Well, my first trip to Denver was a rollicking success, even if all I saw was two bookstores and a bar. What more could I ask for, really? Especially when each was packed with good-natured people primed for story-sharing. The Tattered Cover is one of those classic independent bookstores full of staff picks and inside jokes and slightly crooked shelves nailed up as needed. I’m told the two locations I visited were fashioned from an old warehouse and a defunct theater. The crowd where we spoke was a nice mix of contributors, friends of friends, and strangers who’d heard us on the radio. The Q&A was especially lively, with debates arising over the future of publishing, print on demand, democratization of media, and the role of images in the short, short form. Read more »
Last week we posed a short and sweet six-word challenge to our Twitter followers: What’s your six-word solution to the Middle East crisis? Within a few hours, about 30 responded. Here are a few of our favorites, with the winner of the Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak book at the end of this post. Note to Obama’s new Middle East envoy George Mitchell: these sixes are on the house. Read more »
Newsweek runs one of the most lovely pieces on Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak to date. “Summing up a life, a romance or a trauma so succinctly may seem like an abomination out of the Twitter generation,” writes Jesse Ellison, “[but] what’s most remarkable is the range of sentiments, from the trivial to the profound, that can be expressed in the six-word form.” After reading the story online last night, in which I tell Ellison, “I had no opinions on the number six two years ago,” I went hunting through SMITH for a six-word memoir to feature today. In a wintry mood, I went with “It’s snowing and I’m practically naked,” from SMITH community member Fulana. Scrolling through her others stories, I found this one: “Always hated number 6. Until now.” I know the feeling.
The book:Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, out on January 10. The video: created by SMITH cofounder Tim Barkow, with help from Flickr (creative commons). The song:Katie Todd (warning: this one will stick with you) The link: smithmag.net/lovevideo.
Six-Word Memoirs by Teens book finalist Natalia Jimenez writes:
I heard about this project through writing camp. I spent three weeks of my summer at UVA’s Young Writers’ Workshop, where all of our counselors were obsessed with the idea of six words. The fiction class wrote six word stories. The playwriting class wrote 6 word plays. The poetry class wrote 6 word poems. And my class, the nonfiction class, wrote six word memoirs. At the end of the three weeks, we all wrote six word memoirs, and recorded them back to back.
And HERE, for your listening pleasure, is a waterfall of words, six at a time, illuminating the teen experience. I’m keeping mine on repeat.
Penny Burger, an eighth-grade language arts Teacher at Central Middle School in Muscatine, Iowa, was searching for a way to teach her students about the power of writing concisely when she stumbled across our six-word memoirs. She brought the concept into the classroom and, to keep it concise, was blown away by the results.
After seeing how amazing their memoirs turned out, Penny placed her students into groups where they collaborated on videos to showcase their work. The following is one of several videos that were presented during a special assembly and later at the Muscatine Community School District’s annual Progress Breakfast.
The excellent work in this video is another great example of six-word memoirs by teens, a group that seems to never fail to blow us away with their amazing, insightful and funny writing.
My personal favorite: “Can’t get a girlfriend, at all.”
For the last four days, I have done nothing but email teens who are finalists for our upcoming teens-only six-word memoir book. It’s hundreds and hundreds of stories, plus some pictures, some advice, some tough questions, and some secret-sharing of my own. Today, I got a reply informing me that a memoir Larry and I had selected wasn’t written by a teen at all, but by their teacher, testing the waters. Turns out, Mr. Andree has his students’ stories on a great website, where each teen writer has a six-word memoir, a slightly longer background story, and even a picture. Don’t miss it! And if you’re working on a six-inspired project, be sure to let us know…
As a web community with the occasional thing to sell, we’re obligated to help you solve your holiday dilemmas. And so we present— Two gifts: under $20, problem solvers.
The two gifts from SMITH hyped below offer about the highest combo of unique-ness, creative-ness, and inexpensive-ness you’ll encounter this budget-conscious holiday season.
Item #1: Personalized Six-Word Memoir T-shirts. After a long search for the right partner, we’ve teamed up with Spreadshirt to bring the world six-word memoir shirts. Our six-word shop is totally cool. There you’ll find many memoirs from Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Words Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure along with editor’s favorites. Even better, you can customize a shirt with your own six-word story in any style you like. Write a six-word memoir for a friend and send that friend a T-shirt for the holidays. How good will your crazy uncle Alex look with a T-shirt that says, “If there’s more I want it?” Good. Free shipping (saves $5) until December 12. When you go to the SMITH-Spreadshirt type in the coupon code: SIXWORDS. Ideal for: Secret Santas; Teens obsessed with Facebook; grandparents who aren’t;anyone who digs wearable self-expression; T-shirt lovers of all ages.
Item #2: The expanded, delux, super-delicious hardcover edition of the Six-Word Memoir book has a fancy new cover and 100 more memoirs added to the book that made Amazon’s list of the Top 100 books of 2008 (out of like…. all books!). NPR just included the new edition of Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Words Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure among its picks for Best Gift Books of 2008. Ideal for: Stocking stuffing; the sixth night of Hanukkah; the difficult and/or geeky cousin you never quite know what to get; the thing to bring to a party instead of yet another $10 bottle of wine you scrambled to pick up on the way.
So there you have it. Click, click and knock a few gifts off your list.
A few months ago, a strange and wonderful thing found its way to my desk: a box of pretzel croissants from NYC’s City Bakery.
I love pretzel croissants, as I detailed in this interview. Raella Rothman (pictured in the middle, on the right), an enterprising senior at LREI high school in NYC, had put together a series of assemblies called “Just Words.” She wanted SMITH Magazine to come talk about Six-Word Memoirs. And clearly she’s been well schooled: bribing us with baked goods was one savvy move.
After talking about SMITH’s style of storytelling—it’s all about the “Chicken’s-Eye View”—and how, why, and the wild ways six-word memoirs have become a global phenom, and that we’re working on a new book of six-word memoirs by and for teens, we finally stopped talking.
Good thing, too. Because that’s when things got really good, as Rachel channeled Oprah, moving through the 200+ teens assembled with her wireless mic.
Everyone got into it, with the mic moving back and forth across the room (and the seniors in the balcony shouting them down to everyone else). Here’s just some of what we heard. “Too many colors, hair now brittle.”
“Found Waldo in a strip club.”
“Fat camp makes fat kids fatter.”
“Life is best with sturdy trampolines.”
“Only child, home alone. Where’s dinner?”
“Late to school every single day.”
“Slightly tempted to believe in Santa.”
“I thought I was a princess.”
“I’m always the only one laughing.”
“Beautiful vacations until the brother came.”
“Obama ran, so I could fly.”
“Wake up to sunset, morning wood.”
“Still scared about being grown up.”
And what was clearly a crowd pleaser— “I think your mom is hot.”
To the amazing students a LREI, in six words I say: “You totally brought it to six.” We hope to hear more from you at SMITH Teens.
