The Moment, a new book from SMITH Magazine, has arrived. The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Artists Famous & Obscure(Harper Perennial) starts in the middle of blazing fire and ends in Disneyland. In between are 125 moving, personal pieces stories about opportunities, serendipities, epiphanies and calamities that had a profound impact on an single life. SMITH editor Larry Smith talks about The Moment on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today (Jan. 3).

The stories in The Moment come in a wide range of forms from an amazing group of storytellers. The “moments” in this collection are told in written narratives, photographs, comics, illustrations, handwritten letters, and tweets; they come from the personal histories of bestselling authors Jennifer Egan, Dave Eggers, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Gregory Maguire; musicians Melissa Etheridge and Judy Collins; 100-year-old journalism legend Ruth Gruber; up-and-coming new voices such as Benjamin Percy, Tao Lin and Saïd Sayrafiezadeh; and many people published for the first time anywhere, who, like all of us, have a life-changing story.