In 2002, Marlo Thomas released The Right Words at the Right Time, a collection of inspiring, first-person stories in which 108 celebrated icons -- from Muhammad Ali and Katie Couric to Jack Nicholson and Oprah Winfrey -- recalled a time in their lives when just the right words, spoken at precisely the right moment, changed their lives.

The book became an instant bestseller, and in the months following its release, Marlo quickly discovered that she had done more than simply produce a wildly popular book. She had struck a chord.

“Everywhere I went,” Marlo recalls, “people approached me, eager to tell me about the words that had changed their lives. In airports and restaurants, at book signings and on the street. And the mail just kept coming.

“The most touching part,” she adds, “was that these weren’t just stories. They were pieces of these people’s lives -- honest, compelling and always straight from the heart.”

Marlo had originally planned to assemble a second volume of Right Words stories, again written by celebrities. But the enthusiastic and personal response by readers of the first book gave her a different idea.

“While the first Right Words told us about the remarkable journeys taken by people who I admired and were well known to all of us,” says Marlo, “I began to think about how exciting it would be to put together a book that gave a voice to everyone else, everyday people whose heroism is embodied in the smaller but no less significant strides they took at an important crossroads in their lives -- with their family, with their friends, even with strangers.”

Marlo assembled her team and got to work. She announced a nationwide contest in the pages of the paperback edition of Right Words, asking readers to look back in their lives for that one moment when words made all the difference. A website was set up for online submissions. Posters were hung in schools and police stations, hospitals and military bases, firehouses and prisons. And Parade magazine, which had championed the Right Words project since its inception, solicited stories from its own readers.

Over the course of the next year, more than 1000 essays were submitted. Marlo and her team selected 101. Those stories, written by men and women from 30 states and three continents, now appear in the newly released The Right Words at the Right Time: Vol. 2: Your Turn! from Atria Books. As with Marlo’s other books, all royalties from the sale of Right Words 2 will go to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which was founded by her father, Danny Thomas, in 1962.

“Just as I’d learned from the first volume,” Marlo writes in her Foreword to the new collection, “the right words can transform us. They can challenge us at a crossroads, they can dare us to action, they can prop us up when we think we can go no further. I am a wiser person, I think, for having taken the journeys so eloquently recounted in the pages of this book. And I’m thankful for the generous spirit of our contributors, whose strong and intimate and touchingly personal stories may help all of us to find our own right words.”

Marlo Thomas and Atria books are proud to introduce the 101 contributors to The Right Words at the Right Time: Vol. 2: Your Turn! Our congratulations to all of them -- and our heartfelt thanks to everyone who submitted stories. Your words never failed to touch and inspire us.

Katie Adair
Foxboro, Massachusetts

Stephen Banko III
Buffalo, New York

Rebecca Marie Barkin
Hollywood, California

Amy Jaffe Barzach
West Hartford, Connecticut

Marne Benedict
Eugene, Oregon

Ruthie Just Braffman
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania

Dan C.
Petaluma, California

Stephanie Castillo
Richmond Hill, New York

Debra Cheehy
Manassas, Virginia

Timothy Ciciora
Atlantic Beach, Florida

Richard Cook
Charlotte, North Carolina

Brenda Degner
Muscatine, Iowa

John Donohue
Southbury, Connecticut

Mark Drought
Stamford, Connecticut

Christine Ducey
Oceanside, California

Kathy Faught
New Haven, Connecticut

Jon B. Fish
Orangevale, California

Gregory Fouts
Hendersonville, North Carolina

April Gallop
Midlothian, Virginia

Bert Goolsby
Columbia, South Carolina

Judith Grace
Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Eric Dodson Greenberg
Silver Spring, Maryland

Maureen Ryan Griffin
Charlotte, North Carolina

Janet Guillet
New York City, New York

Nicole Hanton
Fairfax, Virginia

Diana Harley
New South Wales, Australia

Archie Harper
Helena, Montana

Cynthia Harris
Victoria, Minnesota

Margery Hauser
New York City, New York

Mauricio Heilbron, Jr, M.D.
Long Beach, California

Anne Shaw Heinrich
Dwight, Illinois

Kay Hickman
Leander, Texas

Ann Hite
Smyrna, Georgia

Denise Horbaly
Earlysville, Virginia

Leigh Ann Jasheway-Bryant
Eugene, Oregon

J.
Gaithersburg, Maryland

Pius Kamau, M.D
Aurora, Colorado

Paul Keating
Ashland, Massachusetts

Thomas Kennedy
Pollock, Louisiana

Julie Knapp
New York City, New York

Carol Kodish-Butt
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Herbert Launer
Great Neck, New York

Lloyd Lederkramer
New York City, New York

Bob Lenox
Berlin, Germany

Dorsey Prince Leonard
Church Hill, Maryland

Marlon LeTerrance
Memphis, Tennessee

Ted LoRusso
New York City, New York

Frank Lunn
LeRoy, Illinois

Susan Luzader
Tucson, Arizona

Steve Martinez
Omaha, Nebraska

Terrie McKenna
Redwood City, California

Lisa Mercurio
New York City, New York

Diana Michael
Coon Rapids, Minnesota

Elizabeth Morrissey
Newtown, Connecticut

Joan Mueller
Tucson, Arizona

Kathleen Muldoon
San Antonio, Texas

Paul Mulryan
Glennville, Georgia

Mary N.
Henderson, Nevada

Kathleen Nash
Schwenksville, Pennsylvania

Terry Naylor
Las Vegas, Nevada

Janice Ann Nelson
San Jacinto, California

Laura Neumeyer
Austin, Texas

Carole O’Hare
Danville, California

Tim O'Driscoll
Burlington, Ontario, Canada

Gerry Oguss
Northbrook, Illinois

David Parker
Stratford, Connecticut

Ann Pierce
New York City, New York

Shara Pollie
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Stella Pulo
New York City, New York

Jay Ratliff
Dayton, Ohio

Michael Raysses
Los Angeles, California

Donna Surgenor Reames
Pine Mountain, Georgia

Susyn Reeve
Camp Verde, Arizona

DeMar Regier
Prairie Village, Kansas

Ron Rey
New York City, New York

Charlie Riggs
Madison, Wisconsin

Nancy Roman
Litchfield, Connecticut

Linda Roth Conte
Washington, DC

Geralyn Ruane
North Hollywood, California

Mike Sackett
Glen Arm, Maryland

Zev Saftlas
Brooklyn, New York

David Sanger
Austin, Texas

Maralyn Schwer
San Francisco, California

Jacqueline Sia
New York City, New York

Jackie Sigmund
Charlotte, North Carolina

Robert Simmons
Arlington Heights, Illinois

Ruth B. Spiro
Deerfield, Illinois

Ame Stargensky
San Diego, California

Ann Swinford, M.D.
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Wanda Thomas
Wright City, Missouri

Beverly Tribuiani-Montez
Brentwood, California

Jane Van Leuven
Seattle, Washington

Patti Virella
Bronxville, New York

Daniel Walisiak
Naperville, Illinois

Karri Watson
Knoxville, Tennessee

Kaye Whillock
New York City, New York

Lindsey Wilkerson
Cordova, Tennessee

Dax Xenos
Austin, Texas

Tom Yulsman
Longmont, Colorado

Gor Yaswen
Sebastopol, California

Tena Zapantis
Clinton, Massachusetts