With the election of Barack Obama spawning a seemingly never-ending supply of thoughtful, quality writing all over the internet, our friends at New Millennium Writings have decided to have an Obama-themed writing contest to commemorate this historic time in our millennium.
In addition to nonfiction, NMW is also accepting fiction and poetry submissions on the subject [...]

 We’ve all said or done things that we are not proud of. Whether you’ve been unfaithful to a significant other, cheated on your taxes, stolen from work, or any combination of the three, you are far from alone. And even though some of our dirty little secrets might not really be all that horrible, we [...]

Kristen Buckley is the author of one of the wackiest memoirs we ever Memoirvilled, and Stephanie Staal was my blind date for one of the most creatively inspiring lunch meetings I’ve ever had. When I heard they’d banded together to tell personal stories and creative conversations, I knew we were in for something good.
Their virtual [...]

“We’ve known each other for 20 years … yet we don’t really know each other. That’s sort of stupid when you think about it,” says Frank Deford to Jenni Lipa, his travel agent in an example of NPR’s National Day of Listening, perhaps the perfect antidote to Black Friday. The project comes from the [...]

For as long as human beings have been able to write, sex and death have been the topics of choice. And after all, our fascination is no surprise when you consider that these two subjects are on the very short list of things that all people have in common. Regardless of your class, color or [...]

It’s no secret that writing thoughtful, emotionally-affecting fiction comes from the writer’s ability to draw on real life experiences and turn them into something great. Whether these experiences actually happened, or are anecdotes that were told to the writer by friends or strangers, the details and events that eventually make their way into the story must [...]

http://www.smithmag.net/obsessions/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=89Got a 5-7-5 on Mavericks Squared? People For the American Way is looking for haikus about John McCain and Sarah Palin. Three winners will have their haikus published in The Nation. Ten finalists will be chosen and then the three winners will be voted on by you and other People For the American Way [...]

For many young people, dreaming of rock-and-roll stardom and starting a band almost seems to be a rite of passage. For decades teenagers have been sort-of learning to play instruments, getting together with some friends, and writing songs that they know in their hearts will not only be their ticket to stardom, but will somehow [...]

The effects of overhearing a random piece of conversation can be dumbfounding. Comedian Lewis Black made this point in his bit about overhearing a woman say, “If it weren’t for my horse, I never would have spent that year in college,” where he proposes his theory that hearing something that stupid out of context could [...]

Maybe you were one of the 38 million watching and cheering for Barack Obama’s Mile High acceptance speech. If so, you were in good company: friend of SMITH and “Internet Rockstar” Ben Brown was doing the same last Thursday when a phrase caught his attention. Discussing the Republican administration and the mistakes of the past [...]