Contributors

Poe Ballantine is the subject of a second documentary in as many years, this one concerning his “messed-up life,” his quirky little town, and the mystery described in his forthcoming book Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere. He is the author of 501 Minutes to Christ and lives in Chadron, Nebraska.

Krista Bremer lives in Carrboro, North Carolina.

Ariane Conrad is a writer and book collaborator who worked with civil-rights advocate Van Jones on two New York Times bestsellers, Rebuild the Dream and The Green Collar Economy, and with activist and filmmaker Annie Leonard on The Story of Stuff. She recently moved to Berlin, Germany, where, she says, beer costs less than juice or water.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is one of the world’s leading researchers on positive psychology. He was born in 1934 in what is now Rijeka, Croatia. Csikszentmihalyi immigrated to the U.S. at the age of twenty-two to study psychology which led to the development of his theory on “flow.” He founded the Quality of Life Research Center at Claremont Graduate University, where he continues to work.

Kelly DeLong lives in Duluth, Georgia, and teaches English at Clark Atlanta University. His work has been published in The Evansville Review, Palo Alto Review, and Roanoke Review. Lately he’s been breaking up cat fights under his bed and barking with his dog at the people walking by his house.

Brian Doyle’s most recent book is Bin Laden’s Bald Spot & Other Stories. He lives in Portland, Oregon. At the age of twenty-eight he learned that it’s not all about him, and twenty-seven years later he’s still reeling from the shocking discovery, which turns out to be the secret of decent writing.

Tony Hoagland lives and teaches poetry in Houston, Texas; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and elsewhere. He leads a workshop for teachers called the Five Powers of Poetry, and his book of essays is titled Real Sofistikashun: Essays on Poetry and Craft.

Alison Luterman lives in Oakland, California, and is the author of the poetry collections See How We Almost Fly and The Largest Possible Life. The title of her poem in this issue comes from a poem by Lucille Clifton.

Donna Steiner’s writing has been published in Fourth Genre, Shenandoah, and Stone Canoe, and she is a contributing writer for Hippocampus Magazine. She teaches at the State University of New York at Oswego and recently completed a manuscript of linked essays.

Cary Tennis is an advice columnist for Salon and lives in San Francisco. He says he lacks “common sense” and has thus spent a lifetime observing “normal” people to figure out how they operate the machinery of consciousness.

Lidia Yuknavitch, who describes herself as an introvert who passes for an extrovert, is the author of the memoir The Chronology of Water, and her debut novel, Dora: A Head Case, is due out in September. She lives with her husband and son in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Tom Becker has neglected the darkroom for the last few months in favor of his new addiction: selling his belongings online. But he still carries a camera with him nearly everywhere he goes. He lives in Orange City, Iowa.

Rita Bernstein lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with her husband and as many pets as he will tolerate.

James Carroll’s photographs have been published in LightWork, Popular Photography, and B&W. He lives in New York City.

William Carter’s most recent book is titled Causes and Spirits, a fifty-year retrospective of his photographs. He lives in Los Altos Hills, California.

Roy Gumpel photographs artists, musicians, writers, architects, and designers. He lives in Woodstock, New York.

John Oliver Hodges is a writer and photographer who lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches writing at Montclair State University and the Gotham Writers’ Workshop. He is the author of War of the Crazies, a novella about communal life in upstate New York.

Rachel McDonald recently completed her art degree at Louisiana Tech University. She lives in Minden, Louisiana.

Sandro Michahelles’s first photography teacher told him it is very hard to make a living as a photographer, which scared him a little, but not enough. He lives in Florence, Italy.

Christine Saari lives with her husband in Marquette, Michigan, and spends the spring months at her family’s farm in Austria. She recently published a book about her family’s experiences during World War II called Love and War at Stag Farm.

Joseph Viles works for television studios doing advertising photography, and the subjects of his personal projects range from transgender beauty contestants to brain surgery. He lives in Burbank, California.