100 Memoirs

Want to hear people from all over the country call in their life stories in six words? It’s a pretty good way to spend 17 minutes! Just click here.

The six-word memoir contest ended at 5 p.m. today. There were 28 entries, three of which were posted on Facebook  and added into the comments section of the original post by me. Click here if you want to see all 28.
I have selected the entry of Chin Pheng Oh “Watching her grow, I see myself” [...]

Have you tried to tell your life story in just six words?  Smith magazine discovered a gold mine with this concept a few years ago and now has published several popular books listing these short narratives.
The whole concept derives from a single story. Supposedly Ernest Hemingway was challenged to tell a story in six words and chose [...]

If you have not yet discovered the joy of the six-word memoir, here’s a past post that will fill you in–a lecture at Google by the authors of this book:
And if you missed this week’s long NPR segment on six-word memoirs on love and heartbreak, here’s the link that will take you there.
Below is a [...]

Since my previous post about six-word memoirs elicited some response, here is a great video with examples at the beginning and a speech from Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, who tell the story of how Smith Magazine created this special form.