When it comes to New York literary venues, the 92nd Street Y is pretty much as good as it gets. Larry and I took the stage last night, and generations of relatives living and dead plotzed up and down the east coast. We were joined by the hilarious novelist Amy Sohn, fearless self-experimenter A.J. Jacobs, brilliant memoir expert Ben Yagoda, musically unparalleled Michael Hearst, and dozens of book contributors and contest winners with their own New York stories to tell.
It was an eclectic evening that included the world’s largest screening of our new video, a five-minute history of the memoir told exclusively in book titles, a group discussion on dating dating columnists and paying unpaid writers, and six never-before-heard six-word songs, featuring hits like “I’ve never been to Staten Island” and “Both my dads drive taxi cabs.”
As usual, the best parts came from you. Katie Baker reminded the men in the audience, “Not on my subway line? Dealbreaker.” Paul Beckman lamented, “No place else knows a schmear.” And book contributor Beth Carter flew in from Missouri just to ask us, “Does the naked cowboy get cold?”
In Brooklyn, Nora Krug had an overflowing house at Greenpoint’s WORD books hanging on her every word as she told the story behind the story of her six-word memoir, “Grandparents died before I could ask,” which dealt with her German heritage and the Holocaust; moments later Nick Douglas took the mood in an entirely different direction with: “Jeez, Mom, just close the door.”
In Milwaukee, at Next Chapter Books, Jennifer Companik (above), author of, “Am sometimes mistaken for a prostitute,” told a rollicking backstory about a history of being assumed to be a working girl, but did so in such a way that her young son sitting in the audience would think she has had years of being asked to “paint fences” (it was kind of odd and quite genius). Read more »
The first two Six-Word Readings have been off the hook. A standing-room only crowd in Brooklyn’s WORD books (take a look ar the great photos from the blog, Guest of a Guest); an evening in which everyone wrote and read a Six-Word Memoir at Milwaukee’s Next Chapter Bookstore (our class pic is above), including SMITHTeener Anna, who happened to be in town…from New Zealand.
Now we’re in Austin, where our Indie Bookstore Greats Tour continues tonight, Jan. 8, at BookPeople, 603 N Lamar, 7pm. If you’re a local, or have friends who are, come on down. We are very excited to meet Six-Word Memoirist Maggie McDonald, who will tell the story behind her six words tonight. And she’s also made a short video. Click the play button and watch your day get better.
It’s SMITH Magazine’s four-year anniversary. And what better way to celebrate than with the release of our fourth book of Six-Word Memoirs, It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure.. The sequel to Not Quite What I Was Planning includes nearly one thousand new six-word sagas from writers famous and obscure, and the first collection of six-word memoirs to include backstories. From acclaimed authors Malcolm Gladwell, Wally Lamb, Junot Diaz, Amy Tan, James Frey, and Art Spiegelman, to famous folks such as Sarah Silverman (whose six words just can’t be repeated here since my little niece may be reading), Molly Ringwald, Margaret Cho, Yogi Berra, Tony Hawk, Terrell Owens, and Tony Kushner, and to many, many SMITH community members, It All Changed is a thousand ways at looking at life, six words at a time, and the one-click solution to the next little gift you need.
Join us at a launch party tonight at WORD books in Brooklyn. Details and the full tour—Milwaukee, Austin, SF, Seattle, and then NYC’s 92nd Street Y on Jan. 24—here.
Each time we make a book, we make a video. Here’s the latest, edited by Nicole Salzano.
We launched on January 6, 2006 thinking we were making a new kind of magazine. We soon found out SMITH had organically become less like a magazine, and more of a community of storytellers. It was not at all what we were planning, and much, much better. Thanks to everyone who’s been with us for these four years, and welcome to all the new writers. As we enter year five, we’re glad you’re with us.
On January 24, SMITH is having a very special event at the 92nd Street Y to celebrate the release our next Six-Word Memoir book, It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure.. We’ll talk about the brilliance of brief writing with A.J. Jacobs, Amy Sohn, and Ben Yagoda, and have lots of audience participation (so come armed with a Six-Word Memoir). We’re also holding a contest: What’s your Six-Word Memoir about your life in New York? From “Husband. Kids. Park Slope. You know,” “Girls from the Bronx are different,” “New Yorker: everything pisses me off,” and New York’s own Neil LaBute who says, in six words, “Writing is easy. Life is hard,” everyone has a New York story (even folks who don’t live here). And everyone loves a prize. We have a bunch of great ones.
• SIX people will have their Six-Word Memoir turned into a song by Michael Hearst of One Ring Zero;
• SIX people will get free admission to the event and be invited on stage to read his or her memoir;
• SIX people will be picked, at random, to win a gift package of Harper books, including the newest Six-Word Memoir book, It All Changed in An Instant.
All SMITH readers get 25 percent discounted admission. Use the code: SWM when purchasing tickets.
Submit your six on yourself/NYC in the comments area of this post by January 18, 5pm EST.
Photo: “Ghosts of New York,” courtesy of Flickr user thomashawk.
“I’m a member of the Writers Room in NYC and we had out holiday party recently. Here’s what turned up: one of two massive cakes with book covers (from members’ books published this year). See top for a fuzzy image of Love and Heartbreak.”
Thanks, Lara, you’ve made our chilly December a little been warmer, fuzzier, and that much sweeter.
Our new book, It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure is out in January and we’re hitting the road for events in NYC, Milwaukee, Austin, SF, Seattle, and back to New York for a very special night at the 92nd St. Y. We’ll tell stories about the making of the book (just how did Sarah Silverman come up with her six?), some of the weird, wild ways Six-Word Memoirs have become part of the culture (six-word prayers, anyone?), and, best of all, hear from contributors in cities across the country who tell their stories behind their stories (like the story of Jaynel Attolini’s “Lovesick. 1985. Suicide by Pop Rocks”—click on that link for one very fun minute). Read more »
