina, with his wife and their son, Rio. He is happy if he makes his son laugh at least once a day.

MATT NIGHSWANDER is a photographer who spent six years as an international photo editor at the Associated Press and ten years playing in a band you’ve never heard of. He lives in Chicago.

JULIE PHILIPS is working toward a BA in photography and doing her thesis on the history of the pinata. She also collects doorknobs from around the world. She lives in Studio City, California.

MICHAEL ROCHE quit his corporate job after his father’s death and returned to doing the things he enjoys, namely taking black-and white photographs and teaching aikido to children. He lives in Fredericksburg, Texas.

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.

ARTHUR SAWYERS’s photographs have been published in Aperture and Contemporary Photographer. Early in his career he was chosen by LIFE as one of the ten best photographers in America. He lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and died in April 2003.

SPARROW lives in Teaneck, New Jersey, where he does Sudoku and follows the Yankees. He is the author of America: A Prophecy (Soft Skull Press).

CHERYL STRAYED is the author of the novel Torch (Houghton Mifflin). Her work appeared in Best New American Voices 2003 (Harvest Books) and Best American Essays 2003 (Houghton Mifflin). She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children.

JENNIFER ZAHIGIAN is a photographer, massage therapist, and holistic health practitioner. She lives in Oakland, California.