Last year we featured an interview with Cathy Alter on the eve of the release of her memoir, Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over. At the not-so-ripe-old age of 37, Alter had hit rock bottom. Up For Renewal recounts her journey to claw her way back. At the center of her plan was to follow, to the letter, the advice doled out each month in popular women’s magazines—Cosmo, Elle, Self, Glamour, Allure, Real Simple, Marie Claire, O, The Oprah Magazine, that sort of thing. Her first six-word memoir, “Saved by women’s magazines. How Bazaar,” may be the perfect six-word summation of her story, but you should still go buy the memoir, which has just been released in paperback. She’s a funny, honest storyteller, who I first got to know through her work at Might magazine; her essays have since appeared in The Washington Post, Self, and McSweeney’s. At the risk of causing Alter to peak too early, she’s also our Six-Word Memoirist of the Day. If you’re reading this on SMITH’s home page, peer up the page and you can read her latest short, short life story and see her smiling face.

Tags: Cathy Alter, McSweeneys, Oprah