Stimulated by what we see on the horizon, Heyday issued an open call for the freshest and most thought-provoking submissions, to be included in a new annual series. Publishers, small presses, literary magazines, specialty journals, and bloggers eagerly responded. Sifting through this response, we discovered articles, fiction, poetry, and even excerpts from memoirs. The variety of voices is dazzling, the range of topics broad, but they all have one thing in common: they all address the California experience with courage, vitality, and intelligence.