Last week’s Six-Word Memoirs were about difficulty and struggle but, ultimately, hope. To see all of the week’s illustrated memoirs, visit SMITH Magazine’s Tumblr.

This week’s Six-Word Memoirs were all about contrast, namely between what you want in your life and what you have. To see all five of this week’s illustrated memoirs, visit SMITH Magazine’s Tumblr.

This week’s Six-Word Memoirs demonstrated your love of nostalgia, whether that be for childhood homes or dwelling in other people’s daydreams. To see all five of this week’s illustrated memoirs, visit SMITH Magazine’s Tumblr.

Last week’s Six-Word Memoirs showed your positive side as you saw the humor in everything from a flock of Springtime pedicures to obstacles getting in the way of your bucket list. To see all of the week’s illustrated memoirs, visit SMITH Magazine’s Tumblr.

This week’s featured classroom attends Essex Street Academy in NYC, a school that prides itself on its project-based focus on learning and personalized approach to education. The ninth and tenth graders taking a creative writing course with teachers Jenny Platow and Caitlin Thomas were asked to write Six-Word Memoirs after thoroughly analyzing the book, I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure, found in the school library.

The students were encouraged to notice not just the words used in the memoirs but also the positioning of the words on the page and the book’s overall design. The class then went on to explore the Six-Word Memoir project as a greater movement by checking out some YouTube video compilations, celebrity six-worders and memoirs from teenagers just like them.

Several of the students have IEP’s (Individual Education Plan) and struggle with reading and writing in some capacity; still, as we’ve so often found, the Six-Word Memoir format is for everyone. Although the main focus of their creative writing course this semester was dramatic writing, students took the creative liberty to mix things up by incorporating other forms of creative writing into the curriculum as well. Each student was required to create three to four memoirs of her own, whether funny, sad, serious or random.

“We quickly saw that while some of our students used the format as a way to just express their creativity and silliness others quickly gravitated towards revealing more serious and sad anecdotes from their life experiences,” Platow says.

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This week’s Six-Word Memoirs were somber, reflecting your reactions to the recent tragedy in Boston. To see the rest of the week’s illustrated memoirs, visit SMITH Magazine’s Tumblr.

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This week’s Six-Word Memoirs focused on endurance and positivity. To see all five of the illustrated memoirs, visit SMITH Magazine’s Tumblr.

Last week’s Six-Word Memoirs of the day ended on a positive note. To see all five of the week’s illustrated memoirs, visit SMITH Magazine’s Tumblr.

“For the shy poets, taking a risk in six words to share a secret, a memory, or a fear is easier than delving into a longer poem.”

Spring always seems to reinvigorate creativity and inspire new ideas. The days are getting longer, the sun is shining brighter and the Six-Word Memoirs are less “Wishing for other reasons to shiver” and more “Mudluscious and puddle-wonderful Spring. -e.e. cummings.”

Which brings us to this month’s featured classroom! Meet Meghan Adler, learning specialist, seasoned writer and poetry teacher at San Francisco Day School in San Francisco, California. Adler is a longtime fan of Six-Word Memoirs who recently attended SMITH founder Larry Smith’s workshop to benefit 826Valencia. She says that her school boasts a community of learners in which perpetual intellectual curiosity and love of learning are highly celebrated. Adler exemplifies the school’s overall mission by exuding an optimistic energy, love of writing and a Six-Word Memoir teaching force to be reckoned with.

This conductor of masterfully brief creativity works with five bright students enrolled in a Performing Arts Elective. Adler and her students recently embarked on a journey into literary world of Six-Word Memoirs, divulging everything from Six-Word secrets to short, sweet odes to San Francisco.

“Twice a week for 50 minutes, I meet with 6th and 7th grade poets in a class called Poems, Poetics and Poetry,” says Adler. “We study forms, poets, and write our own poetry. My students especially love the six-word format because they love structure. Somehow the rules create and allow a structured freedom of sorts. For the shy poets, taking a risk in six words to share a secret, a memory or a fear is easier than delving into a longer poem. Of course later, they may be inspired to keep going, but the six-word prompt helps them enter. I am so grateful for this form that’s helped my poets take risks, share, create, and take real pride in their work.”

These San Francisco students were generous enough to share their sixes with the SMITH community. “One of my students started to have so much fun with the exercise that he came up with one for me as he watched me try to untangle some jewelry: ‘Middle-aged woman strangled by necklace.’”

Get ready to laugh, lament, be inspired and laugh some more as Adler’s students take you on a delightfully youthful, slightly self-conscious and wonderfully witty literary ride.

Six Words On Life
Ollie (6th Grader)
Am I too old for that?

Jamie (6th Grader)
Life never stops even when asked.
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In honor of the last week of our Six-Word Caption Contest with Shutterfly—and because your entries were so delicious is was hard to pick just one winner—we’re naming three winner’s of Six-Word Caption Contest #23, each of whom will receive a $50 gift certificate to use on the photo site.

“Fellows, we’ve secured an energy source.” — JT
“Trending #PinkBunnyCookies #RandPaul choice filibuster snack.” —Lorraine M.
“What is this, a Peep show?” —June

Check out all the entries here in the Contest #23 post, and take a spin through all our winners over on SMITH’s contest page.

In the past few months, this ever-creative community of writers has shared thousands of six-word captions. We thank you all, as well as our partner, Shutterfly, and congratulate our winners. Stay tuned for more contests here in our world of Six Words in the months ahead.