One Life. Six Words. What's Yours?: Six-Word Memoirs [Hardcover]

‘A fabulously appealing exercise both for writers and for readers.’ Telegraph

‘Will thrill minimalists and inspire maximalists.’ Vanity Fair

‘You could spend a lifetime brainstorming.’ New Yorker

‘The brilliance is in the brevity.’ New York Post

‘Makes for compulsive reading and proves arguably as insightful as any 300+ page biography. … [T]his compelling little book will have readers and their friends hunting for favorites and inventing six-word self-definitions of their own. This review in six words? Read. Enjoy. Pass it on. Repeat.’ Publishers Weekly

‘The best idea I’ve recently seen for a book is “Not Quite What I Was Planning”, which is a collection of six word memoirs by some celebrity writers and others not so famous.’ San Francisco Chronicle

‘We are smitten… We’re thinking, “Wrote perfect Spin … delete, delete, delete.”’ Contra Costa Times

"an addictive little treat and a perfect book to dip in and out of at your leisure…If, like me, you can't get enough, then check out www.sixwordmemoirs.com. But be warned, it's extremely addictive…claustrophobic book reviewer needs bigger shelves.” Image Magazine

One Life. Six Words. What’s yours?

A thousand glimpses of humanity – six words at a time.

Hemingway was once bet that he couldn’t produce a story in just six words. He wrote ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn.’ He won the bet.

But if an entire story can be told in just six words, can the same be said of an entire life?

The answer, according to this addictively readable collection of mini-memoirs, is yes. In these short, sharp tales of tragedy and triumph, bittersweet romance and stinging regret, all of life is packed into half a dozen words. From A. L. Kennedy and Aimee Mann to amateur writers around the world, everyone, it seems, has a six-word story to tell. The results are moving, hilarious, revealing and defiant – an endlessly fascinating testimony to the breadth and variety of human experience.

But if an entire story can be told in just six words, can the same be said for an entire life?

The answer, according to this addictively readable collection of mini-memoirs, is yes. In these short, sharp tales of tragedy and triumph, bittersweet romance and stinging regret, all of life is packed into half a dozen words. From A.L. Kennedy and Aimee Mann to amateur writers around the world, everyone, it seems, has a six-word story to tell. The results are moving, hilarious, revealing and defiant - an endlessly fascinating testimony to the breadth and variety of human experience.

One Life. Six Words. What’s yours?

Hemingway was once bet that he couldn't produce a story in just six words. He wrote 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn.' He won the bet.

But if an entire story can be told in just six words, can the same be said of an entire life?

The answer, according to this addictively readable collection of mini-memoirs, is yes. In these short, sharp tales of tragedy and triumph, bittersweet romance and stinging regret, all of life is packed into half a dozen words. From A. L. Kennedy and Aimee Mann to amateur writers around the world, everyone, it seems, has a six-word story to tell. The results are moving, hilarious, revealing and defiant - an endlessly fascinating testimony to the breadth and variety of human experience.

SMITH Magazine is an online publication dedicated to personal storytelling, co-founded by Larry Smith and Tim Barkow in January 2006. It has been hailed as 'essential memoir reading' by Dave Eggers and featured in hundreds of media outlets from the BBC to the New York Times. Submit your six-word memoir, or any story, at www.smithmag.net.