Akiko Busch has written about design and culture since 1979. She is the author of Geography of Home: Writings on Where We Live and The Uncommon Life of Common Objects: Essays on Design an the Everyday. Her most recent book of essays, Nine Ways to Cross a River, a collection of essays about swimming across American rivers, was published in 2007. She was a contributing editor at Metropolis magazine for 20 years, and her essays have appeared in numerous magazines and exhibition catalogs. Currently, she is a regular contributor to the New York Times Sunday regional section. She lives in Dutchess County with her husband and two sons. Akiko’s essay in our Literary Supplement appears on page 60.
Storyteller and writer Gioia Timpanelli is one of the founders of the worldwide revival of storytelling. Among the eight series of programs she created, wrote, produced, and broadcast for public television, she received two Emmy citations for a series on storytelling. Among her awards are the National Women’s Book Award and the Maharishi Award. Her short stories and essays have been published in anthologies in the US and Italy. In 1999, she won the American Book Award for Sometimes the Soul: Two Novellas of Sicily. Her novel What Makes a Child Lucky will be published in 2008 by W. W. Norton. Gioia’s essay in our Literary Supplement appears on page 60.
Danny Shanahan is a cartoonist for the New Yorker, having published nearly 800 cartoons, covers, and illustrations since joining their staff in 1988. He is responsible for a nasty rash of recent anthologies, including Innocent, Your Honor; I’m No Quack; and the hilarious (and highly fictional) Bad Sex! His hobbies include golf and voter fraud, and he enjoys long perp walks on the beach (the jacket over the head providing anonymity and sunscreen). He lives in Rhinebeck. Danny illustrated the Well-Met essays in our Literary Supplement, on page 62.
Janine Pommy Vega has written 16 books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her latest from Godine is The Green Piano (poetry). Her translations of poems by migrant workers in New York, Estamos Aquí, was released by Bowery Books in 2007. Tracking the Serpent, her travel essays published by City Lights, has been translated into Italian and published by Nutrimenti earlier this year. Her new CD, Across the Table, a collection of poems recorded with music in Woodstock and on the road in Italy and Bosnia, will be released at a performance party on November 2 at the Kleinert/James in Woodstock, and is available at bookstores. Janine’s essay on endings appears on page 61.
Eeo Stubblefield
Megan McQuade
