Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Our hosts Larry and Rachel read from Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak

Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak is a reading put on by SMITH magazine at McNally Jackson Booksellers in SOHO.

The event, hosted by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith, features readings of some of the best six-word stories from the book, Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak by Writers Famous & Obscure, and website. Audience members are also encouraged to pen their own six-word memoirs (we’ll have to see about that).

Let the storytelling begin:

After the show, I spoke with our host, Rachel, and a contributor, Dean Morris, about what all things six-words:

Rachel:

Dean:

8:08 p.m. — Somehow I managed to escape the public embarrassment. Instead I’m prompted to submit it via e-mail. Larry and Rachel thank the crowd, and the evening is done.

8:05 p.m. — Time to write our own six-words memoirs. And I suddenly have writer’s block. Hmm… “Inspiration, saturation — rhyming, still no creation.” Yup, that sucks. The mic keeps getting passed around. Shit. “25. Intelligent. Sarcastic. Athletic. Single. Takers?” We’ll go with that. Waiting for the mic.

7:58 p.m. — Host Larry’s own memoir is “Our prison visitations were surprisingly romantic.” And apparently it’s about his wife, Piper, who is in the audience.

7:56 p.m. — A lady from the crowd asks if people ever ask for anonymity. Rachel responds that they’re the first book to have 800 contributors and cite them all.

7:52 p.m. — When asked to describe Smith magazine, Rachel said: “Instead of providing a birds eye view, we provide a chicken’s eye view pecking stuff on the ground.”

7:50 p.m. — They also have a site for teens. The average teen posts 8 memoirs, whereas the adults only post 1.3. So much for teens being slackers.

7:49 p.m. — Rachel’s father asks the question,”How do you go from all these online submissions to a book?” Rachel says that they very simply read through tons of entries on the site, mark their favorites, then go back and curate them. So the second you submit something on the site, you are published, and there is a chance you’ll make one of their books. If the wireless was working in here right now, I would publish a memoir. Maybe it would be: “Wireless is great, until it’s not.”

7:47 p.m. — They show a video of a man in San Francisco who was prompted to write a six-word memoir for every relationship he had ever had, so he did. About 10 of them.

7:43 p.m. — Larry comes back to the mic and plugged a few writers giving readings at a book store at 59th on Wednesday by reading their memoirs but not giving their names. It’s intriguing, and it works.

7:38 p.m. — Another unnamed female contributor: “My sluggish lap-top. His archived porn.” Winner.

7:37 p.m. — Someone asks if the dog has a memoir. “I barked. Everyone here hates me.” There, I wrote it for him.

7:36 p.m. — “I was 20, I was in love, and I was stupid.” That’s how another contributor started her story about her first love who was clearly in love with another woman but she loved him and paid for lots of his things. He was supposed to pick her up at 8 one night to go dancing. That was 20 years ago. “I cleaned, he cleaned me out.”

7:33 p.m. — “Feasted, fasted, festered, fostered, fisted, eww.” Glad there wasn’t a back story ready for that, Ben.

7:30 p.m. — Ben Carlos is invited to the mic to share his memoir. He looks at it on the page (he had forgotten what he had written and the page it was on), and said “Oh yeah, woops.” Turns out he thought a different memoir was in the book and has a story about that, but not the one actually in the book. Someone should probably get him a copy.

7:26 p.m. — Larry says their first book had over 1,000 contributors. The best part about all of it, he says, is the back stories to the memoirs. Rachel’s favorite is “Jim slept here. So is Carlos.” She e-mailed the author asking about the memoir. The author, who turned out to be a 76-year-old woman retired in Mexico, said that Carlos was her Mexican lover for 8 ½ years (he’s 21 years her younger). He wanted to marry, she didn’t, so they split. Then came Carlos. He was only 14 years younger than her. Bravo.

7:25 p.m. — “Dogs remain faithful. Husband off leash.”

7:24 p.m. — Here, Larry shares a funny back story for one of their memoirs

7:22 p.m. — The intro wraps. “Now that you’ve got the basics, feel free to ignore us,” Rachel says. The two hosts instruct us to shout out page numbers of the book at random, and they’ll turn to the page and read the memoirs at random.

7:21 p.m. — Apparently six-word memoirs are getting lots of action on the blogs in Romania. The crowd laughs-except Rachel and Larry are serious.

7:19 p.m. — Larry says love is the most common theme in the six-word memoirs. All kinds love, and even “love’s evil twin: heartache.”

7:16 p.m. — Rachel says Smith magazine launched in 2006. She cited Hemingway’s six words “for sale, baby shoes, never worn” as some of the motivation behind their launch.

7:15 p.m. — After a touching soundslideshow (no really) of some of the best six-word memoirs with accompanying picture and song,(and more annoying barking dog approval), Rachel introduces herself. Apparently she and Larry have been touring independent book stores around the country.

7:11 p.m. — The event finally starts.. To a crowd of about 30 people, the events coordinator kicks off the evening by plugging their merch table. Other news, the event is being recorded for their podcast. A dog barks in approval. The events coordinator exits stage left.

7:00 p.m. –  A projection screen is put up, displaying some memoirs: