Agonies of a Young Author

I'm currently taking a class in poetry through my college this semester. I really enjoy it so far, and have been exposed to some really fun assignments already (more later). Today I wanted to highlight a new emerging genre that my professor exposed us to.

Six Word Memoirs are blurred genres that combine the distilled language of poetry and flash fiction with biographical elements. The premise to to describe your entire life, in six carefully chosen words.

This was the brain-child of Smith magazine, who has recently published "Not Quite What I Was Expecting: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure" and the sequel "It All Changed In An Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure".

The genre is fascinating because you can experiment with visualization as well, which I am all about. This video on YouTube shows what I mean...



My professor assigned the class to come up with two of these memoir sentences, but you'll find if you try it that they are ridiculously addictive. I have a ton that I could share, but I thought I would just emphasis the one that I think is best-- and best representative of my whole life and life philosophy. So, Shelly Holder's six-word memoir:

English major
seeks better cardboard box.