Contributors

Nick Fuller Googins lives in Maine, where he teaches fourth grade. His second novel, The Frequency of Living Things, will be published this summer.

Judith Hertog is finishing an essay collection on identity, conflict, and how not to lose hope. In 2015 she spent a year in Israel interviewing dozens of Israelis—Jews and Arabs—about their relationship to the country and their hopes for its future.

James Hugo is the pseudonym of a writer who lives with his family in Oregon. He teaches, gardens, and enjoys observing creatures of all kinds, from hummingbirds to junior high boys.

James Davis May grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has lived most of his adult life in Georgia, yet his pronunciation of “y’all” remains unconvincing. The Georgia Center for the Book selected his poetry collection Unusually Grand Ideas for its 2024 list of Books All Georgians Should Read.

Kelly McMasters is the author of The Leaving Season: A Memoir in Essays and Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town. She teaches creative writing at Hofstra University. (kellymcmasters.com)

Yehoshua November lives in Teaneck, New Jersey, and is the author of several poetry collections, including Two Worlds Exist, a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and National Jewish Book Awards. (yehoshuanovember.com)

Tatiana Swancy is a community-arts programmer who lives with her husband and their dog, Blanche, in an old house in Chicago that used to be a speakeasy. This essay is her first publication. (tatianaswancy.com)

Michael Torres spent his youth as a graffiti artist in Pomona, California. He teaches creative writing at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. (michaeltorreswriter.com)

Marsha Hayles is a former teacher and children’s author living in Rochester, New York. Her image in this issue is of a wooden canoe her husband built with his father more than fifty years ago.

Fiona Lenz recently moved back to the US after working as a flight attendant and living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She now works for a nonprofit in Los Angeles that helps formerly incarcerated individuals reenter society. She spends weekends crafting and turning her apartment into a photo studio.

Susan Lirakis has been photographing for more than sixty-five years. She makes images daily, often while walking her neighborhood. Instagram: @susanlirakisphotography.

Laurie Minor is a proud Canadian who lives in rural Ontario and loves photographing nature.

Jan Phillips bought a used Pentax camera in 1975 for her motorcycle trip across the country. She’s been taking photographs ever since from her home base in San Diego, California. (janphillips.com)

Adam Rouhana is a Palestinian American photographer based in both Jerusalem and London. Through his subjective lens he works to deconstruct Orientalism within the broader context of Palestine.

Fadwa Rouhana is a Palestinian photographer born in Haifa, Israel, and living in Bethlehem. Photography is her way to contemplate life’s meaning, understand the human experience, and find her place inside it. Her work has been shown in Venice, Milan, and New York, and has been featured in numerous photography magazines.

Cody Schultz is a photographer and writer based in Pennsylvania whose work explores both mind and nature. His essays have been published in On Landscape, Medium Format, Nature Vision Magazine, and others.

Lloyd Wolf has been a working photographer for over five decades. His latest book is A Joyful Noise! Klezmer in Motion. (lloydwolf.com)

Forest Woodward is a photographer who lives in Missoula, Montana, with his wife and baby. In 1996, at the age of ten, he set up a tailgate pop-up pastry shop in the parking lots of festivals, a business endeavor that culminated in a game of cat and mouse with the FDA, which eventually shut him down.

Donn Young discovered a Kodak Brownie camera combing through his grandfather’s secondhand store in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of eight. A mysterious beacon of light drew him to it as if his name were on the box, and his grandfather sent him off into the world to create.

On The Cover