Story behind the Six: Joyce Carol Oates
Friday, February 8th, 2008
After being blown away by six-word submissions from people across the country, we began to put out feelers for contributions by slightly better-known writers. We loved the idea of the memoirs of famous and not-so-famous folks stuffed together in a joyous grab bag of stories. The very first day, I came home from work and fired up the old gmail. Atop my inbox sat two new messages—from Moby and Joyce Carol Oates. It was a surreal moment, made all the more exciting by JCO’s delightfully literary response, reproduced below:
“For your 6-word memoirs, I can supply these memorable lines by Emily
Dickinson, who seems to have had a genius for the sub-genre.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers–
Rowing in Eden–
Ah, the Sea!
Mirth is the Mail of Anguish–
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My own are less poetic:
Revenge is living well, without you.
He celebrates himself. You can, too.
Joyce Carol Oates”
F*@k today like never a tomorrow.
Love, something that never goes away.