BOB BAYLES is a photographer who lives in Van Nuys, California. He likes to incorporate quotes from movies in conversation, which leads his family to playfully accuse him of being unoriginal. “Either that,” he says, “or they actually believe ‘I’m very shallow and empty, and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say’ (Annie Hall).”

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

KRISTA BREMER lives in Carrboro, North Carolina, with her husband and two children and works at The Sun. She dedicates her essay in this issue to her eight-year-old daughter, who toasted her parents’ belated wedding last year by saying: “I feel very lucky to be able to see my parents get married. Most kids don’t get to do that!”

JAMES CARROLL lives in New York City.

MATTHEW DESHE CASHION teaches English at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and is the author of the novel How the Sun Shines on Noise (Livingston Press). His work has appeared in Wind, Hawai’i Review, and Wisconsin Review. He lives in La Crosse.

POLLY CHANDLER works as a photographer for the Texas House of Representatives, and her work has appeared in American Photo and Shots. She lives in Austin, Texas.

ERIN CORBAL is a photographer and compulsive list-maker who took great satisfaction in writing up this biographical note and crossing it off her list. She lives with her husband in Altadena, California.

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.

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

MARTIN FISHMAN lives in Brooklyn, New York.

ANDERS GOLDFARB’s photographs have been published in Dissent, Witness, and the Boston Globe. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

FRANK HAMRICK’s photography career began at age ten, when he traded an old hat for a cheap 35mm camera. He is the author of i found it when i stopped looking (Nexus Press). He lives in Gray, Georgia.

EDIS JURCYS was born in Lithuania, studied film in Russia, and worked for eight years at Moscow Network Television. Two books of his photographs have been published in Lithuania. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

CHRISTOPHER LOCKE’s essay, "Possessed," [April 2007] is from a memoir-in-progress called Speaking in Tongues. He hopes that a month in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, will help him complete the book. If not, he says, at least he’ll be able to indulge in some pulled-pork tacos and a little mescal.

MARC POLONSKY lives in Camp Meeker, California, and cohosts a radio show on kows in Occidental called Commanders of the Airwaves.

SY SAFRANSKY is editor and publisher of The Sun.

JANE SCHAPIRO is the author of Inside a Class Action: The Holocaust and the Swiss Banks (University of Wisconsin Press) and the poetry collection Tapping This Stone (Washington Writers’ Publishing House). She lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and tutors student athletes at George Mason University, where she cheered on the men’s basketball team in its 2006 run to the Final Four.

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.

KERRY ST. OURS is a photographer who lives with her husband and daughter in Huntington, New York.

ATHENA STEVENS has provided disaster relief as a volunteer to families in California, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Washington. She has also been a flight attendant, a barista, and a bank teller. She is now a writer and editor living in Seattle, Washington.

MARK TOWNSEND lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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