Non-Fiction: SMITH Magazine + 6 Word Memoir Night!

 

SMITH Magazine (Not Quite What I Was Planning: Sex-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure) + Hillary Carlip (A la Cart: The Secret Lives of Grocery Shoppers)

SMITH Magazine and KGB Nonfiction host a 6 Word Memoir Slam based on the book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. The book grew out of the response when SMITH Magazine—an online publication that celebrates storytelling—challenged their readers to write their six-word memoirs. Based on Hemingway's legendary six-word story ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn"), this personal twist captured the public's imagination. More than 15,000 entries poured in, from writers who had never been published before and big names like Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Dave Eggers, and Joyce Carol Oates. Co-editors Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser will introduce contributors Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Koren Zailckas, Ned Vizzini, and more. The audience will be invited to write their own mini-memoirs and participate in this unique event.

Hillary Carlip has been obsessed with collecting found shopping lists for years. You know, you spot them in an empty cart in the produce aisle, on the street in front of an ethnic market, carelessly left on the ground in a supermarket parking lot. Every time she discovers an abandoned shopping list she can't help but imagine who these people are, so that’s exactly what she has done. In A la Carte, Carlip imagines the people whose lists she found, and then was photographed portraying them all, in various grocery stores. The book consists of 26 REAL FOUND LISTS, photos of Carlip as each imagined person (all taken by the brilliant Barbara Green), and then short narrative pieces that she’s written about each of them. For ore information, check out www.alacartthebook.com/.


The KGB Nonfiction Reading Series is the city's premier outlet for the most talented contemporary nonfiction writers working today. Hosted by Kelly McMasters (kellymcmasters.com) and Lisa Selin Davis (lisaselindavis.com), books are provided by Mobile Libris.