Larry Smith (editor)

Larry Smith (born September 17, 1968) is an American author and editor, and publisher of Smith Magazine. He is best known for developing the best-selling book series Six-Word Memoirs, a literary subgenre that took on a life of its own in popular culture as publications began holding reader contests and publishing the results.[1] The form has been described as "American haiku."[2] Smith credits Ernest Hemingway's reputed shortest story, For sale: baby shoes, never worn, with inspiring the viral literary movement.[3][4]

Larry Smith
Larry Smith
Born (1968-09-17) September 17, 1968
New Jersey
OccupationNon-fiction writer, editor
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania
GenreSix-Word Memoirs
Notable works"Not Quite What I Was Planning", "Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak"
Spouse
​
(m. 2006)​

Background and early career

Smith grew up in New Jersey, the son of Burlington attorney Louis Smith and Carol, a clinical social worker. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.[5]

He worked as a founding editor of the magazine P.O.V. and editor-in-chief of its sister publication, Egg, as well as an editor of Might magazine with Dave Eggers. He was also managing editor of the news service AlterNet[6] and editor of the city guide network, Boulevards.

Smith also worked as executive editor of Yahoo! Internet Life, editor at ESPN The Magazine, and articles editor at Men's Journal. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Popular Science, Men’s Health, Salon, Slate, as well as other places.

In 2004, Smith's then-fiancée, Piper Kerman, served a 13-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, Connecticut, the result of a 1998 arrest for drug-related offenses committed about five years prior. Smith visited her in prison almost every week, and wrote about the experience in the New York Times.[7][8][9] Kerman later wrote a memoir about the experience, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison,[10] which was subsequently made into a television show by Netflix productions, in which Smith's homologue ("Larry Bloom") is played by Jason Biggs.

Smith Magazine and "Six Word Memoirs"

On January 6, 2006, National Smith Day, Smith co-founded the online Smith Magazine with Tim Barkow.[11]

Two years later, Smith's book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, co-edited by Rachel Fershleiser, was selected as a Top 100 Editors' Pick by Amazon in 2008 and became a New York Times bestseller. Smith and Fershleiser went on to co-edit three more books in the series, including Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure, and It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure, all published by Harper Perennial.

Books
  • Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. (with Rachel Fershleiser.) Harper Perennial, 2008. ISBN 978-0-06-137405-0.
  • Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure—Deluxe Edition. (with Rachel Fershleiser.) Harper Perennial, 2008. ISBN 978-0-06-171371-2.
  • Six Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure. (with Rachel Fershleiser.) Harper Perennial, January 2009. ISBN 978-0-06-171462-7.
  • I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure. (with Rachel Fershleiser.) Harper Teen, September 2009. ISBN 978-0-06-172684-2.
  • It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure. (with Rachel Fershleiser.) Harper Perennial, January 2010. ISBN 978-0-06-171943-1.
  • The Best Advice in Six Words. St. Martin's Press, November 2015. ISBN 978-1-25-006701-2

References
  1. Kloer, Phil. "Write your six-word memoir contest," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (October 11, 2007). Archived November 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  2. "It All Happened Here in Philadelphia," Philadelphia magazine. Archived October 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Widdicombe, Lizzie. "Say It All in Six Words," New Yorker (February 25, 2008).
  4. "Six-Word Memoirs: Life Stories Distilled". NPR. 7 February 2008. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  5. "Piper Kerman and Larry Smith". The New York Times. May 21, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  6. "Smith profile on Smith Magazine website". Smithmag.net. 2006-01-06. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
  7. A Life to Live, This Side of the Bars
  8. Prison Day 1
  9. Goldman, Lea (2010-03-10). "Life Behind Bars". Marieclaire.com. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
  10. Orange Is The New Black. "Orange is the New Black". Piperkerman.com. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
  11. Smith, Larry. "Happy National Smith Day, Happy Birthday To SMITH," SMITH Magazine (Sunday, January 6, 2008).

Further reading
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