In this spirit, smith magazine invited writers famous and obscure to distill their own life stories into exactly six words. Six word memoirs by writers famous and obscure, and several more. Many of the six word memoirs are very clever, and some are touching. Their stories are sometimes sad, often funny and always. One life, 6 words whats yours sixword memoirs from smith. Sixword memoir samples this is a list of 6 word memoirs from the book i cant keep my own secrets.
Soon after, it became a destination for teenagers to reveal their biggest secrets, or the most mundane moments in their daily lives. More 6word memoirs from the february 2012 issue of o, the oprah magazine subscribe to the live your best life newsletter sign up for the oprah. Not quite what i was planning is a collection of sixword memoirs by famous and notsofamous. This book is composed of many six word memoirs, written by all different authors. Inspired by the book not quite what i was planning. It doesnt take a lot of words to communicate emotion and ideas. In may 2008, smith announced three new sixword memoir book projects. One life, 6 words whats yours sixword memoirs from. The success of this book led to a series of bestselling six word memoir books. Six word memoirs written by my seventh grade students at franklin delano roosevelt middle school during my student teaching experience.
Capture your life in six words with a sixword memoir. Summing up a life in six words proves addictive reuters. See actions taken by the people who manage and post content. It collected almost 1,000 six word memoirs, including additions from many celebrities like richard ford, deepak chopra, and moby. A pocketsized book packed with 500 sixword memoirs on love in its many shapes and forms from smith readers and famous folk like dr. Sixword memoirs you have each been assigned a character from the outsiders. The ninth book in the bestselling six word memoir series brings us all the way back to the start of the project as we ask. Six words memoirs on jewish life smith, larry, david, larry, radnor, josh on. With contributions from larry david, amy schumer, art spiegelman, and hundreds more, sixword offers stories of faith and family, duty and identity, celebration and tsuris that will inform, delight and inspiresix word at a time. The story of your life in six words great icebreaker or even end of the year activity. You will be writing a series of six word memoirs, designed around different topics. Drawing from the virally popular you tube spoken word video of the same name, this highly engaging faithsharing book serves as a relational bridge to deeper spiritual conversation. A few years ago, the online storytelling magazine smith asked readers to submit six word memoirs.
Not quite what i was planning remained on the new york times best seller list for six weeks. Larry smith born september 17, 1968 is an american author and editor, and publisher of smith magazine. In these short, sharp tales of tragedy and triumph, bittersweet romance and stinging regret, all of life is packed into half a dozen words. May 06, 2008 micah micahsamaniac and smith magazine have joined forces to spread the six word phenomena farther than ever. Jan 16, 20 in 2006, larry smith issued a challenge to his online community. A short, fun video with tips for writing great six word memoirs from smith magazine, the creators of the six word memoir project and bestselling book series.
With contributions from machers like larry david, jonathan safran foer, henry winkler, elizabeth wurtzel, gary shteyngart, maira kalman, walter mosley and mayor ed koch, along with hundreds of firsttime writers, sixword memoirs on jewish life. The book not quite what i was planning is a collection of six word memoirs from people around the globe. In response to being asked to write a 6 word memoir summing up their lives. The inspiration for sixword memoirs came courtesy of a legend about ernest hemingway. Writers famous and obscure on love, sex, money, friendship, family, work, and much more six word memoir. Smith has published five compilations of the intensely personal accounts and continues his online quest to spark the creativity of aspiring writers. In this spirit of simple yet profound depth, the online magazine smith asked readers to write the story of their own lives in a single sentence. See the complete six word memoirs series book list in order, box sets or omnibus editions, and companion titles.
Six word memoirs from smith has been featured everywhere from cnn and npr to entertainment weekly, the. Locate an image online, in a magazine, or one from home that represents your memoir. The answer, according to this addictively readable collection of minimemoirs, is yes. But if an entire story can be told in just six words, can the same be said of an entire life. When the online storytelling magazine smith asked readers to submit sixword memoirs, they proved a whole, real life can be told this way too. In settings such as in boardrooms, classrooms, staff retreats, and conferences, sixword memoirs is a simple concept thats become an effective tool to spark conversation, crystalize goals, and boil anything down to its core. The enormously popular sixword memoir project examines a subject bursting with words. If you could sum up your whole viewpoint on life in just six words, what would those words be. Five years on, participants have contributed more than half a million mini memoirs. There are many examples of six word memoirs in books and online but here are just a few examples that caught my eye on the kelly writers house website. Oct 19, 2008 to order one life, six words, whats yours. They sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet cursed with cancer, blessed with friends and poignant.
Six word memoirs from writers famous and obscure, edited by penn alumni larry smith and rachel fershleiser, the hub decided to write their own six word stories. Any of our sixword memoirs collections are bound to be a good fit. Mar 05, 2008 check out these life stories from not quite what i was planning. Spark your students sixword memoirs is an easy, inspirational entry point for all students. Smith started a contest in which people wrote six word stories of their own, as memoirs then put hundreds of them into a new book, not quite what i was. The sixword memoir project the sixword memoir blog. Life stories distilled can you pare the story of your life into just six words. Sixword memoirs have been featured in hundreds of media outlets from npr to the new yorker, covered on tens of thousands of blogs, and, as of summer 2010, can be found inside 1 million honest tea bottle caps. Writers famous and obscure on love, sex, money, friendship, family, work, and much more six word memoir by larry smith nov 3, 2015 4. The coronavirus not only kills people but is in our brain almost all the time.
You get the feeling that there may be a lot there, but in the end, theres a good taste in your mouth, but not much more. Facebook is showing information to help you better understand the purpose of a page. He is best known for developing the bestselling book series six word memoirs, a literary subgenre that took on a life of its own in popular culture as publications began holding reader contests and publishing the results. Drew pinsky, marc ecko, robert hass, janice dickinson, elizabeth gilbert, armistead maupin, and more. Life stories in six words lack the attention span for 500page bios.
Last week, we unleashed a challenge to tell your life story in exactly six words, the idea coming from larry smiths six word memoir project and his series of best selling books based on readers six word contributions. The results were published in this book, along with some submissions by famous writers and celebrities. The book not quite what i was planning is a collection of six word memoirs from. Not quite what i was planning, is a book of six word memoirs. The book is a compilation of hundreds of 6word memoirs that were submitted to the books publisher. Smith magazine, inspired by hemingways six word story for sale. We recently issued a challenge on next avenues facebook page. It collected almost 1,000 sixword memoirs, including additions from many.
Hundreds of responses flooded in the pithy life stories our. Six wordmemoir samples this is a list of 6 word memoirs from the book i cant keep my own secrets. Six word memoirs inspired by the book not quite what i was planning. Sixwords memoirs on jewish life smith, larry, david, larry, radnor, josh on. We use this as a fun and simple exercise in our personal renewal groups to get. Today, the washington post features a slideshow of just a few of the minimemoirs and images from the book. Quarantine edition pia alliende march 28, 2020 at 9.
They quickly proved a whole, real life can be told this way. At the bottom of the page, write the rough draft of your six word memoir. One of our most recent six word prompts was also one the smith community responded to most passionately. Because this memoir is only six words, the words you choose must be powerful. Then, i read about six word memoirs on one of my favorite healthy living blogs and then i wrote about the. Six word memoirs on jewish life, not quite what i was planning. Six word memoirs you have each been assigned a character from the outsiders. Since then, sixword memoir project has become a global phenomenon and a bestselling book series. Life stories distilled once asked to write a full story in six words, legend has it that novelist ernest hemingway responded.
Six word memoirs is a bestselling book series and phenomenon found in classroom, churches, and at live six word slams across the world. Check out these speedy life stories from not quite what i was planning. In order to narrow down a life intosix words, a writer needs to beginwith many words and ideas. Not all of them will be masterpieces, though i do expect you to do your best and always use the amazing brain that youve been growing over the years. So below, we asked larry smith all about how sixword memoirs came to be. I hope you enjoyed reading some of those responses as much as i did. The six word memoir contest officially ended after a month, but the stories kept coming.
If you were asked to sum up your life in six words would it be a work of triumph or tragedy. The book is full of wellknown names from writer dave eggers fifteen years since last professional haircut, to singer aimee mann couldnt. In 2006, larry smith issued a challenge to his online community. The results are fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and moving. The results were amazing funny, sad, brave, poignant every story was there.
Your smart, sensible and surprising six word memoirs on why you do what you do, lessons learned and bosses who helped you survive and thrive led to our most recent book six words about work, with our partner in this project, mercer consulting. Smith is still fascinated by the short tales people tell about themselves especially those told by kids. The graphically stunning life in 6 words outreach book is a fantastic tool for helping christian teenagers talk about jesus with their nonbelieving friends. The first in smiths six word memoir book series, not quite what i was planning. Online shopping from a great selection at books store. Have students create six word memoirs for characters int he books six word memoir use as beginning of the year. Follow these instructions tocomplete a six word memoir.
Each memoir has its own storyhappy,miserable,heartbreaking and so forth. Dec 20, 2012 the result is the evocative and often moving things dont have to be complicated. Use a thesaurus to change one or two of your average words. The six word memoirs book series by multiple authors includes books one life. This book kept my mind thinking and analyzing each six word memoirs.
Six word stories from a generation at war in iraq and afghanistan instead of a book about iraq or afghanistan that tells only one soldiers perspective, sixword war is the first crowdsourced war memoir that shares a story different than any other ever told about war. I hope tomorrow is one of the good connecting days. My students love getting to look through these memoirs and are often inspired by what other teens have written. Now we challenge you to tell us your six words in a video. Thats what editor larry smith discovered when he posted a six word memoir challenge on his website, in november, 2006, asking readers to write their life story in precisely six words.
As the story goes, hemingway was once challenged to tell a story in six words. May 08, 2008 reminds me of a photographer who handed blank cards to people of all walks of life, asked them to write whatever they liked on it and shot them holding the card. On the first slide, create a six word memoir that tells the story of or reveals. How does a familys journey to america tell the story of this country as a whole. However, formatting rules can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study. The book, not quite what i was planning, was born and has inspired countless others to share their stories. Illustrated sixword memoirs by students making sense of the world. Update throughout the school year with new ones as we grow. It quickly became a phenomenon, with people all around the world chiming in. Check out our new, free teaching guide, six words on my life now. Jul 08, 2018 smith is the editor of smith magazine, home to the idea of writing your life in six words. Discover delightful childrens books with prime book box, a subscription that delivers new books every 1, 2, or 3 months new customers receive 15% off your. The popular sixword memoir project examines a subject bursting with words.
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