If you’re new around here, maybe finding us via NPR, welcome to SMITH, a community for storytellers.

We’re best known for the Six-Word Memoir project, which we started a few years ago and has taken off in ways which we could never have imagined. Dubbed “American Haiku,” Six-Word Memoirs have become a global phenomenon, found in classroom and
churches, used for speed dating and as Facebook status updates. (Follow us on Twitter for a six-word memoir each day). We hope you’ll contribute your own six words over at the Six-Word Memoir project. Shameless plug alert: Our new book, It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure, is packed with six-word stories from Malcolm Gladwell, Wally Lamb, Junot Diaz, James Frey, Sarah Silverman, Molly Ringwald, Margaret Cho, Tony Kushner, and hundreds of people simply found SMITH. It’s, um, the perfect little gift for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, your kid’s teacher, or for the host of an upcoming party.

There are lots of other story projects, writerly playgrounds where you can pen many more than six words. “My Life So Far” is a place your memoir-in-progress, or simply a personal essay. Brushes With Fame are short essays about encounters with famous folks, in strange places and odd circumstances. My Ex is your very subjective take on just that.

We also publish webcomics, from both famous and emerging artists and storytellers. Currently we’re featuring the work if autobio comics pioneer Harvey Pekar. His original webcomic series for SMITH, The Pekar Project, is a trip. The latest installment, “No Reservations,” is a painterly tour-de-force, illustrated by Tara Seibel, about Pekar’s appearance on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” show.

Above all, we want SMITH to be a conversation among readers, writers and editors—more backyard BBQ than velvet rope cocktail party. We believe the storytelling playing field should be a level one. And above all, we believe this: Everyone has a story. What’s yours?

Tags: Harvey Pekar, It All Changed In An Instant, NPR, six-word memoirs