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 [...]

“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 [...]

Politics and Spring weather colored your Six-Word Memoirs this week. We chose a few of our favorites to illustrate, with some pretty snazzy results. To see all five of this week’s illustrated memoirs, visit SMITH Magazine’s Tumblr.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, SMITHTeens and teen fiction community Figment.com invited young romantics and cynics alike to share their stories of love and heartbreak in the form of a six-word love letter or break-up note.
We received hundreds of sixers in response, along with their brief backstories on Figment, exploring the ups, downs and unexpected loop de loops of [...]

SMITH Mag’s newest book project-Things Don’t Have to be Complicated: The Art of Six-Word Memoirs by Students of the World-is as awesomely collaborative as the other seven, with a sweet scholarly twist: the Six-Word Memoirs included will be solely student written and illustrated.
Social media savvy teacher at New Tech Academy in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Ginger [...]

Every Six-Word Memoir book is a different process. They’re all bound by this simple concept—”your life in exactly six words”—but the vibe is never the same. And never has the experience of receiving the submissions been so intense and amazing as it has been for for our upcoming book, Things Don’t Have to be Complicated: [...]

“Saturday to Saturday makes the summer.” - Mike Zinn
“Mini-golf is the best game ever.” - Danny Zinn (Mike’s son)

Six words have taken me as far as the Cayman Islands to lead a corporate workshop and as close as down the street to do a storytelling workshop with kids at an after-school program in Brooklyn. And [...]

This week’s Six-Word Memoirs are full of heart. Some of these writers found love in favorite cities or bands, while others faced new heights and challenges in their relationships.
Most Bittersweet: “My wedding gown lacked a parachute.” - oopsalittle
Best Footwork: “I’m a waltz with flamenco dreams.” - BanjoDan (profile image above)
Best Wordplay: “He proposed on [...]

My pencil is a magic wand.
I read, thus I can fly.
Sorry Mom, I have gone wild.
With unrelenting heat waves and the familiar melodies of ice cream trucks now upon us, there’s no question that summer is officially here. Schools across the country recessed for summer vacation just last month, and SMITH Magazine was once again [...]

One of the most wonderful things about the Six-Word Memoir project is how it can be used to encapsulate a feeling that’s often hard to express. For the last three years at a fancy lunch to honor the Tony Award nominees, some of the world’s most famous folks in the theater world have been doing [...]