SMITH is in San Francisco for Litquake, a week-long festival of readings, panels, and parties. We’re thrilled to be a part of Litquake with a Six-Word Memoir Reading & Slam this Saturday, October 11 at 8:30 in Clarion Alley, between 17th & 18th Streets, Mission and Valencia Streets. On hand will be some famous & obscure contributors telling the backstories behind their six-word memoirs from our first book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure (a deluxe, hardcover expanded edition is just out and I’m told is quite a good gift….), and our next one, Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak (Daniel Handler fans are in for a real treat). Then we open it up to anyone in the audience to take part in a Six-Word Slam. We’ve done these all over the country, and we’re always blown away by what the audience comes up with. This is good stuff.

Our event is part of the world-famous Lit Crawl, a literary roll of readings, slams, and open mics in the bookstores, bars, cafes, and alleys of the Mission from writers for McSweeney’s, Opium, ReadyMade, Manic D Press, and other literary wonders of the western world. Six-word memoir contributor and editor of the Big Ugly Review, Elizabeth Bernstein, calls Lit Crawl her “favorite night of the year.” Hey you: come crawl with us.