As community manager of SMITHTeens, I am constantly amazed by the stream of fearlessly frank memoirs that come my way. Some spring from days of triumph (”I am teenager; hear me roar.” - LacrosseMind), others from more trying times  (”Wishing sadness and geometry made sense.” - Grounded Clouds), but each speaks to the unique, yet universal, [...]

This week: Golden Globes for the stars, a birthday for Betty White and a blackout for Wikipedia. The headlines led to colorful imagery, but have nothing on the torrent of self-expression that poured out from the Six-Word Memoir community. Below are the best memoirs of the week. For more to read, click on each author’s [...]

Six-Word Memoir Video 7C from Lacey Boland on Vimeo.
Language arts teacher Lacey Boland keeps her classroom fresh and modern at Independence Charter School in Center City, Philadelphia by combining the benefits of literature and technology. She has taken language arts to the blogosphere.
For the past two years, Boland has had her 7th graders write Six-Word [...]

This week, SMITH kicked off the year with a new book release and a six-year anniversary to celebrate, and the SMITH community expressed excitement with praise, good wishes, and resolutions to write more Six-Word Memoirs. Below are the best memoirs of the week. For more stories, click on each author’s name.
Best Revision: “Boyfriend, career, happiness. [...]

This Hanukkah, SMITH teamed-up with Heeb Magazine, to choose a different Six-Word Memoir on The Jewish Life winner each night, a contest. Each of the eight winning scribes will get a free copy of our upcoming book, Oy! Only Six? Why Not More? Six Words on the Jewish Life, which will be available this [...]

Christmas is six days away and I have yet to start wrapping gifts in colorful paper,  ornamenting trees, framing my house in decorative lights or fine tuning travel plans. Fortunately, the SMITH community is not as holiday-flaky as I am. These ‘tis-the-season inspired Six-Word Memoirs range from shopping and shipping presents, St. Nick and the [...]

This week, Facebook reminded users that it remembers everything, safety folks called for cellphone bans, and a nine-year war quietly ended. The headlines ranged from minor to momentous, much like this week’s Six-Word Memoirs. Whatever the range of meaning, SMITH members showed that six words is enough to make the minor powerful and the momentous [...]

I get such a rush when I walk into a new environment, often full of people who’ve never heard of Six-Word Memoirs—and then mere minutes later they’re spilling forth funny, profound, sweet, and surprising sixes.
In the last month, I’ve given talks and led workshops to a wild range of people in a wide range of [...]

This week an upcoming Playboy leaked a lot of Lohan, tweeting got Rick Larson’s congressional staffers and Alec Baldwin in big trouble, and Obama got his mojo back by invoking his inner-Teddy Roosevelt. Big stuff for high-profile individuals; on SMITH Six-Word Memoirists showed off both the wild and tame sides of the SMITH community in [...]

“My classroom is my Carnegie Hall.”
“Surprise your spouse, not your boss.”
“Who doesn’t love the payroll lady?”
What makes a good topic for a Six-Word Memoir? In short, a subject that evokes a passionate response. So when the consulting group Mercer asked me if I thought a six-word project around work would yield an enthusiastic response [...]