The Author: A fifth-generation southern Appalachian, Sam Venable is a newspaper columnist whose award-winning observations on daily life appear four times a week in the Knoxville News-Sentinel. A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Venable has spent most of his career roaming the highlands of his home state. He and his wife, Mary Ann, also a Tennessee native and UT graduate, live in a log house atop a wooded ridge on the outskirts of Knoxville.

The Photographer: Paul Efird is a native of Rome, Georgia. He holds a degree in biology from Shorter College but has spent his professional career as a news photographer. After working for two newspapers in Georgia, he moved to Tennessee in 1990 and became a staff photographer for the News-Sentinel. Efird is an avid hiker, canoeist, and backpacker. He and his wife, Stephanie, live in Knoxville.