Apparently, I’m not alone. Since the first generation iPhone was released a mere six(™) years ago, it has become the single most ubiquitous, mythologized, and revered bits of technological innovation of this generation. With this reverence has also come fear and skepticism: is being connected at any time and place to any time place really good for us? Is it zapping our attention spans? Flattening our knowledge? Dampening our in-person social interactions?

Of course, complaining about the iPhone is a little bit like complaining about the refrigerator; it’s here to stay, so what’s the point? But these conflicting, dissonant feelings about the iPhone that we all, to some extent, share, are very real, and they’re what you’ll see conveyed and wrestled with in the iPhone-related Six-Word Memoirs. Oh, and P.S., don’t panic: the Six-Word iPhone app is on its way. —Daniel Goldman

Lost my iphone…who are you?
- mom1st

Stupid smart iphone: “menstruation” became “masturbation.”
- Amapola

Today’s iPhones are game boys reinvented.
-JenaK

Hardly recognized kids without their iPhones.
- jl333

O’Henry redux: sold iPhone, bought Beats.
- Redx3

Nothing new under sun. Except iPhones.
- Believe

Thinking of having iPhone surgically removed.
- catsmeow

Idea. Rotary IPhone accessory. I’m old.
- bidalah

Awoke with iphone dent on face.
- emelanie

Name: Karen Golden
Place: Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Member since: May 2011

Browse through the reams of Six-Word Memoirs from notjustagirlintheworld—at well over 2,000, there are plenty to peruse—and you’ll discover a clever (“Cloud 8 is my personal best”), quick-witted (“More Walter Mitty than Wonder Woman”), and pleasingly neurotic woman (“The cant’s have me totally surrounded”). If we could use only one word to describe her memoirs: acerbic. Of course, we’d rather use six: “Look up acerbic, find Karen Golden.”

Karen first discovered Six-Word Memoirs in 2011 via a Facebook post and was immediately hooked. “Barefoot, never (again) pregnant, dislike kitchen” is an early favorite, and her love of wordplay (“Dislike chaos even in theory”) has flourished since. Courtesy of our friends at Spreadshirt, we know Karen will pick a great six for her Memoirist of the Month T-shirt. Read more about Karen and what makes her one of the Six-Word community members who make six tick.

When did you start writing, and what have been turning points in your creative life?
I honestly don’t remember when I started writing. I kept a journal as a teenager and back in the day, in addition to passing actual notes—not 140 character texts—in school, I also wrote a lot of letters to my camp friends—I grew up outside of Chicago, but went to a creative arts camp in Connecticut. It was fun (in an excruciating kind of way) to find all those notes and letters while helping my parents move out of my childhood home.

One of my favorite Six-Word Memoirs, “Writer in search of a plot,” marks a creative turning point. I remember being in Mrs. Lowey’s creative writing class my senior year of high school—a much-coveted privilege—and learning that I could not plot anything. Everything I wrote, including some really bad poetry, was a first person narrative/opinion piece. Eventually Mrs. Lowey had us interview a classmate and write their story. Voila, a plot. In college, I worked on the school paper and eventually became the news editor, reporting didn’t require me to create a plot, just the facts, ma’am.

Despite not having been an English major, my first career, and my true love, was publishing. I took the infamous Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course back in its cult-like heyday. The guy who ran it called it The Publishing Mafia. After the course, I moved to NYC.  I worked for a couple of literary agencies and then landed at Viking Penguin in the 1980’s. It was a great time to be young and in love in New York and have an expense account. We were pioneers down on Houston and Hudson back when that part of New York was really just being developed. All that ended when Proctor and Gamble came calling for my new husband and his newly minted (Columbia) MBA

We were thrilled to include your Golden nugget “Every Meal is a Seinfeld episode” in our recent book, Six-Word Memoirs on Jewish Life. Tell us more about your faith, your family, and your memoirs.
Oy. As a member of “the organized Jewish Community,” I like to say the Jewish community is more Jewish than organized. On the side, I am a fundraiser for The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia: I sell hope.

Living in Cherry Hill, New Jersey (an edge city of Philadelphia) and working at the Jewish Federation gives me a wealth of material for “Six Words on Jewish Life.” New Jersey is pretty much divided between the part that is a suburb of New York and the part that is a suburb of Philadelphia. It is rough country for my boys who are NY Giants fans, but we manage. My husband Brad and I have been married for 22 years (gasp). We have three children: our daughter (19), a sophomore at Ithaca college, and two sons (16 and 13). I anticipate many angsty college-related Sixes in the upcoming year.

My personal favorite Jewish six is: “First meeting, third b’nai mitzvah, Dayenu.” Others I hold near are “Holy land made her wholly different,” about my daughter’s Birthright trip this summer, “Refrigerator, heart full. Time to pray,” and “Newly Minted man atoned via Xbox.” And for my Klout Score: “I’m the Madonna kind of Jewish.”

What authors inspire you or do you admire?
e.e. cummings, both because I love him and because he shares (and allows me to rationalize) my disregard for the rules of punctuation and grammar. I do believe he could spell—or at least he knew enough to get a good editor! Note to my fellow Sixers, please keep those cards and letters (about my spelling errors etc.) coming. I’ve embraced this particular shortcoming: “Bad proofreading makes a good life.”

Tom Robbins and John Irving, when I was younger and liked my wisdom with a dose of whimsy. Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, Anita Shreve and Alice Hoffman…and a bunch of other smart women I am forgetting…when I was struggling with the story of my life. I’m still struggling, but I am resigned to making it up as I go along. Although I generally don’t like short stories, I love Ellen Gilchrist.

Is there someone’s writing on SMITH that’s especially moved you?
Too many to count. When the “Questions” section of Six first went up, I answered this and was much more mortified about the people I left out than pleased for those I’d remembered. I love that Six Words is truly a community. I love that people come and go, and I especially love that people stay. I love low-profile writers and readers and I cherish the interplay and feedback found in the comments section. It’s a great community and a wonderful place to me to “work things out.” I am proud to say that I’ve achieved “regular” status on the wayward route of our itinerant unofficial ambassador/den mother, L2L3.

When you’re not writing, what do you enjoy doing?
My hobbies are children and laundry and, as I often say, it’s good thing they go together so well.

Finally, Karen Golden, what’s your Six-Word Memoir for today?
Six words, the world’s best sandbox.

Six-Word Memoirs® from SMITH Magazine announces its first annual Six-Word Festival on Twitter. This Six-Word Festival celebrates the form that SMITH Magazine launched in collaboration with Twitter in 2006 and has now inspired more than half a million six-word stories on SixWordMemoirs.com. From September 24-26, this virtual storytelling celebration will consist entirely of Six-Word prompts and Six-Word tweets in response.

Baratunde Thurston

Jason Biggs

Check back at the Six-Word Festival on Twitter homepage for updates on participating celebrities, the schedule and prizes.

Want to take part in the Six-Word Festival? It’s easy.
1. Follow @sixwords on Twitter.
2. Check the Six-Word Festival on Twitter homepage for the full schedule, real-time tweets during the festival, daily editors’ favorites, as well as winners.
3. On Sept. 24, 25, 26 share your own responses in #sixwords to challenges posed by our amazing cast of celebrity tweeters and judges and you could win books, cupcakes, and more.

About Six Words
Six Words from SMITH Magazine began in collaboration with Twitter in November 2006 with a simple prompt, “Can you tell the story of your life in Six Words?” and now boasts more than 700,000 Six-Word stories on SixWordMemoirs.com and SMITHTeens.com. Six-Word Memoirs is a bestselling book series and phenomenon found in classroom, churches, and at live Six-Word “slams” across the world. Six-Word Memoirs from SMITH has been featured everywhere from CNN and NPR to Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times and The New Yorker. Celebrities such as Stephen Colbert, Chelsea Handler, Deepak Chopra, Taylor Swift, Dave Eggers, Jane Fonda, Malcolm Gladwell, and Mario Batali have penned Six-Worders, along with hundreds of thousands of people across the world.

Contact: Six-Word Memoir editor Larry Smith for more information.

Inferno, courtesy of K. Kendall via www.flickr.com

Labor Day is around the corner.

Why do we celebrate this first Monday of September each year? Hardly a trick question, yet the meaning surprisingly stumps people. It’s not about birthing, although that’s a doozy of a job and aptly named. Labor Day, declared a Federal holiday in 1894, was established to honor the labor movement and the struggles of our nation’s working class. Traditionally, it marked the passing of summer—halfway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving—and the start of school year and was the cue to pack away your fabulous wardrobe whites for the year.

Fast-forward a century: unions are on the decline, our workforce and school calendars have changed, and wearing white post-summer—while still cause for comment in some circles—is no longer taboo. Ironically, Labor Day is one of the busiest days of the year for retailers and many service industry workers. Thankfully, this three-day weekend offers most of us a chance to uncork a bottle of carefree and savor one last summer night with family or friends. Even if you never leave your doorstep, the destination is less important than the point: take a break and get away.

Here are a few Six Word Memoirs to get you in the mood for the long weekend ahead, however you spend it. Feel free to add your own!

Labor Day USA. Few know why.
—Loon

No Monday morning madness… Labor Day!!!
—Heem08

Maverick; wearing white after Labor Day!
—smaratta

Labor Day. Working class. Perfect segue.
—Contemplative

Decided: Laboring not Labor Day weekend.
—TawnyPort

Tired from a laborious Labor Day.
—Believe

Heart labor day, slash day’s labor.
—singlethought

Redundance: broke, unemployed on Labor Day.
—wescoll

Labor Day dreams–working or dreaming?
—mzejay

Worked on Labor Day. #Holiday Fail.
—Kelly_Kreth

Labor day wedding, wearing white head-to-toe.
—novice

by Lel4nd on flickr

Whether you’re a preschooler, middle schooler, high schooler, college student, teacher, professor, or parent, the end of August signifies a return to the books. Even for those who no longer step foot in locker-lined hallways, the memories, bitter or sweet, come back every fall. Back to school ads litter drugstores and Staples, and the rush for binders, notebooks, and pens begins. School isn’t just about ages or grades: the world is one big school, and we’re all students, learning from those around us. It’s never to late to go back to school.

School starts soon, summer slipping fast!
— bbhead

School starting soon, summer reading unfinished.
— xXDarkDreamerXx

Falling leaves, school buses, cooler temperatures…
— Knoxena

Back by unpopular demand, it’s school.
— notjustagirlintheworld

It’s coming: back-to-school nightmares have begun.
— lillybrook

School’s back! Mixed feelings linger around.
— EdwinKosasih

School. Eat. Home. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.
— gabriann13256

New school. New people. Same problems.
— Im_just_me

My mind is a one-room schoolhouse.
— AQScott

Was old school, got retro grades.
— RaisedByWolves

Finished school by standing on principle.
— Laconic

Paid today. School shopping. Balance inverts.
— MO_Thoughts2

Hoarding school supplies. Graduated in 1996.
— Contemplative

Son’s first schoolday. Caught myself crying.
— Steve__Anthony

Watched schoolbus depart with my heart.
— three-monkeys

Single mother. Night school. My hero.
— BrettMitchell

Missing school. Feeling lonely. Barely surviving.
— Savita

Reliving preschool. Napping. Coloring outside lines.
— Contemplative

School since 1990; I am addicted.
— RachieRae

School’s over, but learning never ends.
— l8leigh

The end of summer brings to mind…the coming fall television season! We may be in the age of Netflix and binge-watcing, but many of our favorite shows still arrive the old-fashioned way: episode by episode, week by week, season by season. The Six-Word community has a lot to say about the tube as this Six-Word Search reveals. See which sixes spark your nostalgic side or have you reaching for the clicker.

So… TV time. Criminal Minds? Yes. –Mike_Bonheim

Glee member before it was cool. -Believe

Man, Kirstie Alley was hot. Cheers. -chipvaliant

I still watch The Power Rangers. -littleglassfingers

I need a Mad Men secretary. -bbhead

Gilmore Girls: my drug of choice. -whenshesmiles

Historic soaps axed. Hell’s frozen over. -Tamstarz

Favorite old television show in black-and-white? -Mourningdove

Game of Thrones? Never seen it. -LetTheWolfin

And Buffy staked Edward. The End. –writerly203

Charlie Sheen’s a Charlie Harper wannabe. -Loon

One Tree Hill is my life. -SamDearborn

Worst “reality” television show on air? -mzejay

Wishing I were Xena Warrior Princess! –unknown116

Life like that one Seinfeld episode…. -uhLEEsuh

Watched Glee, didn’t feel very gleeful. -reykayjey

Childhood television shows- which was best? -Kharis

Frasier re-runs still make me howl. -mared

Doctor Who clock can be completed. -BecomingLogyn

Realized dispensable like characters on soaps. -Contemplative

Like Carrie Bradshaw, only in suburbs. -RaineeRose

Criminal Minds, wherefore art thou tonight? -Roxas

Canceling cable…after Game of Thrones. -shaunyata

Could’ve been a character on Seinfeld. –Steve_Anthony

Looking forward to which fall shows? -AmyElle

Remembering why I don’t watch television. -MotorCityMich

Among the six word sun-themed submissions that poured in during the summer months are memoirs that seared, sizzled and shined. Read on to see our favorite–often humorous–soliloquies of a summer very nearly gone by and find out how your fellow memoirists beat the heat (or not) this year. Click the link next to an author’s name to see more of his or her memoirs and feel free to share what your summer in six words looked like!

I’m hot, but only meteorologically speaking.
-NumbrOneAunt

Some (do not) like it hot.
-notjustagirlintheworld

Banging radiator, summer’s on vacation again.
-RaisedByWolves

Overly prepared cheapskate: Summer. Purchases parka.
-Contemplative

Beach Bummers: red flags, jellyfish, lightening.
-whelp

Too well insulated for this heat.
-Undermom

Summer attire; grease, sweat and paint.
-DynamicDbytheC

Sunburn. Heartburn. Repercussions of summer overindulgence.
-notyouraveragegirl

Sunscreen is my new signature scent.
-accidentaltourist

Braless in summer. Ah, sagaliciously heaven.
-canadafreeze

Beachside resident living an internet existence.
-guru_sag

Scorching heat, people tweet, extremes meet.
-MakotoSakashima

Humidity and my hair are dueling.
-Litsa_Dremousis

Fleeing summer buried under school supplies.
-lillybrook

August: Summer’s last slice of watermelon.
-Loon

Freezing summer in strawberry jam jars.
-Mourningdove

My mom’s on Facebook so now we know it’s official: social media is the new face of communication. Every day, millions of users are choosing to communicate through them rather than IRL (in real life).

Social Media provides its users with unique advantages and privileges, not the least of which include anonymity, the ability to communicate with a wide audience, new creative platforms, and opportunities for innovation. Huge upsides, for sure, yet growing discussion points to the changes that internet culture has wreaked on traditional society. Collectively, we wonder how our attraction to the internet lifestyle has affected us or, as some science suggests, altered us. By replacing IRL communication with internet interaction, it is unclear what, if anything, we are sacrificing.

The Six-Word community is very vocal on the subject of Social Media and its effects on daily life. The memoirs below discuss both the benefits and drawbacks of this new type of communication that, regardless of whether we embrace or reject it, is here to stay.

Some in the social media aren’t.

- Staraj

Social media: lightning communication, silent people.

- JohnnyEdwards

VIVA LA RESISTANCE! Resisting Social Media.

- Revolutionary

Oh God! My mother’s on Facebook!

- TwoScoops

Unfriended aunt, not social media responsible.

- PrincessLief

Discovering childhood favorites on YouTube: Priceless!

- BrightLight2

Watching myself on YouTube. How liberating.

- somethingnew

Lonelier since advent of social media.

- ChewyD2

Texting? Emailing? Twittering? Sending postcards instead.

- favepeep

Leave me alone. I’m social media-ing.

- rosavie

Tumblr is fixed; life can resume.

- BecomingLogyn

Have created a curriculum on YouTube.

- jossy

Social media break; learned a lot.

- MaryValle

Joan, “Explain to me the Twitter.”

- marymc

Twitter: judged by content of characters.

- River_Dance_92

My mortifying moment, posted on YouTube.

- marymc

Was valedictorian until I discovered YouTube.

- notpolyester

Deer in headlights of social media.

- ShellDeFelice

Social Media has changed my life!

- bengalboy1991

Social media: more media than social.

- midwestsensibily

Divorcing from all social media: #hardestthingever.

- Kimberly_M._Wetherell

Social media can create social monsters.

- Tamstarz

Twitter: Brevity doesn’t protect against dullness.

- TheUnknownComic

Pope goes Twitterish. Good luck, dude.

- Amapola

Refresh twitter; need to refresh life!

- Erin_Grills

Social media makes me feel antisocial.

- George_Kaplan

Social media, you’ve sucked me in.

- dightonstreet

Can we be just Facebook friends?

- Steve__Anthony

]]> http://www.smithmag.net/obsessions/2013/06/03/junes-memoirist-of-the-month-beverly-head/ “When a memoir or story on SMITH has made me laugh or cry or wish that I had written it, I have communicated with the writer and/or marked the writing as a favorite. My list of favorites is very long.” Name: Beverly Head Place: near Atlanta, Georgia SMITH member since: November 2010 Beverly Head made her debut on the [...] http://www.smithmag.net/obsessions/?p=1731 Mon, 03 Jun 2013 05:01:11 +0000 “When a memoir or story on SMITH has made me laugh or cry or wish that I had written it, I have communicated with the writer and/or marked the writing as a favorite. My list of favorites is very long.”

Name: Beverly Head
Place: near Atlanta, Georgia
SMITH member since: November 2010

Beverly Head made her debut on the Six-Word Memoir project with a story about endings: “Thirty eight years. Keys returned. Retired.” Yet those six words were the start of something new for Beverly, who taught English for 35 years at a two-year college in the University System of Georgia, serving as chair of the Humanities and Fine Arts Division for eight of those years. Beverly has amassed more than 1,700 memoirs since joining SMITH as Bevvie in 2010. Her writing reflects milestones both personal (“PMS. Periods. Flashes. Finis. Finis. Finis”) and familial (“Parenting: the cake. Grandparenting: the icing). Beverly has a sharp sense of humor about herself (“So old school, I’m one room”) and life in general (“Kindle. Nook. eBook. iPad. iPhone. iConfused.”), at times with tinges of rebellion (“Six word revolt! I’m using seven words!”). She is a “Poet by nature. Poet my nurture,” and her aptitude for creative writing shines through, as captured in the poignant “Memoir washed away by 6,000 word tsunami.”

In our “Six Questions for…” feature, June’s Memoirist of the Month, Beverly Head, shares her passion for writing and the retired life. We know Beverly, who lives in a small suburb just outside of Atlanta, will have fun choosing her own Six-Word Memoir T-shirt, courtesy of our partners at Spreadshirt.

When did you start writing, and what have been turning points in your creative life?
I started writing in high school. I still have pages and pages of those stories and poems illustrated with my doodles. An early turning point in my creative life came in college when one of my creative writing professors submitted one of my poems (I was reluctant to submit my work) to a national creative writing contest. I won second place. That prize gave me the boost I needed to continue writing.

Another turning point came when I won the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award. The award included publication of my book, Walking North, as part of the Michigan State University Press Lotus Poetry Series.

And, of course, I consider finding SMITH as a turning point in my creative life. I first read about SMITH in an issue of Mind Body Sole magazine, published by Famous Footwear. I had just retired and bought a new pair of walking shoes. The magazine came with the shoes. SMITH was mentioned as one way “to boost your brain power and get those smart juices flowing.” I joined immediately but did not write a memoir for a few months. I didn’t think that I could tell a story in just six words.

Can you share a favorite Six-Word Memoir, Moment or other story in SMITH of yours and tell us why it’s meaningful to you?
“Not Lot’s Wife. Never looking back” is a favorite. When I wrote the memoir in May 2011, I was thinking about moving ahead from teaching and focusing on writing. Then came several health challenges during the last months of 2011. Now I consider that memoir as an inspiration and a daily affirmation!

What authors inspire you or do you admire?
I love poetry and science fiction. Therefore, I admire many writers; however, I most admire Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, Zora Neale Hurston, Sylvia Plath, Octavia Butler, and Lucille Clifton. I have been inspired by their themes, imagery, and language. I have written six-word memoirs that were inspired by their works and their lives. [Editor’s Note: one of our favorites is “Zora, my eyes are watching God.”]

Is there someone’s writing on SMITH that’s especially moved you?
Several writers have moved me on SMITH. I could list names, but I would be mortified if I left out someone’s name. The writers should know who they are based on my comments on their memoirs. And I have exchanged email messages with them as well. When a memoir or story has made me laugh or cry or wish that I had written it, I have communicated with the writer and/or marked the writing as a favorite. My list of favorites is very long.

There were two stories that resonated with me, and I cried while reading them: the backstory that was included with notjustagirlintheworld’s memoir “My dad would have loved this” and Dean6805’s story “Making a Promise, Keeping a Promise.” Both were intensely personal stories that drew me in emotionally.

SMITH has brought many things into my life: an opportunity to write creatively, a chance to be a part of a writing community, the opportunity to meet new people. L2L3 has visited me twice (sending fudge and bringing apple pie), and I have corresponded with Believe (sending my Believe hat).

When you’re not writing, what do you enjoy doing?
Reading, gardening, going to movies, museums, plays, craft shows, and home tours, and talking on the telephone.

Finally, Beverly Head, what’s your Six-Word Memoir for today?
Caution! 65 ahead! Not slowing down!

Mess-o-potamia
When a child has made such a disaster of your house that you’re ready for your whole world to collapse under its mess. More of my Icktionary contributions can be found on the site, where you can comment on icky terms you like and share your own.

You can check out more of my made-up messy words (got “droozle” anyone?), leave comments on any of the hundreds of other entries, watch icky videos, and share your own entry at the Icktionary project.

Name: Kathi Wright
Place: Near Sequoia National Park, Calif.
SMITH member since: March, 2008

A fling that began five years ago continues today. Although she does not recall precisely how she stumbled upon SMITH, Kathi Wright was hooked from the moment she found us. Since joining SMITH in 2008, Kathi has been flirtatious with her submissions (nearly 300). This sporadic, yet consistent collection captures her gratitude for motherhood, humble introspection, and independent spirit.

By day, Kathi is a secretary at an alternative continuation high school in California. Rooted “on the juniper fringes of the Sequoia National Forest,” she is full of love, full of hope, and sometimes, full of howls—a theme that echoes in many of her stories.

She is a proud mother (“Full moon rising, birthed a star”), overflowing with love for her daughter and, more recently, her grandson (“The Man Cub” in the My Life So Far project). Although her path has been peppered with chaos, and a love of her own has proven more elusive, Kathi has maintained her passion and humor. Her story “August Train,” offers a window into a bohemian lust for adventure that is undeniable. Learn more about May’s Memoirist of the Month as Kathi Wright answers six questions about her life and writing. We’re delighted to send Kathi the Six-Word Memoir T-shirt of her choice, courtesy of our partners at Spreadshirt.

When did you start writing, and what have been turning points in your creative life?
There isn’t a time I can point to and say that is when I started writing. It is a long-standing pleasure of mine. I have always been a great observer and listener, and I think a natural progression has been to write and capture what our senses trace. In kindergarten, I used to fill the top edges of my drawings with random letters, pretending I was writing a great story. Later, I preferred writing letters as a means of correspondence to that of a simple phone call. I have a gypsy streak, and find adventure in a road trip, open roads have drawn me to places where I’ve found beauty and depth that I then settled into. This gypsy wrote reams of letters home to family and friends.

I worked for Cesar Chavez for nearly three years as a legal assistant; spent one cold and dirty spring working in potato cellars in Idaho, worked in a library, and as a cocktail waitress; have counted spruce bud-worms for the USFS, written for a small-town newspaper, and worked as a Special Education Aide in a juvenile probation camp whose wards were violent gang-affiliated offenders.

Those experiences, and others, blended into a wild and sometimes raw stew of memories and stories, events that shaped my life, creative and otherwise. The birth of my daughter was truly a turning point in my life; the need became great to write about her, to put pen to paper, to regularly remember and record life events. She was verbal at a young age, and so filled me with wonder and awe. I don’t think I had ever laughed with such abandon or loved so unconditionally until I gave birth. It was the two of us, alone together, tangled up in diapers and love.

My life has been humble, but full of grace. I have found the greatest pleasures in the smallest, albeit wondrous, moments of my life.

Can you share a favorite Six-Word Memoir, Moment or other story of yours and tell us why it’s meaningful to you?
Of all of my SMITH stories, I would have to choose “August Train,” [from the "My Life So Far" project] because of the magical quality of the random and unexpected events that came together to make one unforgettable, dream-like 24-hour period of time.

What authors inspire you or do you admire?
I am an avid reader and enjoy many authors. Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamott (especially Operating Instructions), Connie May Fowler (everything), Ayelet Waldman, (The Bad Mother was so brutally honest and I so admire her), Diane Ackerman (have you read A Natural History of the Senses?), Daniel Woodrell, James Lee Burke (he captures all of the human senses in his writing and he will answer you if you happen to write to him), Louise Erdrich, Craig Allen Johnson, and many others.

Is there someone’s writing on SMITH that’s especially moved you?
The first memoir I favorited on SMITH was by a member named Emily Pandise, who wrote, “There was more laughter than tears.” I related to that after traveling a somewhat convoluted and oft-rocky path through my life. Through it all, what is important to me is the laughter and joy and friendships made along the way.

I connect with stories about triumph over adversity, for the most part, but not solely. Javagirl’s recent story, Day One, about her son’s childhood diagnosis of autism, ending with his pending college graduation, brought me to my knees.

There are many other wordsmiths on the site, from then to now, whose words have sent me into fits of laughter or brought tears to my eyes or caused me to ponder the mysteries of life. We share so much through such diverse lives—somewhat like being on the same page in different books. Our submitted stories and memoirs prove we are filled with grit and gumption and undeniable heart. So many of your words strike a chord within me, and I thank you for baring your souls, and toes, your fishnets and hats, losses and triumphs, full moons, and sunsets.

When you’re not writing, what do you enjoy doing?
Seeking out wild places, learning to fly fish, reading, photography, crafting, Zumba, yoga.

Finally, Kathi Wright, what’s your Six-Word Memoir for today?
This life; a beautiful, winding road.

Name: Coleen Goodson
Place: Chicago area,
SMITH member since: May, 2010

Scrolling through the stories of Coleen Goodson, known to regulars of the site as ctgoods2, it’s easy to feel inspired by her true joy of the written word. Coleen has written nearly 2,500 stories on SMITH—from the intimately personal like “Mom disapproved until our 20th anniversary” (her first Six-Word Memoir); to the playfully self-effacing, “Raised by crazies. Keeping up tradition”; to indeed, a perfect sentiment for a community of writers: “Thinking in italics from now on.” A transplant to a small northern Illinois town that’s “a sneeze south of Wisconsin,” Coleen is a wife to one and mom to three who works as an executive administrative assistant by day while dedicating her nights to her family and her writing. Coleen reveals that she first heard about SMITH after receiving a particularly tough critique by a writing teacher: he told her she used too many words. “I was determined to do better on the assignment but really felt at a loss, because of course, I loved all of my own words,” she explains. “So, I Googled, ‘Write a memoir use fewer words.’ SMITH Magazine popped up and I have been a loyal fan/addict ever since!”

Coleen was kind enough to take a pause from her prolific life to tell us about how a Catholic school punishment led to a love of competitive writing and other stories about her life and work in our “Six Questions For…” interview. As always, we’re delighted to send our Member of the Month the Six-Word Memoir T-shirt of her choice courtesy of our friends at Spreadshirt.

When did you start writing, and what have been turning points in your creative life?
I started writing in Catholic grade school, first as penance, then competitively. Sister Alodia was firm in the belief that children should be seen and not heard and I was the unofficial president of the chatterbox club. She sentenced the power talkers to copy stories, word for word, in legible Palmer Method. Needless to say, I only kept quiet while I was writing and ended up working my way right up to The Count of Monte Cristo. Eventually, all that “copy” writing got me interested in school-sponsored writing contests as well as scholarship competitions.

A major turning point in my writing life happened a few years ago. I decided I would write a memoir maybe for publication, maybe not. I took a class geared toward that genre and landed at SMITH after the aforementioned critique. There, I became friends with another member, one whom I refer to as my cyber sister. We shared life stories, sob stories and a few success stories. She was instrumental in kick-starting a stint of paid writing assignments—pop culture feature articles for a successful media company. Her input, encouragement and her good word of my writing ability restored my confidence to write for publication.

Since then, I have continued to write as well as encourage and assist other writers. I recently completed the facilitation of my fifth round of a writers’ Plotting Group. I am please to say that I have helped over thirty writers plot out their novels. Currently, I am working on a short story for a competitive writing challenge. This is the ideal distraction/procrastination from the novel that I intend to complete, hopefully sometime this year.

Can you share a favorite Six-Word Memoir or other story of yours and tell us why it’s meaningful to you?
A SMITH story of mine that is an all time favorite is, “Neither terminal nor contagious. Merely menopause.” This was a true memoir at the time it was written. The situation itself overwhelmed me on many levels. Being able to reduce what I thought was this enormous life event to a succinct six words made me feel powerful. That story changed my outlook from one of facing a problem of a lifetime to one of solving a simple word problem. A sound example of the power of words.

What authors inspire you or do you admire?
I love them all. But the authors that inspire me most are those with works in progress, published and as yet to be. I admire Joyce Carol Oates—what a powerful darkness. Stephen King is another—he’s just got a truckload of imagination and success. Jules Verne and Kurt Vonnegut—they are the guys responsible for science fiction in the classic sense. I could go on and on and on….

Is there someone’s writing on SMITH that has especially moved you?
I have been touched by so many of the folks on the site. Some have moved me to words of passion, some have left me without any words at all. Some have made me laugh so hard, I could float away. I will say though that there is a small group of folks that not only move me but support me and I hope they know the feeling is mutual.

And I have often been moved by moments where the SMITH community has rallied around its members: youthful crisis, middle age morose, new life, the passing of life, the changing of life. Each time these instances have been presented, I am in awe and privileged to be a part of the community that figures out a way to be supportive and rewarding and consoling to its own.

When you’re not writing, what do you enjoy doing?
I love spending time with my crazy family and diabolical dogs. I’m a voracious reader and eater. I especially enjoy the time I spend with my family, eating and solving the world’s problems at my kitchen table.

Finally, what’s your Six-Word Memoir for today?
Write your memoir. Use fewer words.

Name: Lisa Bottone
Place: Warren, New Jersey
SMITH member since: May 29, 2008

Lisa Bottone, known to the SMITH community as sisterpoet, began her Six-Word Memoir writing with six words that live up to her screen name: “Love is a four letter word.” Lisa first heard about our lively, literary online world in an old-school way: at a book festival in Brooklyn back in 2008. Nearly five years and 2,398 memoirs later, sisterpoet is everything a writing community could ask for: a poetic, funny, and thoughtful writer, and a frequent commenter on the work of others, often offering more than just six words of praise and support.

Lisa is a lifelong writer with a passion for music—Morrissey, founder of the band The Smiths is quite appropriately her favorite—is also a teacher who has taken her love of the six-word form back into her own life offline, where she introduced Six-Word Memoirs in her seventh graders at Warren Middle School. In our “Six Questions For….” feature, Lisa tells about more about her and her life and work, in six words and many more.

When did you start writing, and what have been turning points in your creative life?
I started writing when I could hold a writing implement. I have a book of fairytales my mom gave me from when I was a child and I am told I would pretend to write my own despite the fact that I could not even form a letter.

A turning point in my writing came when I was asked to be a part of The National Writing Project as a writing fellow. It was an intense experience on many levels. I wrote a story called “Shelley is not a Hippie,” a memoir piece, and it was published as part of an anthology in connection with the National Writing Gallery. It was not the publishing/end product that impacted me as much as the process I took to see it to completion.

As part of the program I was required to post a piece for feedback. Fellows from all around the county could “press” me or “bless” me on any given part of my piece. They did both. Until that point I was not comfortable sharing my work. I hate being like a turkey on the table but realized the importance of being vulnerable. A professional journal piece in fact came out of that experience as well as I try to encourage other teachers to allow themselves to go to that place as writers—that place of full exposure—if they expect that of their students.

A second major turning point came one summer in Asbury Park. I was on the boardwalk and saw an ad for a workshop “Using Music to Write Memoir.” I had just come out of the carousel place I visited as a child. We lived in Brooklyn yet we drove all the way there to go to the beach and the Easter Parade and such. Over 40 years later, I found myself sitting in the broken house that held so many memories. “She is broken,” I jotted down in my notebook as I sat on the floor of the now shell of a building. That night at the workshop, the presenter played instrumental music as we free wrote. I heard the faint sound of a carousel in the background. I wrote and wrote and wrote until I cried. I shared with the only other woman who showed up and she cried too. There we sat in the old Steven Crane house with many ghosts so to speak. It was a feeling very difficult to put into words. It changed me as a person and a writer.

Can you share a favorite Six-Word Memoir of yours and tell us why it’s meaningful to you?
“Learning to sit comfortably eating alone.” Those were six words I recited on an NPR show that featured SMITH Magazine and a few of us discussed the backstory to the memoir. I believe it is strong image and is universal in the message. At times of change, you have a choice. If life hands you a situation that forces you to “eat alone,” literally or symbolically, you must sit with that and find a way to get comfortable.

You’re a teacher who’s taught Six-Word Memoirs in your classroom. What surprised you about the students’ work?
I have brought memoir writing into the class in a number of ways. I have used them in poetry lessons and short story lessons for example. This year, I decided to participate in a pilot program called BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). I decided my pilot lesson would be a Six-Word Memoir lesson for seventh graders, one that incorporated the use of technology.

The students’ depth of expression and the honesty never ceases to amaze me. I am touched by their level of trust to open up in such a way that their story is out there. They put their heart on their sleeves and dig deep. They have something to say. They want to be heard. They have a voice. Memoirs are a place for them to say in six words what some of them have never tried to articulate let alone creatively. [Note: watch a video compilation of their work below.]

As for the technology component, the end product compilations have been extraordinary works of creative expression. I love the way they have become excited to and not afraid to take their products to as many outlets as possible. One student placed her memoir on Instagram. Not as a class assignment but as an expression of her pride in her work. Other students are entering state media contests and local art contests.

What authors inspire you or do you admire?
I am a Shakespeare nerd. ‘Nuf said.

How did you come up with the SMITH handle sistapoet?
I am a huge Morrissey fan. He sings a song in which he says “sister, I’m a poet.” I hate labels in general and I think it is funny when people latch onto them and cling for dear life. Morrissey is pretty well known for his sarcasm. I believe he sings of the people who need to call themselves poets are really not. So am I a poet or just a girl who calls herself one? Am I a girl who calls myself one because I want to be one, thinks I am, or wants people to think I am?

Finally, what’s your Six-Word Memoir for today?
Made my choice, I am sure.

Laureatte first came to SMITH after reading about the site “in a much older person’s copy of AARP Magazine.” At the time, she was working the night shift at a hospital, where she had a lot of down time. “While my co-workers played online Mahjong,” she recalls, “I wrote memoirs and chatted with a companionable group of insomniacs and intercontinental types on SMITH.”

From the tiny, mountainous town in Tennessee which serves as her perch for an active travel, craft and writing life, the incomparable L2L3 answered six questions from SMITH Magazine.

Name: Laureatte Loy
Place: Northeast Tennessee
SMITH member since: February, 2010

When did you start writing, and what have been turning points in your creative life?
I’ve been an avid creative writer since grade school; it was a convenient, solitary activity and one that appealed to me as a young only child in rural Michigan. During high school I edited the school paper and co-edited our yearbook. Then came college and afterward, a job as a psychiatric nurse that required volumes of handwritten observational documentation. Except for occasional commercial ad/brochure writing for friends who owned businesses, writing was shelved for years. I did win an NBC writing contest that secured a free trip to Disney World and a spot on our team to represent western Michigan in the annual Goofy Games. I should add that after being selected as a finalist in the writing portion of the contest I also had to run through tires while carrying glasses of Kool-Aid and then face off in an orange juice squeezing contest. Years later, on SMITH, I thought, “Hmmm… Six words seems like a navigable number of words.”

Can you share a favorite Six-Word Memoir of yours and tell us why it’s meaningful to you?
“My masterpiece hangs on monkey bars” will forever be my favorite. After a series of miscarriages I gave birth to my son, on lucky St. Patrick’s Day, when I was 39. I’d always believed that life would be less purposeful, meaningful, etc. without having a child. This isn’t true for everyone but it was, and is, for me. My son is my gravitational center and the majority of my decisions reflect an effort to do the best I can to assure that he becomes an open, thoughtful and productive human being. It ain’t always easy.

You’ve formed many friendships, virtually and in person, with other SMITH members. Can you share a story about these bonds?
I’ve met ten SMITH members in person, eleven if you count the benevolent dictator himself. I guess the stand-out shared Sixer experience happened early on and was made memorable due to both the warm camaraderie and sheer terror involved. Skyrocketjones went for a leisurely drive to the top of Pike’s Peak with my son and I in the summer of 2011. Let me repeat. Summer. Lots of altitude. Far less in the way of guard rails. After reaching the top, my trembling stopped and we spent exactly fifteen minutes in the visitor’s center before the blizzard hit. Really, I’m a Michigan girl. It was a full-blown blizzard. We ran to the car, hoping to beat the icy fate that I imagined looming on every twist and turn on the downhill. Remember, no guard rails? Skyrocketjones is a trooper and she took great care of us during our adventures there. I must say that every Sixer I’ve met has been warm, welcoming and generous with their time and hospitality. I look forward to meeting more of you in the months ahead.

What’s a passion outside of writing?
Saying it out loud sounds so ordinary, but I love to travel and to cook. Often the twain do meet as I like to explore the local grocery stores during my travels and pick up fifteen bottles of hot sauce and 40 pounds of coffee from Costa Rica, 4 pounds of dried morels from Switzerland, or maybe imported French mustard from Canada. Yes, I do get a suspicious eye from the Canadian Border Patrol guys when they ask for the purpose of my visit to Canada and I reply that I need to buy mustard.

I also love to sell things that I believe in. That could be convincing someone to read a book or selling bowls to L.L. Bean—I’ve done both. My nurse alter-ego has a small business that wholesales handmade wooden ware to businesses large and small. No one who knows me would have said that I was meant to be a nurse. It is predictable that of the nursing specialties I could have chosen, psych was the best fit.

What authors inspire you or do you admire?
Although the great, classic writers of the world certainly evoke thought and emotion, they speak to me in whispers. On the other hand, Rick Bragg, Ruth Reichl, James Lee Burke, and Jane and Michael Stern come through like the sound system in the Kennedy Center. They make me belly-laugh, spew drinks and swear, often after too little sleep, that they’ve spied on my life and used it in their own first person. I’ve corresponded with some of them and even talked a couple into contributing to a SMITH book. James Lee Burke is the most stunningly descriptive author that I’ve ever had the pleasure to read and if I were given an opportunity to inherit one author’s ability to write, I would choose his, hands down.

Finally, Laureatte Loy, what’s your Six-Word Memoir for today?
My guardian angel demands PTSD leave.

And here’s a calendar that I wasn’t quite planning on but could not be more excited about: the first-ever “Very Six-y Ladies of SMITH Mag” calendar. Each month features a photograph of one of our amazing ladies —Believe, Canadafreeze, Sisterpoet, and more—as they offer us a glimpse of their lives. Like the best parts of SMITH, the Six-y Ladies calendar sprung from the community when Wench put out a call for calendar girls with this Six-Word Question. You can find it on Shutterfly*—it’s a truly beautiful thing from a truly beautiful community.

*SMITH Magazine makes no money from the Six-Y Ladies calendar; and not much from the memoir-a-day version.

December’s Member of the Month, Elizabeth Kalman, aka Believe, is known as much for her words online as she is for her wears offline. Kalman, a piano teacher, wife, and mother of two budding wordsmiths from Virginia Beach, VA, is the creator of the “Believe Hats” that now adorn so many SMITH member heads (including editor Larry Smith’s, pictured here). She’s sewn some fifty hats so far, each with the member’s nickname embedded, and shipped them off to people she’s solely met in this community. “The hats have taken on a magical quality that the community is responsible for, not me,” she says. Maybe so, but seeing, as the saying goes, is believing—and Elizabeth Kalman gives this community much to Believe in. She recently took time out from her busy life and put her rarely idle hands on the keyboard once again to answer six questions from SMITH.

Name: Elizabeth Kalman
Town: Virginia Beach, VA
SMITH member since: January, 2011

How did you first hear about SMITH?
I came across the site when I was googling for ideas for New Year’s toasts. One of the firsts toasts that I came to was Contemplative’s, “To inspired beginnings and captivated endings” on the Six-Word Memoir project. I was instantly hooked. I have always loved the idea of keeping a journal, but never actually had the focus/consistency/patience to do so. Six Words filled that void for me. I find the boundary of using limited words inspires my creativity.

When did you start writing and what have been turning points in your creative life?
My life has been one long creative journey. I fell in love with stories very early on. My mama was (and is) a magical storyteller. My bedtime stories were elaborate. There were always the classics, Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows, but then there were the ones that she wrote for me and my brother. They were filled with dragons hiding in hollyhocks and talking snapdragons. I have been playing the piano since I was four years old and teaching since I was sixteen, so I’ve always loved the way lyrics and music work together. Writing came a little later. I had a college professor that I loved. I hung on her every word, and she told me that I used too many words. She was the first person to be interested in my written story. I’m new to the actual writing scene and so far I am most comfortable writing in increments of six.

Your family has also gotten into the six mix. Care to tell us anything about that?
Well, my husband has actually been on six for over a year now. Of course, I was not aware of that. All I knew is that there was this one guy who seemed to be on at random intervals and would generally dedicate a small amount of time to harassing “Believe” among others. To say that he is a practical joker would be an huge understatement. He was actually found out by the resident sixer detective, L2L3. She and I have both agreed to protect his identity, but my fingers were crossed when I promised that.

My oldest daughter was inspired to start a profile when we met Larry Smith at a speaking engagement in Virginia Beach. She writes under the name pipedream. She is a brilliant writer. Her basic English assignments read like poetry. My youngest has recently started her own account, but she has been writing sixes for a while now as she was part of the class that went by the name TheOceanFlora last year. I am on a mission to promote Six-Word Memoir writing in classrooms and I was lucky enough to be able to practice on her class! The six-word concept works so well for high school students. I’m testing the waters with a younger group of writers and I am already amazed at the progress they make with, not only writing in general, but self-expression.

You’ve forged many bonds in the SMITH community and have become famous for your “Believe Hats.” When did you decide to start making hats for fellow Sixers. Who got the first one?
Who got the first hat? Tricky question. The first hats were sent to Wench as a “Welcome to the world, Constantine” present. But the Believe Hats really started a life of their own when I sent one to DynamicDbytheC and her beloved James.

What got you into the hat hobby?
I started making hats a few years back when I was sick. My immune system crashed in a major way. It landed me on my couch for an extended period of time. It was during the summer and my little girls were stuck inside on the couch with me. So we taught ourselves to knit. There is a song by Stephen Sondheim titled “Finishing the Hat” with lyrics that go, “Finishing the hat / How you have to finish the hat / How you watch the rest of the world from the window while you finish the hat.” And that is what we did that summer: we watched the world from a window and finished hats. But we really wanted to do something more. And that is what happened with DynamicD’s hat; I was watching her world from a six-word window and wanting to do more, so I made hats. The hats have taken on a magical quality that the community is responsible for, not me. And there is lots of magic out there. Larry is wearing the fiftieth hat. And I even have a hat of my own, courtesy of NumbrOneAunt!

Finally, Elizabeth Kalman, what’s your Six-Word Memoir for today?
Long on passion, short on time.

Take for example the community support that has coalesced around newly-minted SMITH member John Roedel (JohnBigJohn), whose contributions include candid stories and Six-Word Memoirs about raising his autistic son. In Roedel’s words, “Even though I come from the windy and groundhog world of Wyoming, I feel connected in a very unique way to these other contributors.”

It’s hard not to notice that something magical happens when we exchange our stories at SMITH. That’s why this holiday season SMITH is once again encouraging our members to celebrate StoryCorps’ National Day of Listening on November 23 by taking time to record interviews with loved ones and share them on StoryCorps’ “Wall of Listening.”
StoryCorps, best known for its chic MobileBooths and StoryBooths, launched National Day of Listening in 2008 to provide storytellers yet another way to record and share their interviews.

“People tell us all the time they would love to record their story, but the MobileBooth hasn’t come to their state, or they don’t live in a city where our StoryBooths are located,” says StoryCorps Associate Manager Krisi Packer. “The National Day of Listening’s DIY method gives everyone a chance to tell their story.”

So how do SMITH members get involved? It’s easy. You can record a StoryCorps interview from anywhere. You don’t even need fancy recording equipment to participate. The basic recording device on a computer or Smartphone will do. StoryCorp has developed a National Day of Listening Do-It-Yourself Instruction Guide, a list of suggested questions, and a video that walks you through how to record and conduct your interview. When you share your story, write SMITH Magazine under the field “Company or Organization,” so we can feature your interview on SMITH.

“The National Day of Listening amplifies StoryCorps’ mission that every voice matters, every story counts,” says Packer. At SMITH Magazine, launched in 2006 with the tagline, “Everyone has a story. What’s yours?” that’s something we can get behind. So gather around a recording device with a loved one, ask for their story, and add it to the “Wall of Listening” this holiday season!

• Share Your Story on the StoryCorps National Day of Listening Site
• Check out the National Day of Listening DIY-Guide
• Read Instructions on How to Record Your Interview
• Listen to other National Day of Listening Stories on the 2012 Wall of Listening

Six Words on Political Life at the National Constitution Center
More than 25,000 Six-Word Stump Speeches have been shared in our interactive exhibition at Philadephia’s National Constitution Center. On Oct. 29 we’re having a special politically themed story show at the center where six storytellers will start with a stump speech and then tell a longer backstory. Check out the line-up—including local Philly treasures Pierre Robert and Jane Golden—and buy advance tix.

Six Words on Jewish Life:
Our new book, Six-Word Memoirs on Jewish Life, comes alive at a combination of story shows with local talent, and talks from editor Larry Smith. On Nov. 3, we’ll be at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles for an evening of Jewish-life themed stories from six storytellers. Find out more and get tickets at WBT’s site. And here are six words to sweeten the deal: Free blintzes served following the show.

On Nov. 11, we’re doing a Jewish story show as a part of Philadelphia’s First Person Arts Festival, including a can’t-miss story by author Piper Kerman called, “Bad News, But It’s Not Cancer,” about telling a certain editor of a storytelling community’s Jewish parents she is on her way to prison for a crime she committed a decade earlier. You don’t have to be Jewish to come or love these two shows! Get tickets now—these shows will sell out.

Plus: SMITH’s Larry Smith tells the story of the Six-Word Memoir project and leads the audience into their own Six-Word Slam at book fairs in Cherry Hill, NJ; Houston and Virginia Beach.

Check out our new SMITH Live section for regular updates on future events. Follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook page and you won’t miss a thing.

When you ask a modern Jew about her relationship to pork the answer is often complicated. With SMITH Magazine’s “Six Words on the Jewish Life” show approaching (September 21, at 92YTribeca in NYC) we thought we’d check in with Jeffrey Yoskowitz, a Jew who’s made pork his passion and profession as founding editor of the storytelling site Pork Memoirs. As with many life callings, Yoskowitz recalls the moment when he made his mind up about pork once and for all.

“What would you do if Cindy Crawford wanted to kiss you?” a fellow camper asked him at Jewish summer camp. “But she had just gone to town on a huge bacon sandwich, and she still had bacon in her mouth?” Would Yoskowitz man up and kiss Crawford or keep kosher like a good Jew?

“Truth is, at that age if Cindy Crawford had wanted to kiss me, I would have done anything, but my answer was no. I wouldn’t kiss her if she had bacon in her mouth,” says Yoskowitz.

Yoskowitz’s yearning to lock lips with Crawford may have waned since his Jewish camp days, but his fascination with bacon has not. While you won’t find Yoskowitz chowing down at a pig roast, don’t be surprised if he personally raised and slaughtered the main course himself.

Yoskowitz has made a career out of his fascination with pork. In addition to founding Pork Memoirs, he has written extensively about pork in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The New Republic. He earned his stripes by working on a pig farm in Israel, where he spent his days covered in pig excrement, tossing out dead pigs, and collecting boar semen. “It’s called ‘milking’ the boars, and it was a promotion from being an all-around cleaner of pig shit,” says Yoskowitz.

“I have a fascination with pork,” he continues, “but it’s not so much a fascination with the meat itself as it is with the idea of pork and what pork represents. To me the pig is so tied to my Jewish identity, whether it’s cultural or religious, and that identity is always in flux and changing.”

Read on for SMITH Magazine’s interview with Jeffrey Yoskowitz on Jewish culture, pork, and his succulent Pork Memoirs.

Pork and memoirs. For most, one doesn’t naturally proceed from the other. Where did you get the idea for pork as a centerpiece of storytelling?
The concept of viewing Jewish life through pork came to me during a class on Jewish memoir at Brown. Memoir is a great medium for understanding larger forces at work—the pains of immigration, poverty, even the Holocaust. Personal narrative allowed me to wrap my head around these grand ideas, and one thing I noticed about all these Jewish memoirs was that there was a first time eating pork story in all of them. My goal with Pork Memoirs is to have it be almost a cultural history, using the pig as a metaphorical anchor.

What’s an example of a powerful memoir about pork?
I received this one story from a woman whose mother, as a child, was hidden with a family during the Holocaust. During that time, her mother basically ate whatever food the family ate in this period of heavy rationing. Her mother remembers eating raw bacon vividly, and after that experience her mother continued to have a strong relationship with pork. Pork connected her mother to this family she was once a part of.

Does pork play prominently in your family’s history?
Definitely. I remember stories my grandmother told about doing slave labor in Siberia. She shows up in Siberia after a long train journey. She hasn’t eaten in days, and there’s a big pork roast that the locals are having when she gets off the train. My grandmother and her family are offered pigs’ blood to drink. My grandmother was adamant about saying no. “We are Jews,” she said. “We will not do that. We will not have that pigs’ blood.”

And yet, you worked on a pig farm in Israel.
The whole experience was awful, but I got commune in a deeper and more intimate way with the pork industry. Every day there was a story. It was amazing, because I was at the pig farm with the explicit goal of learning about the industry.

A pig farm in Israel? How does that work?
Even though the pig farm was Jewish-owned, it was operated under a loophole that allows pigs to be raised for science.

And there’s a market for pork in Israel?
Yeah. It’s a part of Israel’s gastronomic underbelly. I totally understand why so many Jews want to eat pork. Pork is a symbol of defiance. Secular Israelis eat it to make a statement and resist the religious hegemony of the Israeli government.

What would your grandmother have thought?
I would be washing pig crap off my body at the end of the day and asking myself exactly that.

When my grandfather moved to the U.S. after the Holocaust, the only job he could get was as a ham boner in the pork industry, so I’m not the first one in my family to work with pigs. Before he passed away, my grandfather gave me the steel mesh glove and knife he used to bone ham. The glove only covers three fingers, because two of your fingers are considered extraneous for boning ham. If those were lost, it didn’t matter.

I was very much aware that my grandfather worked in a pork factory so that I wouldn’t have to do that sort of work. I was supposed to have transcended that kind of work. But there I was, covered in pig shit.

How could your grandfather work in a pork factory and come home to your grandmother who refused to drink pigs’ blood even as she was starving?
He used to work with pigs every day, but he was adamant that pork would not enter the house. He would get this ham for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the ham would be given away to their non-Jewish neighbors.

Your story is just crying out for a Six-Word Memoir!
“Inseminated sows, slaughtered pigs. Complicated kibbutz.”

Where do you find your pork memoirists?
The topic of pork comes up all the time. I’ll be encouraging and follow-up with people, and I might work with them on developing a pork memoir. Some people find me, but Pork Memoirs has also been written up on a number of websites. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has written about it, Oprah.com has quoted pork memoirs and linked to it, and MyJewishLearning.com did a whole profile on Pork Memoirs.

But you surely must get a lot of weird looks when you ask for a pork memoir. How do people react when you ask them for one?
Most people I talk to will initially say to me I don’t have a pork memoir. They might say I’m a vegetarian, so I don’t eat pork, or, I’m Jewish or Muslim, I don’t eat pork. My response is: Exactly. You do have a pork memoir. Did you never accidentally eat it? Did you never think about eating it? Do you have fears about eating it? I work with people to isolate those ideas and concepts.

Does your work on the pork industry ever piss off other Jewish people?
Definitely. When I wrote an article for The New Republic about the role pork played in the Israeli election in 2009, I got comments calling me a self-hating Jew. People were saying, “How dare you talk about pigs in Israel?” Like by talking about it, I was defaming the country. Ironically the Chabad rabbi in the town I grew up in loved what I was doing. He was so excited to talk to me about it. He would send me clippings from the Talmud referencing pork. They would call it “the other thing.” It was so vile they wouldn’t even mention it. To this day, no one in Israel calls it pork. There’s all these euphemisms.

What Pork Memoir are you working on now?
Recently I was contacted by a British man with a story about living on a pig farm in Israel that was eventually blown up by terrorists. He was living on the border of Gaza on a pig farm in the 1950s. Since he spoke English, he was in charge of taking around English-speaking inspectors and pretending there weren’t pigs on the premises. One night he was hosting one of these inspectors. After the inspector was satisfied there were no pigs on the premises, he stayed the night with the plan to return home the next morning. Well, that night the terrorists bombed the kibbutz. They thought they were blowing up the dining hall, but it was actually the building where the pigs were hidden. A lot of pigs died. Other pigs escaped and eventually scattered all across Southern Israel. The next morning, when the inspector woke up, he opened the door to a field of pigs running around everywhere.

So if Cindy Crawford wanted to make out with you while she had bacon in her mouth, how would you answer now?
Now my response would be if Cindy Crawford wanted to make out with me, why would she want to do it with bacon in her mouth? Does she want to taunt me? Why would she do that? That’s just cruel. And that’s why my final Six-Word Memoir is: “I won’t kiss Cindy’s bacon mouth.”

+++
+ Read and contribute to Pork Memoirs.
+ Read Jeffrey Yoskowitz’s stories on pork here.
+ Join SMITH Magazine at 92YTribeca for more Six-Word Stories on the Jewish life this Wednesday.