Introduction — Pico Iyer (read it at CaliforniaAuthors.com)

The Big Valley — Mark Arax

Transients in Paradise — Aimee Liu

Showing Off the Owens — T. Jefferson Parker

The Distant Cataract About Which We Do Not Speak — Mary Mackey

Ode to CalTrans — Héctor Tobar

Montalvo, Myths and Dreams of Home — Thomas Steinbeck

The Last Little Beach Town — Edward Humes

Surfacing — Matt Warshaw

Bienvenidos a Newport Beach — Firoozeh Dumas

Cotton Candy Mirrors — devorah major

Berkeley — Michael Chabon

California Honky-tonk — Kathi Kamen Goldmark

909 — Percival Everett

The Line — Rubén Martínez

Flirting with Urbanismo — Patt Morrison

Waters of Tranquility — Carolyn See

An Ordinary Place — D.J. Waldie

Almost Home — Gerald Haslam

My Little Saigon — Anh Do

The Nicest Person in San Francisco — Derek M. Powazek

The Un-California — Daniel Weintraub

Rocks in the Shape of Billy Martin — Deanne Stillman

How Many Angels — David Kipen

Centered — Veronique de Turenne

Returning After Fire — Chryss Yost

On Being a California Poet — Dana Gioia