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Winners of the Leonard Lopate Six-Word Memoir Contest

Today on WNYC’s The Leonard Lopate Show, Rachel and I talked to the winners of a SMITH and WNYC.org six-word memoir contest. The conversation, leisurely and literary in the style the great public radio programs have grown accustomed to, revealed the stories behind:

“Fourth choice to Prom. Still overcompensating.”
“Lots of cats. Lots of men.”
“Enter left. Move center. Exit right.”
“I overcame the temptation to suburbanize.”
“Ever-smaller apartments in better neighborhoods.”
“Unemployed publicist: Will flack for food.”
“Climbed Mount Everest, also compulsive liar.”

And in an intense few minutes of radio, Anne from Hell’s Kitchen shared her six-word memoir, “I found my mother’s suicide note.” She talked about how important it was for her to come to terms with her mother’s death, and the role of the note in that process. The note, she explained, was just six words: “No flowers, no funeral, no nothing.”

After the jump, see a few of our other favorites. Anyone who entered the contest–or heard us and got the six-word bug–is encouraged to submit a six-word memoir on SMITH and be considered for a future book.

Best Wordplay:
“Living in existential vacuum; it sucks.”
-Deb, Brooklyn

Best on Tech:
“Facebook has ruined my entire life.”
-Jeanie Engleke, Bradley Beach, NJ

Best on Politics:
“Nixon childhood, Reagan teenager, hope finally.”
Tonia Mohammed-Madejczyk, Northport, New York

Comments

  • Jay
    March 1, 2009

    Nice post

  • chris-teja
    March 3, 2009

    Awesome job on the show guys. I finally listened on the train this morning and thought it was great.

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