Six-Word Memoirs
Encyclopedia
Six-Word Memoirs is a project founded by the U.S.-based online storytelling magazine Smith Magazine
. Like that publication, Six-Word Memoirs seek to provide a platform for storytelling in all its forms.
and Tim Barko. Taking a cue from novelist Ernest Hemingway
, who, according to literary legend, was once challenged to write a short story in only six words, Smith Magazine set out to do the same. Hemingway's six-word story read: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
In November 2006, Smith's editors Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser gave the six-word story a personal twist, asking Smith readers to tell their life story in just six-words. Smith readers submitted their six-words via www.smithmag.net, and Smiths Twitter
account. In early 2007, Smith signed with Harper Perennial
to create the Six-Word Memoir book series.
In May 2008, Smith announced three new Six-Word Memoir book projects: Six Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak (2009), then a book of Six-Word Memoirs by and for teens (Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure), and a second general Six-Word Memoir sequel to the original.
Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs from Writers Famous & Obscure The first in Smiths Six-Word Memoir book series, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs from Writers Famous & Obscure was released in early 2008.
It collected almost 1,000 Six-Word Memoirs, including additions from many celebrities like Richard Ford
, Deepak Chopra
, and Moby
.
It was as a New York Times bestseller, featured in many stories in "The New Yorker
"
, and highlighted on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation
.
As a romantic follow-up to Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs from Writers Famous & Obscure, Smith released Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak in early 2009.
Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak contains hundreds of personal stories about the pinnacles and pitfalls of romance.
The editors of Smith asked dozens of writers "famous and obscure" to compose six-word memoirs; they wanted wordsmiths, old and new, to capture the essence of romance in half a dozen words.
Press for this second book included a second appearance on Talk of the Nation. The book also spent some time on Entertainment Weekly
's Must List .
Released September 1, 2009 , I Can't Keep My Own Secrets--Six-Word Memoirs by Teens: Famous & Obscure, was the first Six-Word Memoir book devoted entirely to teenagers. Smith launched Smith Teens in June 2008. Soon after, it became a destination for teenagers to reveal their biggest secrets, or the most mundane moments in their daily lives. The book features famous and everyday teens from The United States and abroad.
debut on The Leonard Lopate Show on Friday, February 27, 2009. The show was listener interactive, asking Lopate fans to submit their memoirs to the show for a contest. The winners and runner-ups' memoirs were read on-air.
Winners:
Best Wordplay:
“Living in existential vacuum; it sucks.”
-Deb, Brooklyn
Best on Tech:
“Facebook has ruined my entire life.”
-Jeanie Engleke, Bradley Beach, NJ
Best on Politics:
“Nixon childhood, Reagan teenager, hope finally.”
-Tonia Mohammed-Madejczyk, Northport, New York
An unexpected personal story was shared by a listener during the Lopate segment:
. The tour culminated at a joint-sponsored event in New York City at The Housing Works Bookstore. In addition to featured SMITH activities, there were performances and activities by PostSecret
, Found Magazine
, Mortified, Cassette from My Ex, and music by Michael Hearst
of One Ring Zero
.
in February 2009 leading up to Valentine's Day
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqbRC-7N0nc, have been posted to YouTube
.
Smith Magazine
Smith Magazine is a U.S.-based online magazine devoted to storytelling in all its forms. Smiths content is participatory in nature, and the magazine welcomes contributions from all its readers...
. Like that publication, Six-Word Memoirs seek to provide a platform for storytelling in all its forms.
History
Smith was founded January 6, 2006, by Larry SmithLarry Smith (editor)
Larry Smith is an American author and editor, and publisher of SMITH Magazine. He is best-known for developing the "Six-Word Memoir" a literary subgenre that took on a life of its own in popular culture as publications began holding reader contests and publishing the results...
and Tim Barko. Taking a cue from novelist Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, who, according to literary legend, was once challenged to write a short story in only six words, Smith Magazine set out to do the same. Hemingway's six-word story read: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
In November 2006, Smith's editors Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser gave the six-word story a personal twist, asking Smith readers to tell their life story in just six-words. Smith readers submitted their six-words via www.smithmag.net, and Smiths Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
account. In early 2007, Smith signed with Harper Perennial
Harper Perennial
Harper Perennial is a paperback imprint of the publishing house HarperCollins Publishers. Harper Perennial has divisions located in New York, London, Toronto, and Sydney. The imprint is descended from the Perennial Library imprint founded by Harper & Row in 1964...
to create the Six-Word Memoir book series.
In May 2008, Smith announced three new Six-Word Memoir book projects: Six Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak (2009), then a book of Six-Word Memoirs by and for teens (Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure), and a second general Six-Word Memoir sequel to the original.
Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs from Writers Famous & Obscure The first in Smiths Six-Word Memoir book series, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs from Writers Famous & Obscure was released in early 2008.
It collected almost 1,000 Six-Word Memoirs, including additions from many celebrities like Richard Ford
Richard Ford
Richard Ford is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land, and the short story collection Rock Springs, which contains several widely anthologized stories.-Early...
, Deepak Chopra
Deepak Chopra
Deepak Chopra is an Indian medical doctor, public speaker, and writer on subjects such as spirituality, Ayurveda and mind-body medicine. Chopra began his career as an endocrinologist and later shifted his focus to alternative medicine. Chopra now runs his own medical center, with a focus on...
, and Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
.
It was as a New York Times bestseller, featured in many stories in "The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
"
, and highlighted on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation is a talk radio program based in the United States, produced by National Public Radio, and is broadcast nationally from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Its focus is current events and controversial issues....
.
Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure
Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak contains hundreds of personal stories about the pinnacles and pitfalls of romance.
The editors of Smith asked dozens of writers "famous and obscure" to compose six-word memoirs; they wanted wordsmiths, old and new, to capture the essence of romance in half a dozen words.
Press for this second book included a second appearance on Talk of the Nation. The book also spent some time on Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
's Must List .
I Can't Keep My Own Secrets--Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure
The Leonard Lopate Show
Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser made their WNYCWNYC
WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
debut on The Leonard Lopate Show on Friday, February 27, 2009. The show was listener interactive, asking Lopate fans to submit their memoirs to the show for a contest. The winners and runner-ups' memoirs were read on-air.
Winners:
Best Wordplay:
“Living in existential vacuum; it sucks.”
-Deb, Brooklyn
Best on Tech:
“Facebook has ruined my entire life.”
-Jeanie Engleke, Bradley Beach, NJ
Best on Politics:
“Nixon childhood, Reagan teenager, hope finally.”
-Tonia Mohammed-Madejczyk, Northport, New York
An unexpected personal story was shared by a listener during the Lopate segment:
And in an intense few minutes of radio, Anne from Hell’s Kitchen shared her six-word memoir, “I found my mother’s suicide note.” She talked about how important it was for her to come to terms with her mother’s death, and the role of the note in that process. The note, she explained, was just six words: “No flowers, no funeral, no nothing.”
Love & Heartbreak Book Tour
Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser went on Love & Heartbreak book tour in January and February 2009. Major stops included Books Inc. in San Francisco, Tattered Cover Books in Denver, and the Book Cellar in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. The tour culminated at a joint-sponsored event in New York City at The Housing Works Bookstore. In addition to featured SMITH activities, there were performances and activities by PostSecret
PostSecret
PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard...
, Found Magazine
Found Magazine
Found Magazine, created by Davy Rothbart and Jason Bitner and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan and New York City, collects and catalogs found notes, photos, and other interesting items, publishing them in an irregularly-issued magazine, in books, and on its website...
, Mortified, Cassette from My Ex, and music by Michael Hearst
Michael Hearst
Michael Marcus Hearst is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and writer. His musical instruments include claviola, theremin, guitar, piano, drums and bass...
of One Ring Zero
One Ring Zero
One Ring Zero is a modern music group led by Joshua Camp and Michael Hearst that melds many genres and sounds to create a unique type of music.-Instruments:...
.
Smith on Twitter
Continuing Larry Smith's effort to utilize cutting-edge internet technology, Smith posted daily Love & Heartbreak Six-Word Memoir TweetsTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
in February 2009 leading up to Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
.
Recognition
- Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure was listed on Amazon's Best Books of 2008 list at number 69.
- In April 2009, The Denver PostThe Denver Post-Ownership:The Post is the flagship newspaper of MediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 by William Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder. MediaNews is today one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, publisher of 61 daily newspapers and more than 120 non-daily publications in 13 states. MediaNews...
listed Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak: By Writers Famous and Obscure as the 5th bestselling non-fiction paperback http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_11635868/ in the Denver area according to sales at the Tattered Cover Book Store, Barnes & Noble in Greenwood Village, the Boulder Book Store http://www.boulderbookstore.com, and Border's Books in Lone TreeLone TreeLone Tree or Lonetree can refer toPlaces in Canada*Lone Tree No. 18, Saskatchewan*Lone Tree Regional Park in Highlands, British ColumbiaPlaces in the United States*Lone Tree, California*Lone Tree, Colorado*Lone Tree, Iowa...
.
- Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure was listed as a New York Times bestseller http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00E3DC133AF935A25750C0A96E9C8B63&scp=2&sq=six-word%20memoir%20best%20seller&st=cse in 2008. It was grouped in the paperback section of the "advice, how to and miscellaneous section."
Community Impact
The Six-Word Memoir format has been used as a writing exercise for teachers http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2008/07/09/40tln_norton.h19.html?tmp=926420681, ranging from second-grade classrooms http://www.smithmag.net/sixwordbook/sixword-storybook to graduate schools. HarperCollins created a teacher's guide to encourage the Six-Word Memoir form as a tool for teaching http://harpercoln.vo.llnwd.net/o16/NotQuiteTG.html. Six-Word Memoirs have been employed as tools in hospital wards http://www.smithmag.net/sixwordbook/2008/10/08/fat-man-eats-pie-then-farts-six-words-in-hospitals, appeared in a eulogy http://carebearc.livejournal.com/482014.html, and suggested as a form of prayer by a preacher in North Carolina. Six-Word Memoir videos from individuals ranging from teenager Micahsamaniac (a youtube user) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOJO2wWtaF8 and bestselling author Daniel HandlerDaniel Handler
Daniel Handler is an American author, screenwriter and accordionist. He is best known for his work under the pen name Lemony Snicket.-Personal life:...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqbRC-7N0nc, have been posted to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.