Contributors

Wendell Berry was born in 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky. A poet, novelist, essayist, farmer, conservationist, and philosopher, he has been called the “prophet of rural America.”

Patricia Brieschke’s writing has been included in the anthologies Best American Essays 2008 (Houghton Mifflin) and Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2 (W.W. Norton & Co.). It used to be that when she grew restless or dissatisfied, she moved to a new apartment and made a major life change. Now she rearranges the furniture in a house fifty miles north of New York City.

Arnie Cooper is a freelancer based in Santa Barbara, California, who has written for Dwell, Esquire, and the Wall Street Journal. Lately he’s been spending much of his time trying to convince his Akita pup, Kenta, to stop eating rocks and wood chips.

Doug Crandell lives on Walken Creek Farms in Douglasville, Georgia, where he and his wife lead Literary Lifestyle Retreats to promote organic food and good books. He enjoys gathering eggs at dawn and making fresh blue-cheese-and-cilantro omelets for his family.

Christina Fitzpatrick teaches at Brooklyn College and is the author of the short-story collection Where We Lived (Harper Perennial) and the novel What’s the Girl Worth? (HarperCollins). She never got her driver’s license, for which some of her friends belittle her, but she prefers to believe she’s saving lives. (“I have poor hand-eye coordination and space out frequently.”) She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Lou Lipsitz wrote a song called “Throw Your Shoe at G.W.” for a local inaugural-night bash. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Alexis Mann has degrees in public policy and photography, and she recently graduated from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Her photographs focus on the personal stories behind complex social issues. She lives in Topsham, Maine.

Sy Safransky is editor and publisher of The Sun.

Laura Esther Wolfson’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Alembic, the Cimarron Review, and the Rambler. At various times she has been a serious student of Georgian, Latin, and Yiddish and is now learning Spanish. She lives in one room on the banks of the Hudson River in New York City.

James Carroll lives in New York City and has been taking photographs for forty years.

Beverly Conley’s photographs have been published in Native Peoples, La Fotografia Actual, and Black & White Photography. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of London and the New York Public Library. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Steve Donoso is the director of the International Film Festival of the Spirit. He lives in Rockland, Maine.

Anders Goldfarb’s photographs have appeared in the Boston Globe, Art Forum, and New York magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Duncan Green began taking photographs at YMCA camp in Ohio when he was eleven. He is a staff photographer for the Washington State House of Representatives and lives in Olympia, Washington.

Steven Gregory is a software project manager who has found a creative outlet in photography. He takes pictures of friends’ weddings and has displayed his work in galleries in San Francisco, where he lives.

Robert Hecht’s photographs have recently been published in B&W and Lenswork. He says his goal with photography is, as film director Robert Bresson put it, “to make visible what, without you, might never have been seen.” He lives in San Rafael, California.

Matt Kollasch has been working for years on a photography project about the Roma people of Slovakia. When not traveling, he lives in McGregor, Iowa.

Gary Matson likes photography because it gets him out of the house. He lives in Sunnyside, New York, and his work has been shown at the Queens Museum of Art.

Mark Townsend lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Jenny Warburg’s photographs have been published in Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and Time. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.