Three minutes, 20+ six-word memoirs. A torrent of self-expression from writers famous and obscure at The Rumpus & Tin House benefit at NYC’s glorious Highline Ballroom on November 17, 2009.

Six-Word Memoirists: Highline Ballroom, Nov. 17 2009 from SMITHmag on Vimeo.

SMITH’s community of storytellers rose to our latest challenge in the style and spirit we’ve come to expect, submitting more than 430 entries from as close as across the hall to as far as at least India
for “Six Words on a Significant Object”. The contest was a collaboration with Significant Objects, the brainchild of Joshua [...]

Dear SMITH:
I asked some of my teen patrons as AISD to try the six-word memoir. AISD (American International School/Dhaka) is one of the top international schools with a population of 700 students (Pre-K-12). Our vision is to prepare students to become stewards of a just and sustainable world.
- Judyth Lessee, MS/HS Librarian, AIS/Dhaka, Bangladesh
Here’s what [...]

We know that everyone has a story, but the online project Significant Objects believes every thing has a story, too. Started by Joshua Glenn and NYT “Consumed” columnist Rob Walker, the pair have recruited writers like William Gibson, Nicholson Baker, and Curtis Sittenfeld to craft significance for flotsam purchased on the cheap at thrift stores. [...]

How do you boil down the essence of your digital life in just six words? More than 850 ways. Hundreds of you sent 850+ entries to SMITH Magazine and FRONTLINE/Digital Nation’s “Six Words on the Digital Life” challenge. Your digital life runs from the highly personal (”Hand on iPhone. Baby on breast”) to the practical [...]

Our partner in the Six-Words on the Digital Life challenge, FRONTLINE/Digital Nation, has put some faces to your half-dozen words. They’re streamed in some of the images you’re posted, as well as added a few Creative Commons-licensed shots, to create a whole new way of looking at some of the responses from our [...]

Nearly 500 of you took the plunge and entered our “Six Words on Water” challenge, inspired by our pals over at Treehugger. It wasn’t easy picking the winners, but TH editor Meaghan O’Neil has emerged with her top three choices. Each writer will receive a Spreadshirt tee adorned by their six wet words.
The Winners:
“Raise [...]

Our friends over at TreeHugger and Planet Green have been devoting lots of virtual space lately to exploring our oceans and waterways in their month-long feature, Blue August. That got SMITH thinking about a Six-Word Challenge about one of summer’s treats and earth’s increasingly rare resources: water. Whether your half-dozen well-chosen words are about water [...]

As reported in the New York Post’s Page 6, I had a brush with fame with a very special storyteller who recently passed away, Frank McCourt. Since the Post had space limitations, and you highbrow SMITH readers may sometimes miss many New Yorkers’ guilty Page 6 pleasure, here’s the longer version.

I ran into indie rock star hero Jonathan Coulton when and where I usually run into him: in the wee(ish) hours of the morning at Gorilla Coffee, the Brooklyn institution that fuels more than a few entrepreneurial efforts. I’d beeen after him for weeks now, encouraging him, with increasing enthusiasm (some might say “aggression”) [...]