Contributors

Coleman Barks has collaborated with scholars for thirty-one years to translate the poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi into American free verse. He has published nineteen volumes of Rumi’s work, which have sold more than three quarters of a million copies, as well as six volumes of his own poetry. He taught American literature and creative writing at various universities for thirty-four years and is now a retired professor emeritus at the University of Georgia. He lives in Athens, Georgia, close to his two sons and four grandchildren.

Thomas Boyd is the pseudonym of a writer and divorced father of two who lives in San Francisco, California.

Krista Bremer likes to think of herself as a free spirit, despite the fact that she writes thank-you notes promptly, makes weekly trips to the library with her two children, and is in bed by 10 P.M. each night. She is circulation director at The Sun and lives in Carrboro, North Carolina.

Sonya K. Hess is a writer and practicing doula who lives in Brainerd, Minnesota, with her husband and two children. A graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, she’s been published in St. Anne’s Review and Heliotrope.

Andrew Lawler is a misplaced Southerner living in rural Maine whose writing has been published in Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Audubon. When not practicing serenity at airport baggage carousels, he’s learning to accept black flies and use a chain saw.

Lyn Lifshin is the author of The Licorice Daughter: My Year with Ruffian (Texas Review Press), Another Woman Who Looks Like Me (Black Sparrow and Godine Press), and Barbaro, a poetry collection in progress. She lives in Vienna, Virginia.

Varley O’Connor has published three novels: Like China (Morrow), A Company of Three (Algonquin), and The Cure (Bellevue Literary Review Press). She teaches at Kent State University and lives in Stow, Ohio.

Sy Safransky is editor of The Sun.

Evan Shopper lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he has been installing ducts in the basement, while his wife is lobbying for ducks in the yard; this makes for lively and confusing dinner conversation with their two young daughters. His story in this issue is from a novel in progress, and his work has been published in Glimmer Train, the Colorado Review, and the Massachusetts Review.

Mark Smith-Soto is the director of the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has published two books of poetry: Our Lives are Rivers (University Press of Florida) and Any Second Now (Main Street Rag Press).

Rita Bernstein is a photographer and former civil-rights lawyer who, given a few more lives to live, might also become a neuroscientist or veterinarian. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

T. Paige Dalporto is a photographer, poet, and songwriter who lives in his hometown of Charlton Heights, West Virginia.

Hope Frazier is working on a photography project about the impact of mountaintop-removal coal mining on eastern Kentucky and its people.

Chris Gruver is a photographer who captains luxury yachts for a living. He’s also a damn good chef. He lives in Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Kari Haga is a photographer who collects stamps, coins, and salt and pepper shakers. She lives in Billings, Montana.

Tama Hochbaum is a photographer who loves to cook, sing, and play the guitar. She lives with her composer husband and their two daughters in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Edis Jurčys is a Lithuanian photographer living in Portland, Oregon.

Clemens Kalischer was born in Bavaria and has been taking photographs for sixty years. He lives in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and maintains Image Photos, an archive of more than half a million pictures.

Kayo Lackey is a photographer who was born and raised in Japan and now lives in Portland, Oregon.

Karen Landmann is a photographer and social worker who lives in New York City. She speaks twelve languages and is working on her thirteenth: Twi, a language spoken in Ghana.

Joseph Sorrentino is a photographer and playwright who lives in Rochester, New York.

Jessica K. Stelling is a photographer who lives with her husband and their two cats, Superfly and Gershwin, in Savannah, Georgia.

Gregory Thorp lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and takes photographs commercially for several barge lines on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. His personal subject of choice, however, is corn, in all its forms.

Andrew Watson is a photographer and graphic designer who lives in San Antonio, Texas. He has lately grown quite fond of eating green beans and ice-cream sandwiches, although not together.