It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure
Exciting news - my six-word memoir will be included in the newest Six-Word Memoir book. What an honor!
Legend has it that Earnest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story using six words. His response: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Eh. But, from this a fascinating book concept was born, inviting readers to share their own unique, poignant, and bizarre six-word memoirs.
The first six-word collection featured neat contributions from writers famous and obscure, including the likes of Stephen Colbert, Dave Eggers, and Amy Sedaris.
I love the six-word concept. As a writing exercise, it was actually quite challenging and I found myself spending days with questions swirling around in my head like, “who am I?”; “what do I have to say about myself?”; “what’s most important to me?” — not to mention the six words form seems to lend a certain air of of poetic brevity and mystery to a story. (For the sake of comparison, Winston Churchill’s Official Biography checks in at a whopping thirty-one volumes).
If you’re interested, I’d encourage you to submit your own story. Thinking in terms of how to tell your own six-word story can be an unexpectedly enlightening exercise. How do you capture who you think you are in six words?
Check out Smith Magazine’s great website for inspiration:
http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/
Six-Word Memoirs at SMITH Magazine
Six Words to a Digital Life was one of my favorites — there are some gems (“Needed to find myself. Used Google”). Think of it as an interesting sociological look, for better or for worse, into the collective consciousness on life in the Internet Age.
http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords-digital-life/
Six Words to a Digital Life
