34 Bay Area writers of all ages and life stages have contributed their personal, perceptive, and provocative pieces about family and identity, love and loss, illness and recovery, and the daily pleasures and surprises of ordinary life.

Although most pieces are published here for the first time, a number of them have previously appeared in Bay Area and national publications, including Terri Hinte's prize-winning travel essay from Traveler's Tales Brazil, Elizabeth Fishel's personal essay from Child, timely opinion pieces by Rina Alcalay and Gina Waldman from The Jewish Bulletin and The Marin Independent Journal, Michelle Wells Grant's parenting memoir from Parents' Press, Ronnie Caplane's humor column from The Alameda Journal, and selections from a bimonthly Contra Costa Sun column, created and co-written by Kathleen Faraday, Robin Slovak,and Joan Stevenson.