ELLERY AKERS lives on the northern California coast and is the author of the poetry collection Knocking on the Earth (Wesleyan University Press) as well as a children’s novel, Sarah’s Waterfall: A Healing Story about Sexual Abuse (Safer Society Press).

CALEE ALLEN is a photographer who lives in South Lake Tahoe, California. She works part of the year as the maintenance coordinator at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where she can see the circle of flags marking the geographic pole from her window.

STEVE ALMOND’s most recent essay collection is titled Not that You Asked: Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions (Random House). He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife and their daughter, Josephine, who recently started walking and shows no signs of ever stopping. 

ERIC ANDERSON lives with his family in Elyria, Ohio. He says, “The pronunciation of ‘Elyria’ is a cross between ‘delirium’ and ‘malaria,’ which is a pretty fitting description of August in Ohio.”

TOM BECKER’s latest photography project centers on 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.

RITA BERNSTEIN is a former civil-rights lawyer who fantasizes about being a veterinarian or a neuroscientist. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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.

LARRY CHAIT retired at an early age from being a research scientist to become a jazz drummer. When he discovered he had no talent for the drums, he took up photography. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

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.”

ROBERTO GUERRA lives in La Paz, Bolivia, where he is working on a project about coca farmers.

ERIK HOFFNER is a renewable-energy activist who works for Orion magazine. He lives in Ashfield, Massachusetts.

GINA KELLY is a photographer living in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

GARY MATSON lives in Sunnyside, New York. He recently received an e-mail from his ex-wife, with whom he had lost contact, after her daughter from another marriage told her, “That guy you used to be married to? I think he’s got a photo in The Sun.”

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

BARBARA PLATEK is a Jungian psychotherapist and author who lives with her family on the outskirts of Ithaca, New York.

HAL S. POPE is a photographer and videographer who lives in Columbus, Georgia. He’s currently working on a short documentary about the endangered Mississippi sandhill crane.

MARK SMITH-SOTO lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he serves as director of the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has published two books of poetry, Our Lives Are Rivers (University Press of Florida) and Any Second Now (Main Street Rag Press).

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.

JOHN TAIT is an assistant professor of fiction writing at the University of North Texas and editor of American Literary Review. A Canadian transplant living in Denton, Texas, he has come to enjoy barbecue and Shiner Bock beer as much as he does back bacon and Molson.

DAVE WESTOVER is a freelance photographer and graphic designer who lives in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

ANGELA WINTER  has been dreaming about feathers, nests, and owls. She lives in a small house with a robin’s-egg blue kitchen in Carrboro, North Carolina, and works at The Sun.