In what is now a SXSWi tradition, SMITH’s Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser took to the streets (oh fine, to the open bar) to document the oldest form of personal expression since cave painting, the witty T-shirt.

Know these nerds? Recognize your chest? Name ‘em, claim ‘em, tag them on Facebook, fave them on Flickr. And should you doubt the staying power of this series, Google image search nerdy girl—the one who isn’t naked is ours.

Quick links:
This year’s photos on Flickr.
This year’s photos on Facebook.
From the archives: our first geek tee photo essay.

As I decompress from a tech conference—a dizzying few days of true Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, blogging overload that I absolutely loved—I am especially looking forward to unplugging this weekend as a part of the “Sabbath Manifesto” (tagline: “Slowing down lives since 2010″). Sabbath Manifesto is sort of a “secular Sabbath,” a national day of unplugging from sundown, Friday, 3/19 to sundown, Saturday, 3/20. I don’t know a single person who couldn’t use a little unplugging in their life (with the possible exception of my dad who refuses to use a computer, and indeed may be the last person in America with a dictaphone), so I hope you’ll get on this bus and take a breather from the screens that suck up so much of our mental and physical energy.

Here are two short videos about this idea of why a “secular Sabbath” is both hard to achieve and so valuable for our sanity. The first one is from the organizers of the Sabbath Manifesto. The second is from filmmaker and Six-Word Memoirist Tiffany Shlain, who pays tribute to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” with her take on chilling out, Yelp.

While we at SMITH are firm believers in using a restricted amount of words to get to the heart of a story, there’s something to be said for the idea of restricting the amount time used to compose a story (An idea that seems strangely familiar after a year of working at SMITH and correcting people referring to our “Six-Minute” Memoirs.)

Enter Six Minute Story: An experiment in Microfiction that aims to give its users an outlet for creating a unique short story in just six minutes. The process is exactly as easy as it sounds: Complete the short registration process, write for six minutes without over-thinking it, and just like that, anybody can be a published author. It’s a sentiment that we can definitely get behind.

Dear Thyroid provides a very unique kind of support for patients of thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers. As opposed to other support communities that might just list some facts and put you in touch with other people in the same situation, Dear Thyroid offers their readers a literary outlet for writing about their experiences.

A few weeks ago, Dear Thyroid editor Robyn Davis Hahn, just happened to be listening toTalk of the Nation and caught Larry and Rachel’s piece about our latest book of Six-Word Memoirs. And almost instantly, she composed the first six-word thyroid monograph, or thygraph: “Never the same again. Thanks, Thyroid!”  Read more »

Because the first few rounds resulted in such amazing stories, NPR’s All Things Considered is returning with another round of their Three-Minute Fiction contest.

The premise remains the same: Compose an original story of 600 words or fewer that tells the story of the selected photograph on NPR’s website. Your entries must be received by February 28th before midnight and the winning story will be read on-air. However, this time around the winner will also receive an autographed copy of All Things Considered book critic Alan Cheuse’s book, To Catch the Lightning: A Novel of American Dreaming and one of his short stories that was also inspired by a photograph. (Cheuse, as it happens, also contributed a short, short story to SMITH Mag’s new Six-Word Memoir book: “Reading led to writing, days, years.”) And if that’s not enough motivation for you, maybe you should take a look outside. This is a perfect example of prime writing weather.

If your name isn’t David Gallagher, then unfortunately this one isn’t for you. If you are still reading this however, and your name is David Gallagher, then you have the opportunity to be involved in giving one woman a very unique, very awesome birthday surprise.

David Gallagher’s wife, Fiona, has a birthday coming up in early April and David would like her to receive not just one birthday card from him, but thousands from as many David Gallaghers as possible. You can send any card of your choosing, as long as you remember to say “Happy Birthday” somewhere in your personal message (additionally, David asks that you mail your card by March 20th to ensure that it arrives in time and that the messages don’t get “too weird”). Read more »

If you’re working on a memoir, or thinking about it—and you know we all are—two hours learning about the craft with writer Stephen Elliott are a very good idea. Elliott is the founder of The online magazine, The Rumpus, and author of seven books including the recently published, The Adderall Diaries—and the embodiment of what it means to be a working writer (read his much-discussed essay about his DIY book tour for The New York Times).

A friend of SMITH and sometimes partner-in-events, Elliott is doing his “Writing From Experience” lecture on March 11 in NYC. Here’s what he says about it: Read more »

When I describe someone, I typically explain the usuals: he’s short, has brown eyes, a round belly, and has balding and graying black hair. Anyone who knows him would know that I’m describing my dad. I probably wouldn’t say that he has a voice akin to a rough and tumble Santa or that his sneezes sound like a walrus’ cough, but if you’re the creator of Whose Voice is That?, that is exactly what you would say to describe my dad.

Whosevoice.org is a new site centered all around the voice. The unnamed creator of WViT says that his special gift is voice recognition. Think that’s Jamie Lee Curtis in those Boniva commercials? Of course not, it’s Nancy Giles! That’s what WViT is there for, to shed some light on those voiceovers you’re so sure you recognize but can’t quite place. Read more »

Tin House Magazine, the magazine and book publishers that aim to publish the “compelling and authentic narratives of our time,” are currently accepting submissions on the subject of class in America for their upcoming Fall issue.

Specifically, they’re looking for submissions in the form of fiction, essays, and poetry on the subject that come from a unique perspective. Whether you’ve made the move from lower to upper class or vice versa, consider yourself classless, or are a recent immigrant from a country with a different attitude towards class…Tin House wants to hear from you. Submissions will be accepted until May 1 and should be no longer than ten-thousand words.

Turning 30 is a terrifying thing for a lot of people. As such, year 29 carries quite a bit of weight. So why not do something special to remember your life before the transition into 30dom?

That is exactly what artist Nicole Kenney has done with her personal story project, diary29. That magical number, 29, also happens to be her golden birthday. To honor that year, she started documenting her life on July 29, 2009. Each day Nicole takes a photo of the happenings in her life. Read more »