At a time when common opinion perceives California to be in a state of decline, there grows out of this dire situation something that can only be described as amazingly hopeful. What seem to be falling apart, along with everything else, are old clichés and stale certainties. One senses a willingness to question, to probe, to invent new ways of seeing things, and to create new dreams.
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.
Every piece in New California Writing 2011 was selected to engage and challenge the reader–to move beyond the stale repetition of the daily news into the realm of literature that can ignite the imagination and enlarge the vision. Included among the contributors are well-known writers such as Rebecca Solnit, Mark Arax, Susan Straight, Mike Davis, William T. Vollmann, and Michael Chabon as well as emerging voices. New California Writing 2011 isn’t just the start of a visionary new series, it marks the beginning of a new decade for California.
Gayle Wattawa, thoroughly addicted to contemporary literature, always carries with her a well-worn public library card and a relentless weakness for book reviews, literary journals, and lit news blogs. She
is the founding editor of the 
