Contributors

John Bargowski lives in New Jersey, and when he visits New York City, he likes to find an empty bench and eat lunch in Union Square Park. His most recent book of poetry, American Chestnut, was published in 2022.

Matt Barrett lives with his family among the apple trees of central Pennsylvania. He is working on a short story collection about travelers, thieves, and the lives they leave behind.

Doug Crandell does not play pickle-ball and manages to get poison ivy every summer. He doesn’t eat collard greens but does enjoy poached organic pears with a bit of blue cheese. He lives in Georgia.

Steve Edwards lives outside Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife, their son, and a little dog who constantly steals his socks. He is the author of the memoir Breaking into the Backcountry.

Dash Lewis is a musician and writer who lives in Richmond, Virginia. Instagram: @gardenerjams.

Alison Luterman lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, their codependent cat, Jackson, and multiple pianos. Her book Hard Listening is forthcoming in September.

J.D. Mathes has done many things to support his writing and his two daughters, including fighting wildfires and working logistics in Antarctica. He lives in Redlands, California.

Christine Poreba lives in Chicagoland. Her new book of poetry, This Eye Is for Seeing Stars, will be published this month.

Sara Spurgeon coedited Weird Westerns: Race, Gender, Genre, which was short-listed for the Locus Awards. She and her dog, Mando, can frequently be found roaming rural Texas.

Ronald P. Abeles received his first camera when he was ten years old from his uncle Joe, a professional Broadway photographer. Seventy years later he is still taking photos. He lives in Southern California.

Linda K. Allison is a recovering banker living in The Woodlands, Texas. She recently traded her SLR cameras for her more nimble phone.

Sarah Wright Aubin has been an avid cold plunger and sourdough-bread baker since well before the pandemic. She lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest, where she is a surgical nurse and photographer.

Katie DelaVaughn lives with her family in Woodland, California. She took the photograph of her daughter, Alma—in this issue—through the water-jeweled glass door of their home.

Pete Duval, a photographer, fiction writer, and professor of English, lives in Philadelphia with his wife, daughter, and a fluctuating number of cats. His most recent book is Night Work, a crime novel set in 1980s New England.

Jason Ensler is a filmmaker and photographer who lives in LA and travels extensively with his Nikon FM2, among other vintage bodies and lenses. His latest directorial effort is Percy Jackson and the Olympians, on Disney+ in late 2025.

Candice Estep is a lover of low-key chaos and four-legged photobombers. She lives in rural Texas and finds beauty in the magical, gritty moments of country life, with its unpredictable animals, weather, and people.

Andi Gelsthorpe lives in the High Country of North Carolina with her husband, their son, and two blue heelers, Rip and Frank. She is a mother, modern-day hunter-gatherer, social worker, photographer, community builder, and printmaker.

Monte Allen Hostetler has been taking photos since 1972 and lives in Waldorf, Maryland. He recently collaborated on a book about prankster Leon Varjian. Instagram: @mostetler.

Reuben Rios is a self-taught musician, artist, photographer, and avid bike rider who hails from the Slag Valley neighborhood of Chicago. Instagram: @organicindustrial.

Vida Skerk is Slovenian, Croatian, and Italian. She is currently a graduate student at the National Film and Television School in the UK.

Wesley Verhoeve is a photographer based in the Netherlands whose work has appeared in National Geographic and The New York Times. (wesley.co)

Eoin Vincent is a photographer based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, dedicated to capturing authentic emotions and personalities through thoughtful portraiture.

Rex Wilder has been a tree hugger since he was a seedling, but when it comes to the saguaros in his Sonoran Desert stomping ground, he lets his camera do the loving.

Cindy Murray lives in the mountains of North Carolina, where she enjoys witnessing wild-turkey parades and firefly spectaculars. She took this month’s cover photograph at an ice-cream shop in Zakopane, Poland, where she volunteered as a language tutor for high school students.