I am an avid NPR listener and this afternoon was no exception. While riding back from the laundry mat the program was featuring some folks from Smith Magazine discussing their 'Six-Word Memoirs by writers famous & obscure'. They got some well-known writers to contribute, and have thrown the whole thing open to the public through their website. They have selected hundreds of entires so far and published the first compilation, Not Quite What I Was Planning. They have plans to publish more. I really liked some of the memoirs they read on the radio:

"Graduated Harvard, had baby with crackhead"
"Mom died, Dad screwed us over."
"Painful nerd kid, happy nerd adult"

Some days my 6 word memoir would look like this
"Failed most everything, still failing strong"

then other days this:
"Life is good and so am i" - note: =bewareofthesnowman pointed out that this is 7 words, so I correct it thusly:
"life is good, so am i" Thank to bewareofthesnowman's pedantic bent.


The six word form reminds me of haynaku poetry. Whatever the reason I like the power and simplicity of 6 word stories. So.. I am having a small contest. Between now and March 31st, write your 6 word memoir and leave it as a comment on this journal or send me a note to your deviation if you post it on dA. If you'd like to contribute to Smith Mag's project, you can do so at their Six Word Memoir Page. If you post your contest entry there you will need to send me the link as a note, or send me a copy of the memoir (it's only 6 words).

I will be the sole judge of the entries, as I am putting up the swag (a couple of 1 month subs a $10 gift certificate from Amazon.com or two). All entries must be received by midnight March 31st, 2008. Hopefully we'll get some folks to read the collected entries and schedule the segment for Underlit Radio.

That's all. Get writing.

- beane