MARK BELAIR is a drummer and percussionist living in New York City. He has recorded with jazz greats Bill Evans and Joe Lovano and has performed with the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Fulcrum, Harvard Review, Mudfish, and the South Carolina Review.

LISA BELLAMY’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in TriQuarterly, Fugue, New Ohio Review, Tiferet, and Harpur Palate. She has won the Fugue Poetry Prize, received Pushcart Prize nominations, and received honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007 (St. Martin’s Press). She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband.

ANNA BLACKSHAW is a writer and documentary photographer who lives in North Carolina.

KRISTIN CAPP was trained as a classical violinist at a young age but discovered photography in college. She is coauthor of the book Keeping the Embers Alive: Musicians of Zimbabwe (Africa World Press) and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

TENAYA DARLINGTON is the author of Madame Deluxe (Coffee House Press), a collection of poetry inspired by drag queens, and the novel Maybe Baby (Back Bay). She also writes a blog about cheese: www.madamefromage.blogspot.com. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she teaches at St. Joseph’s University and serves as a contributing editor to the online arts journal Born Magazine (www.bornmagazine.org).

BRIAN DOYLE lives in Portland, Oregon, where he edits Portland Magazine. He is the author of nine books, including most recently Thirsty for the Joy: Australian & American Voices (One Day Hill Press). His essays have appeared in the Atlantic, Harper’s, and Orion and have been reprinted in Best American Essays, Best American Science and Nature Writing, and Best American Spiritual Writing. He counts among his greatest accomplishments that a riveting woman said “Yup” when he mumbled a marriage proposal, and that the Coherent Mercy sent them three snotty, sweet, brilliant, muttering children.

TERI HAVENS has been photographing American culture for twenty years, including recent projects about the Mississippi Delta and women’s professional rodeo. She lives in Marble, Colorado.

IRA J. HAWKINS is a student at California College of the Arts and a preschool teacher. He lives in Oakland, California.

THERON HOPKINS is a high-school English teacher in Wheatland, California, and the author of The 80-Yard Run: A Twenty-Week, Coast-to-Coast Quest for the Heart of High School Football (Skyhorse Publishing). His story in this issue is his first published fiction.

CAROLINE KRAUS is the author of Borderlines: A Memoir (Broadway) and a contributing writer for PBS.org. She lives in Mill Valley, California.

MATTHEW LAPISKA says his camera, his bicycle, and his wife are his pillars of stability. He lives in Astoria, New York.

FRANCES LEFKOWITZ was born poor in San Francisco, then attended an Ivy League college on scholarship and discovered the downside of upward mobility. Her journey is recounted in her memoir To Have Not, due out this spring from MacAdam/Cage.

GARY MATSON lives in Sunnyside, New York. He has lived in every borough of New York City except Staten Island, though he was woken up there a number of mornings.

CHRISTINE SAARI lives in Marquette, Michigan, and spends springs on her family farm in Austria, where she was born.

SY SAFRANSKY is editor and publisher of The Sun.

CRAIG J. SATTERLEE travels with his wife and fox terriers, Pokey and Picasso, searching for the perfect pizza. He lives in Powell, Wyoming, where he teaches photography at Northwest College.

LINDA SMOGOR lives in Homer, Alaska.

SARAH ANNE WHARTON has a passion for photography, cooking, and whistling. (“I come from a long line of whistlers,” she says.) She lives in Lincoln University, Pennsylvania.

LISA WILTSE’s photography projects have focused on humanitarian issues in Australia, Uganda, Bangladesh, Romania, and the Philippines. She lives in Weston, Connecticut.