The Work of Our Hands

A small business owner from Seward called the other day, acting a little sheepish for picking up the phone and using it to make an actual call. He was reaching out not to tout his own business, but to tell us about a small business class he was teaching, and how excited he was about the students. He waxed on a bit about how much he loved the magazine, too. “My wife always ends up with a couple of copies of each issue,” he said… and then he mentioned how he loves Edible Alaska’s distinct photography, and how he gets to see the hands that do the work that brings food to our tables.

The hands that do the work. As we continued to work on this issue you have in, well, your very hands, that metonym for all the people behind this Edible Alaska project resounded.

One of the things we love about the work of sharing these stories is the tactile nature of each magazine we create for you—a magazine about the food Alaskans grow, cook, and serve to each other, to customers, loved ones, those in care, those too young to feed themselves. In an increasingly digital world where human connection happens more and more over distance, there’s something intimate in offering the fruits of our labor to the hands of thousands and thousands of readers.

Paging through our first decade of issues, especially the nine prior summer issues, we donned our “hands” goggles and chose a few photos from the archive to share.

The pages and covers and spreads you’ll find on the next couple of pages were all designed by the same designers since year one: Matthew Freeman and Tina Bossy-Freeman. Their work has helped us define and refine the visual voice of the magazine that resonates with so many of you, our readers.

And of course, hands aren’t far from faces, and we decided to take stock. Turns out we’ve published the work of about 274 different contributors so far, and counting. We can’t claim this list is exhaustive, but it’s the most complete that we have. We’ll print their names here again with our gratitude, and the faces of as many as we have pictures for—around 124. We only started collecting contributor photos in 2019 when we took over the magazine.

Over the course of this anniversary year, we’ll share other treats from the previous decades—recipes that may have delighted you and us enough that they bear repeating, more behind the scenes on how the magazine comes together, perhaps, or other ephemera of the last ten years, so keep reading!

Who’s Contributed?

Edible Alaska: Summer 2016–Summer 2026

Ash Adams, Margaret Adsit, Kelsey Aho, Asma Akal, Aaron Apling-Gilman, Cathie Archbould, Michael Armstrong, Dave Atcheson, Amalie Atkins, Oscar Avellaneda-Cruz, Scott Banks, Ann Barker, Karl Bausler, Katie Bausler, Ellen Bayles, Maria Benner, Bailey Berg, J. Besl, Sarah Betcher, Charles Bingham, Ronald Bissett, Jillian Blum, Adem Boeckmann, Katie Boone, Jonathan Bower, Lori Bradford, Maura Brenin, Anna Broadway, Kinsey Brown, Melanie Brown, Gerald Byrne, Shawna Calt, Madeleine Cannon, Kris Capps, Kira Casey, Richard Chiappone, Lione Clare, Eleanor Claus, Scott Clendaniel, Fernanda Conrad, Kate Consenstein, Riley Conti, Corinna Cook, Katie Ione Craney, Tom Crestodina, Suzy Crosby, Raven Cunningham, Leela Cyd, Samantha Davenport, Jed Delong, Bathsheba Demuth, Camrin Dengel, Meda DeWitt, Carly Diaz, Bjorn Dihle, Kirsten Dixon, Mandy Dixon, Michelle Dockins, Jack Donachy, Kimberly Dublin, Agnes Elizarde, Tasha Elizarde, Sean Enfield, Michael Engelhard, Clarie Evans, Clint Jefferson Farr, Gretchen Fauske, Dave Fedorski, Cesar Figueroa, David Fleming, Lisa Fousek, Roberto Frankenberg, Ray Friedlander, Trevor Fulton, Penny Gage, Michele Genest, Mary George, Michaela Goade, Mary Goddard, Sierra Golden, Anita Golton, Bethany Sonsini Goodrich, Jennifer Gordon, Vaishnavi Gornale, Heike Graf, Ken Graham, Maggie Graham, Brian Grobleski, Teri Gross, LaDonna Rose Gundersen, Chelsea Haisman, Brian Hall, Sergius Hannan, Kelly Harrell, Cyrus Harris, Gregory Hartley, Ian C. Hartman, Alli Harvey, Lia Heifetz, Hannah Heimbuch, Deirdre Helfferich, Sydney Herwig, Melissa Heuer, Sandra Hill, Nang Sk’at’áas Joseph Hillaire Jr., Ishmael Hope, Amy O’Neill Houck, Daphne Hougard, Bill Howell, Elaine Howell, Ben Huff, Alexis Isherwood, Lori Jenkins, Obadiah Jenkins, Susie Jenkins-Brito, Fred Johnson, Ian Johnson, Arti Jorgenson, George Kalli, Seth Kantner, Sarah Katari, Mary Bee Kaufman, Molly Kemp, Matthew Kern, Bree Kessler, Mossy Kilcher, Young Kim, Bob King, Erin Kirkland, Steve Kirkland, Geoff Kirsch, Tom Kizzia, Brett Knipmeyer, William Koeppen, Jim Kohl, Jett Kolarik, Jennifer Kosharek, Robin Kramer, Lindsay Kucera, Shannon Kuhn, Travis Kukull, Casey Landaluce, Molly Lane, Michelle Latvala, Emma Teal Laukitis, Jenn Lawlor, John Leap, Cory Leicester, Rachel Levy, Sarah Lewis, Kristin Link, Amy Loeffler, Rachel Lord, Claire Estelle Lubke, Lisa Maloney, Joy Manning, JN Marcotte, Mary Catharine Martin, Alicia Maryott, Rose McAdoo, Zakiya McCummings, Shannon E. McGuire, Erin McKinstry, Cameo McRoberts, Mollie Messick, Kaasei Naomi Michalsen, S. Hollis Mickey, Rachael Miller, Martina Miller, Karen Miovas, David Mitchell, Robbi Mixon, Cindy Mom, Megan Moody, Kelly “Midgi” Moore, Yéilk’ Vivian Mork, Cara Jane Murray, Annalee Narwold-Ladd, Max Neale, Claire Neaton, Marion Nestle, Danielle Nierenberg, Jennifer Nu, Julia O’Malley, Monica Oatman, Mary Odden, Felipe Ogoy, Rina Oh, Aubry Okayama, Becka Olson, Jeremy Pataky, Emily Payne, Carissa Pearce, Nicole Pearce, Chantelle Pence, David Barth Penn, Jessica Bissett Perea, Victoria Petersen, Samantha Phillips, Brad St. Pierre, Shiloh Powell, Ashley Prange, Vivian Faith Prescott, Natasha Price, Muriel Reid, Jessica Robinson, Erica Rose, Jenny Rosenbaum, Jonathan Ross, Lisa Ruland, Jason Rupp, Konstantin Ryabitsev, Mack Saftner, Kasandra Saiki, Donna Saldarriaga, Claire Schmidt, Jenna Schnuer, Beau Schooler, Jillian Schuyler, Amy Scott, Elsa Sebastian, Phillip Sharclane, Jennifer Sharrock, Jaycie Shotwell, Spencer Shroyer, Abigail Slater, Nicole Smeenk, Gerad Smith, Mary Smith, Liz Snyder, Theresa Soley, Susan Sommer, Kat Sorensen, Vera Starbard, Kim Steutermann, Addie Studebaker, Jessica Stugelmayer, Teresa Sundmark, Kim Sunée, Ashley Taborsky, Amanda Tachine, Kerry Tasker, Heather Thamm, Jenny Tse, Jessica Valletta, Erin Velander, Joshua Veldstra, Sundance Visser, Candice Vivien, Mili Vukich, Leah Wagner, Emily Wall, Briana Walters, Erica Watson, Carlyle Watt, Nadav Weiss, Miranda Weiss, Sarah Reynolds Westin, Tara Wheatland, David Whitmire, Diane Wiese, Christine Wilcox, Nathaniel Wilder, Susan Willsrud, Marissa Wilson, Jennifer Wingard, Tracy Wirak, Evie Witten, Carly Witzke, Bryce Wrigley, Craig Zematis, Joe Zentner, Caroline Zhang, Mingchu Zhang.