Contributors

Finn Cohen is an associate editor of The Sun.

Becky Mandelbaum is the author of Bad Kansas and The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals. Her first screenwriting project, Something Real, premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. She lives on a little mountain in Bellingham, Washington.

Mishele Maron’s disordered eating eventually led her to train as a professional chef. Now retired from the food industry, she cooks at home in Seattle, Washington, with her cats and dogs.

Moonshine Matthiessen is the pseudonym of a writer in Portland, Oregon, where she rides an electric unicycle and paws through every sidewalk “free” pile she can find. (moonshinematthiessen.com)

Claire McQuerry lives in Peoria, Illinois, where she teaches at Bradley University. She is the author of the poetry collection Lacemakers and the translator of Virginie Lalucq’s book-length poem Couper les Tiges / Cutting the Stems.

Rachael Petersen lives in Massachusetts with her many plants and her cattle dog, Līlā, named after the Sanskrit concept of divine play. She is a writer and PhD student in Germanic languages and literature at Harvard University. (rachaelnpetersen.com)

Sy Safransky is founder and editor emeritus of The Sun. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Sparrow lives in Phoenicia, New York, and enjoys reading Archie comics in the bathtub. His latest chapbook is Quelques Poèmes Français / Some French Poems.

Kenna Beban is a photojournalist originally from the Bay Area, California. She now lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works as a companion caregiver and freelance photographer. You can find more of her work on Instagram: @kenna.beban.

Dominique Philippe Bonnet is a seasoned traveler and literature enthusiast whose photography is featured in international publications such as Musée Magazine and Fotocult. He lives and works near Poitiers, in central France. (dpb-fineartphotography.com)

Saul Bromberger once worked as a short-order cook at his parents’ diner, Dave’s Du-B-Du, to pay for his photo supplies. Today he lives with his wife, the photographer Sandra Hoover, in the San Francisco Bay Area. (saul-sandraphoto.com)

Gina Easley lives in Oregon with her husband and her dog. Her favorite places to wander with her camera are quiet gardens and foggy, rugged coastlines.

Tim Evans is a documentary photographer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the recipient of multiple arts and reporting grants. He credits The Sun with helping jump-start his career as, many years ago, it was the home of his first published photo.

Marguerite Fields was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and now lives in Naples, Florida. She has a penchant for restoring antique wooden boxes and pickling vegetables.

Becky Jaffe is an outspoken proponent of birds and a brazen peddler of ontological awe. She teaches classes in fine art photography when she is not lurking in the underbrush, watching backlit dragonflies hunt gnats.

Kat Moser’s clothing store for women, Nouvelle Eve, which she opened in 1973, has helped her appreciate the diversity and beauty of the female form—a frequent subject of her photography. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cari Povenz is a photographer and writer based in West Michigan. Her contemplative, playful approach to photography has led to numerous awards and publications.

Grant M. Ryan studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art and enjoys painting, drawing, and taking photographs with a Holga camera. He lives on Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan.

Eric Skadson served his country in the Navy and his community as a teacher before earning an MFA at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He is now moving back to his creative playground—Austin, Texas—with his wife and their two-year-old son.

Wendy Stone lives in rural northeast Connecticut with her partner, her son, and three salukis. Lately she has started attaching balloons to the dogs while photographing them. This has resulted in something of a balloon addiction. (wendystoneart.com)

Nicholas Bell is a photographer living in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. His lifelong dream has always been to live a creative life. When not behind the camera, he creates works in wood. He took this month’s cover photo on a rare day of deep snow, all alone in the Smokies—except, of course, for the horses.