"Boston has persevered through the bad old days to thrive, and more, to make a kind of statement about the good city. The good city is innovative and fun, it is prosperous, it strives for justice and sustainability, but above all, it is alive." -From the Introduction by Paul Grogan

The Good City presents a vivid new profile of Boston through the work of fifteen of the city's finest writers.

• Robert Campbell and Jane Holtz Kay on Boston's embrace of lively urban density


• James Miller on the city's intellectual history


• Jack Beatty on Boston's colorful political past and present


• Patricia Powell on the literary landscape and the immigrant experience


• Susan Orlean on the city she left and now loves


• John Hanson Mitchell on how nature revives the metropolis


• Anita Diamant on Boston as a spiritual home


• Scott Kirsner on Boston as a powerhouse of scientific and technological innovation


• Alan Chong on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the arts in Boston


• Lynda Morgenroth on the city's neighborhoods


• Michael Patrick MacDonald on gentrification and what it means to old neighborhoods like Southie


• Derrick Jackson on Boston as a laboratory for advancing race relations


• Howard Bryant on the city's obsession with sports


• Irene Smalls on seeing the city through the eyes of a child.

Emily Hiestand is a writer, artist, and creative director of Elements Commmunications for Positive Change. The author of three books, including The Very Rich Hours and Angela the Upside Down Girl, her literary honors include The Whiting Award and The National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism.

Ande Zellman is a media and publishing consultant and has held senior positions at Newsweek and the Boston Globe, including editor-in-chief of the Boston Globe Magazine. Dozens of awards have been won under her leadership including a Pulitzer Prize, Headliner, Livingston, and George Foster Peabody Awards.