Contributors

Poe Ballantine has been a secret for so long he’s decided he likes it that way. He lives in Chadron, Nebraska, with his wife, his son, and Charlie, a twelve-year-old King Charles spaniel inherited from a dying friend. His latest book, No Talking to Imaginary People, is out this month from Bourbon Flashback Press.

Molly Bashaw is the author of the poetry collection The Whole Field Still Moving Inside It. Since graduating from the Eastman School of Music in 2000, she has worked as a professional bass trombonist and educator in Germany.

Jim Bishop used to teach English at the University of Maine, where he once gave Stephen King a C+ on a composition. Now retired, he tends his enchanted Buddha garden in Bangor, Maine, with his wife and their golden retriever, Moxie.

Finn Cohen is the associate editor at The Sun. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Mark Gozonsky lives with his wife in Los Angeles, California, where he teaches English at Grand Arts High School. With roots in Long Island, Texas, and California, he cheers for the Mets, says “howdy,” and is “chill.” His writing has been published in Santa Monica Review, Entropy, and elsewhere.

Lesléa Newman is the author of seventy-two books, including the poetry collection I Carry My Mother, written to honor a request her mother made a week before she died. Other titles include the novel-in-verse October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard and the children’s book Heather Has Two Mommies.

Katherine Seligman is a journalist and author who lives in San Francisco, California. She was awarded the 2018 PEN/Bellwether Prize for her as-yet-untitled novel.

Joe Wilkins is the author of When We Were Birds, winner of the 2017 Oregon Book Award for Poetry. He lives with his family in western Oregon, where he directs the creative-writing program at Linfield College.

Howard Zinn was an activist, writer, and historian who taught at Spelman College and Boston University. His best-selling book A People’s History of the United States was a finalist for the National Book Award. He died in 2010 at the age of eighty-seven.

Carol Bloom is a retired English teacher and guidance counselor who lives in New York City. At the age of seventy-six, she routinely starts her day with forty push-ups.

Deborah DeGraffenreid is a fan of nature, art, dogs, and swimming holes. She lives in an old farmhouse in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Michael Galinsky’s book The Decline of Mall Civilization, a collection of photos he took on a cross-country trip in 1989, comes out this month. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Natali Herrera-Pacheco is a Venezuelan photographer and doctoral student in literature. She lives in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Jon Kral’s most recent book, Saving Leslie Jones, depicts efforts to rescue retired thoroughbred racehorses from neglect and slaughter. He lives in Boone, North Carolina, where he fishes and plays a game of golf here and there.

Caroline Kraus is the creator of the Moments of Truth Project, a multimedia documentary series about the ways we live, work, and relate to each other and the natural world.

Jan Phillips is a writer, storyteller, and workshop facilitator who lives in San Diego, California. She is the author of eleven books, including God Is at Eye Level: Photography as a Healing Art.

Joanna Proffitt is a wanderer who has taken more road trips than she can count. She lives in Surprise, Arizona.

Jennifer Spelman lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is crazy about its clear night skies, roaming coyotes, and occasional roadrunners.