1. Six-Word Memoirs Take on Kids and Teens
- Move over, MySpace, SMITHTeens is up and running. We’re thrilled to announce a call for submissions for our newest six-word project: Six-Word Memoirs for teens. The book will be published by HarperTeen next year, and everyone between 13 and 19 is encouraged to share their six. It makes the perfect back-to-school ice breaker—if you’re a teacher, librarian or student who’d like to get involved with the project, please email rachel at smithmag dot net.
- Would you ever have guessed that “Always in trouble, not really troubled,” were the words of an eight-year-old boy? Larry recently took the six-word exercise to his nephew’s school and came back with the collected works of Mrs. Nixon’s third-graders. Check out the e-book for an amazing dose of eight-year-old wisdom.
2. SMITH Comics
- The first four chapters of Emily Steinberg’s Graphic Therapy are up, and you can read them here. There are now more than thirty brilliantly detailed, fantastically neurotic panels that track the artist’s life—and delve deep inside her big quirky brain.
- Still haven’t shared your story about the crazy couple that lives down the hall? You’ve got less than a month to submit your tale to our Next-Door Neighbor contest, which ends September 1st. The winning entry will be made into a chapter of our Next-Door Neighbor Webcomic. Be sure to check out our latest installment, The Beekeeper.
- You may have noticed the glowing review of A.D. in the most recent issue of Newsweek. You can read the latest chapter of Josh Neufeld’s “authentic and powerful” webcomic here, and be sure to keep an eye out for the final installment in a few weeks.
3. Also in SMITH
- Do women’s magazines have all (or any) of the answers? Cathy Alter spent a year following their advice—and trying to put her life back together in the process. She chronicles her experiences in Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over and she talks with Kathy Ritchie over in Memoirville. Read the interview here and an excerpt here.
- In My Life So Far, we’ve got lots of unusual new reader-generated memoirs-in-progress, like this striking poem that chronicles a 21-year-old’s love life to date.
- On a recent flight, Nancy Abrams and her very special son “make it work” and meet one of the most gracious celebrities around. Read this story and others at Brushes With Fame, where even celebrity sightings are all about you.
4. Last Chance to make a First Impression
This week is your last chance to enter First Person Impressions, a national competition for documentary and memoir writers, photographers, and videographers, from awesome nonprofit First Person Arts. Each day countless stories unfold. Take a real life experience of your own and tell it in a way that only you can. Craft your story with words, photos or video. Make the ordinary magical, or the exotic familiar. Shock us, amaze us or make us pause to reflect. The only rule is that it’s real. Don’t miss your chance to win cash prizes, acclaim, and unique publishing opportunities.
My father went to Yale. He never pressured me into following in his footsteps but instead just regaled me with...
We’ve seen Six-Word Memoirs in a lot of forms—from books, to board games, calendars and T-shirts—but this one, quite literally, takes the cake. February’s Member of the Month is Callie, who goes by the handle songwriter on SMITH Teens, and is a thirteen-year-old six-word savant from Ohio. She first discovered SMITH Teens in school, when an enrichment teacher had her class write a few. Inspired, she immediately went home, created an account and has been writing six-worders (sometimes as many as 30 a day) ever since. She’s on Six-Word Memoir 1,770…and counting.
