Everything we love about personal media: photo essays, video, and more stories from around the world.
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 [...]
Our partner in the “Six-Words on the Digital Life” challenge, FRONTLINE/Digital Nation, is airing a new doc, Digital Nation, on PBS on February 2, 9pm, created by Rachel Dretzin and friend o’ SMITH, Douglas Rushkoff. Based on years of reporting in the field, as well as submissions to PBS’ Digital Nation project from [...]
Somehow, while you were still basking in the tryptophan glow of Thanksgiving, the winter holiday season began. Now that it’s December, there’s no turning back: it’s time to shop.
The trick to holiday shopping is finding a gift that suits a person’s personality without emptying your wallet. This can be an easy match when [...]
Sold! We recently teamed up with Rob Walker and Josh Glenn’s Significant Objects project to see how well Six Words works with their contention that objects with stories attached to them increase in value. The pair have recruited writers like William Gibson, Nicholson Baker, and Curtis Sittenfeld to craft significance for flotsam purchased on [...]
See the show, be the show. A few dozen Six-Word Memoirists are part of an amazing show this Tuesday, November 17 at the Highline Ballroom in New York City. We’re joining the one and only Rick Moody, master storyteller and now HBO sensation Jonathan Ames (illustrated here by Nick Bertozzi), This American Life’s Starlee Kine, [...]
We’re not sure why, but teens seem to have a natural talent when it comes to writing six-word memoirs. And as we’ve seen before, six-word memoirs as an exercise in the classroom always turns out some really fantastic work. Continuing with this tradition are the students of Brooklyn’s own Urban Assembly New York Harbor School with [...]
It’s publishing day for our new book of six-word memoirs! This one is by teens, and It. Is. Amazing.
Just over a year since we launched SMITHTeens, and more than 70,000 six-word memoirs later from a very passionate community of writers aged 13-19, we’re thrilled to announce today’s official release of I Can’t Keep My [...]
5 Minutes for Special Needs, a really wonderful website that offers support and insight to both people with special needs and loved ones of those with special needs, is currently running a SMITH-inspired contest for six-word memoirs and we couldn’t be happier. Winners will be announced next Friday and included in the prizes is an [...]
A year ago we launched SMITHTeens, as Rachel blogged about last August. We launched the site as a simple way to collect six-word memoirs for a book of six-worders by teens. Then we got out of the way. What happened next? The teens blew us away. From the heart (”I am in a love pentagon”) [...]
I woke up on the West Coast to a triple shot of great coverage and kind words from three different sources. For those among our crowd who track such meta-SMITH things, here’s the highlight reel.
SMITH Magazine is FlavorWire’s (the daily blog of the cultural curatoring mavens Flavorpill), Daily Dose Pick for July 16. Eli Dvorkin [...]
Everyone has an ex. Spill your guts, search your soul, and submit your story.
Everyone has a story. Can you tell yours in six words? Submit yours to be considered for SMITH's next six-word memoir book. The first book, Not Quite What I Was Planning, is a NYT bestseller featuring more than 800 writers, famous and obscure..