Contributors

Fred Bahnson lives with his wife and children in Transylvania County, North Carolina, and is currently at work on a book about the spirituality of farming. Eight years ago he and his wife, then newlyweds, traveled to Nuevo Yibeljoj, the Mexican village he writes about in this issue. They were given the “honeymoon suite” in the village infirmary, where they slept on two wooden examining tables pushed together.

Leslee Goodman is a freelance writer, an artist, and a consultant to nonprofits. She divides her time between Washington State’s Methow Valley and Santa Barbara, California.

Daniel Larson was a fisherman in Kasilof, Alaska, for three years and a youth worker in South Central Los Angeles for five. He now directs youth programs in the Mission District in San Francisco.

Alison Luterman’s spirit animal is a dust bunny. She lives, writes, teaches, and watches hummingbirds in Oakland, California.

Eric Nelson writes poems with a 1948 Parker 51 fountain pen that belonged to his father. He is the author of Terrestrials and The Interpretation of Waking Life. He teaches writing at Georgia Southern University and lives in Statesboro, Georgia, with two dogs, two cats, two children, and one wife, writer Stephanie Tames.

Sy Safransky is editor and publisher of The Sun.

Sybil Smith is a retired nurse who lives in Vermont. Her work recently appeared in Weber—The Contemporary West.

Kristen Tracy lives in San Francisco, where she writes poetry and young-adult books. Her latest teen novel is A Field Guide for Heartbreakers, and her poems have appeared in Threepenny Review, AGNI, and TriQuarterly. When not writing, she works as a writing tutor and volunteers as a gardener on Alcatraz.

Kurt Vonnegut, American author and icon of intellectual wit and well-meaning misanthropy, is noted for his satirical novels that combine social commentary, dark humor, and science-fictional elements. His best-known work is Slaughterhouse-Five which is based in part on Vonnegut’s World War II experience of being a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany. Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Armistice Day 1922 and died in 2007.

David Yost lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in Mali, Thailand, and the United States. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in the Southern Review, Witness, and Pleiades. He encourages those interested in learning more about the refugee-resettlement issues raised by his story in this issue to visit http://rescue.org.

Rita Bernstein is a former civil-rights attorney who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

William Carter’s latest book of photographs is Causes and Spirits, and more than 150 of his prints are in the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. He lives in Los Altos Hills, California.

Ellen Giamportone’s latest project is photographing her neighborhood during the full moon. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Anders Goldfarb has had photographs published in the New York Times and Art Forum. He lives in New York City.

Kari Haga is a graphic designer by day and an artist by night. She lives in Billings, Montana.

Sharon Lee Hart lives and teaches photography in Nashville, Tennessee, and is working on a photography project about farm-animal sanctuaries. She has such a strong sense of smell that she has been referred to as “Wolverine.”

Matthew Kirby is a marine reservist who has served in Iraq. He lives in Ruston, Louisiana, where he attends Louisiana Tech University.

Jason Langer’s photos have appeared in American Photo, Life, and Vanity Fair, and his work is represented in the Sir Elton John permanent collection, the Sir Mick Jagger permanent collection, and Yale University Art Gallery. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Anne Pellicciotto won first prize in the Washington Post’s 2006 travel-photo contest for one of her photographs of Brazil. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Rachel Pfotenhauer is a therapist who lives with her husband and two children in Dolores, Colorado.

Alma Rivera worked for twenty-five years in the insurance industry before getting laid off and becoming a full-time student at Queens College, where she studies art and photography. She lives in Astoria, New York.

Rosie Saraga has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since 1972. She lives in Corvallis, Oregon.

Mark Townsend lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Suzi Q. Varin gave up a promising career as a Zamboni driver to pursue her interest in photography. She lives with her husband in Austin, Texas.