So I’d almost forgotten about it, but some months ago my old poker playing buddy Dave Hirshey ,now big shot book editor, asked me if I’d contribute to an unusual anthology. It was going to be called %%AMAZON=97800061374050 Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Famous & Obscure Writers%%, put together by the editors of Smith Magazine.

I think you can figure out the gimmick easily enough from the title. But it wasn’t easy! Try coming up with six words to sum up the rich pageant of your life, the ups and downs, the loves and losses.

I went with:

Explained Hitler, Shakespeare. Couldn’t explain self.

But there were so many efforts I admired more, ranging from the humorous:

Maybe you had to be there.

–Roy Blount Jr.

to the meditatively profound (I think):

Melancholy marvel at how everything connects

–Lawrence Wechsler

to the sly and sexy:

Catholic girl. Jersey. It’s all true.

–Mary Elizabeth Williams

to the shamelessly smug:

I always suffered fools fairly well.

–Richard Ford

to the sadly romantic:

I waste time looking for love

–Sean Gannett

to the rueful:

Left Aruba for Maryland. Pretty dumb.

–Barbara Phillpis-Seitz

to the self effacing:

Well, I thought it was funny.

–Stephen Colbert

You get the picture. i could go on quoting, it’s addictive.

But if any readers of this blog would like to try their hand at a six word memoir, post it in comments and I’ll award a prize (non material, just my praise) for the one (or ones) I like the best.