Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is a novelist, short story writer, and journalist whose works of fiction include The Dark Path to the River and No Marble Angels. A former reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, Joanne is a Vice President and former International Secretary of PEN International and former Chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee. She serves on the boards of the International Crisis Group, Refugees International, the International Center for Journalists, the PEN Faulkner Foundation, Poets and Writers, Words Without Borders, and the American Writers Museum. She has served on the board and as Vice President of PEN American Center, Save the Children and is an emeritus board member of Human Rights Watch and an emeritus Trustee of Johns Hopkins and Brown Universities. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Texas Institute of Letters.

Nine stories deal with individuals trying to overcome the distances that divide them.