Scene @ Six-Word Memoir Launch Party

By Neal 

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Saturday night, I went to Housing Works to celebrate the publication of Not Quite What I Was Planning, the collection of six-word memoirs compiled by the editors of SMITH magazine. That’s where I (“Internet famous, for what that’s worth“) met up with fellow contributors Sam Zalutsky (“Love drama, just not my own”) and Piper Kerman (“In and out of hot water”).

I also saw a lot of other writers in the crowd, including Michael Malice, Susan Chi, Anthony Lappé (with his artistic collaborator, Dan Goldman), Rachel Kramer Bussel, Maryrose Wood, the husband-and-wife team of Elizabeth Genco and Leland Purvis, and Lynn Harris. Jason Boog of The Publishing Spot was shooting video footage, and another writer was circuiting the room, collecting interviews for a possible short feature I don’t want to jinx by revealing just yet…


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SMITH Magazine and Not Quite What I Was Planning co-editors Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith survey the crowd. Behind them is Tim Barkow, the magazine’s co-founder and creative director.

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Fershleiser signs a copy of the book for Summer Grimes, whose entry into the original SMITH six-word memoir contest wound up providing the book with its title. (As a reward, she received an iPod with her contribution engraved on the back, the same prize that the actual contest winner got.)