1985: Half a mussel shell / Elizabeth Tallent
After the game / Andre Dubus
Brothers / Daniel Menaker
Time in Sante Fe / Alice Adams
The Battle of Boiling Water / Francis Phelan
Winterkill / Richard Ford
The young man / Ellen Gilchrist
A sounding brass / Elizabeth Cox
Under the wheat / Rick DeMarinis
Simmering / Margaret Atwood
Our story begins / Tobias Wolff
Hunktown / Bobbie Ann Mason.
v. 2. The navigator / Susan Minot
The beet queen / Louise Erdrich
Walker brothers cowboy / Alice Munro
Senorita Cordoba / Jane Bowles
Old flames / Laurie Colwin
Black holes / Elizabeth Tallent
Sunday's no name band / Sara Vogan
Blue country / Bobbie Ann Mason
Bad company / Tess Gallagher
v. 3. Her secrets / John Berger
Singing with fundamentalists / Annie Dillard
Reflections on the death of John Gardner / Terrence Des Pres
The power of one woman / Phillip Moffitt
Growing up game / Brenda Peterson
Story at Anaktuvuk Pass / Barry Lopez
The three kings / Richard Ford
Looking for a lost dog / Gretel Ehrlich
The talk of the town / Suzannah Lessard
The snap election / James Fenton
The same river twice / David Quammen
Parish streets / Patricia Hampl
Drinking & driving / William Kittredge.
v. 4. Phantom silver / William Kitteridge
High-low-Jack / Robert Olmstead
Great falls / Richard Ford
Chopin in winter / Stuart Dybek
How I found my brother / Charles Baxter
The other miller / Tobias Wolf
Dog song / Frederick Busch
Quest for Ambrose Bierce / Alan Cheuse
On the roof / Christopher Zenowich
Worboys' transaction / Paul Griner
Things they carried / Tim O'Brien.
v. 5. A talk to teachers / James Baldwin
Who is your Mother? Red roots of white feminism / Paula Gunn Allen
The path of the red and black ink / Gloria Anzaldua
People, land, and community / Wendell Berry
A journey into speech / Michelle Cliff
If I could write this in fire, I would write this in fire / Michelle Cliff
How I started to write / Carlos Fuentes
In defense of the word / Eduardo Galeano
Documented-undocumented / Guillermo Gomez-Pena
Strangers in the village / David Mura
America: the multinational society / Ishmael Reed
Invisibility blues / Michele Wallace
Report from El Dorado / Michael Ventura.
v. 6. Introduction / Scott Walker
Two bedtime stories : Be it ever so humble ; Spring storm / Mori Yoko
What should I do? / Chen Guokai
Yearning for the fiords / Teet Kallas
From behind the veil / Dhu'l Nun Ayyoub
The slave fort / Ghassan Kanafani
The drumming sands / Ibrahim Al-Kouni
Small sun / Zakaria Tamer
Clocks like horses / Mohammed Khudayyir
Another evening at the club / Alifa Rifaat
The veteran / Henri Lopes
The rain came / Grace Ogot.
v. 7. A certain beginning
Chicappo juice / Ekoneskaka
American horse / Louise Erdrich
What can your do with a fish? / K.C. Frederick
Monkey business / Joseph Geha
Inside the fire / Salvatore La Puma
The tenant / Bharati Mukherjee
A moving day / Susan Nunes
Journey of Love / Nahid Rachlin
The holy cheese / Jim Sagel
Tears of Autumn / Yoshiko Uchida.
v. 8. What feels like the world / Richard Bausch
A relative stranger / Charles Baxter
Temporary light / Kate Braverman
Blood relations / Dorothy Bryant
Concessions / Kathleen Cambor
And leave the driving to us / Maurice Kenny
Spittin' image of a Baptist boy / Nanci Kincaid
Beginning with Gussie / Maxine Kumin
How I came to dance with Queen Esther and the Dardanelles / Colleen McElroy
Nothing to ask for / Dennis McFarland
Marguerite Marie / Dobroah Rose O'Neal
New family car / Pamela Painter
It's come to this / Annick Smith
Mary in the mountains / Christopher Tilghman
Commuter marriage / Joan Wickersham
v. 9. Danilo Kis / From garden, ashes
Dubravka Ugresic / A hot dog in a warm bun
Ladislav Dvorak / Swords 'n' sabers
Ivan Klima / Monday morning: a black market tale
Teet Kallas / Back to the rocks
Regina Ezera / Man needs dog
Juozas Aputis / The glade with life-giving water
Rita Kelly / The cobweb curtain
Hana Al Shaykh / The women's swimming pool
Halldor Laxness / A place of safety ; Bird on the fence-post
Angel Lertxundi / This cold earth is not Santo Domingo
Koldo Izagirre / From they deserved Euzkadi
Laura Mintegi / Mole hole
Montserrat Roig / From the everyday opera
Merce Rodoreda / The salamander.
v. 10. Introduction : creating community / Scott Walker.
I. The individual and the village. The soul of the community / Eliezer Shore.
Politics, morality, and civility / Vavlav Havel.
Community and personal duty / John Leo.
The beautiful places / Kathleen Norris.