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December 2, 2010 | Blog |  No comments

The Moment book

By Amy Mercer

It’s crunch time on The Moment book, as the Jan 7 deadline is coming
soon. We have no lack of submissions,
but definitely love to reach out to more people, especially writers
and/or people who have simply led interesting lives.

Whether you’re a bestselling writer, or never been published before,
it will feel really great when this book comes out (and when it’s
hopefully talked about in the media, taught in schools, all the things
that we’ve been fortunate to see happen with other SMITH Mag books).
And “moments” can be short — a few hundred words, or an image with a
few choice words, can totally work (and have so far).

Here’s an explanation with a few examples and my contact at the
bottom. Thanks so much. -Larry

The Moment from SMITH Magazine
The Moment is a book of personal stories about how a single moment–a
single, decision, happenstance, accident, call, conversation, tweet,
text, or email that had a profound effect on you. SMITH books always
features a combo that’s pretty unique, with famous people (Sarah
Silverman, Dave Eggers, Steven Colbert, Richard Ford, Aimee Mann,
Malcolm Gladwell, Dr. Jane Goodall), alongside unknown folks (most of
whom have never been published anywhere). If you had a couple hundreds
words about a “Moment” (or as many as 750) or a photograph, postcard,
or ticket stub with a caption that tells your story, we’d be so
delighted to include you in this book. Of course, we’ll include your
bio at the bottom of your contribution. Submissions are due by Jan. 7,
and the book will be published by HarperCollins in Fall 2011.

Some Moments we love so far:

Elizabeth Gilbert was four years old when, for the first time, she
heard her parents talk like adults. It rocked her world, because she
realized they had lives, and she wasn’t the
center of the universe.

AJ Jacobs watched as his third-grade science teacher, chucked a
piece of chalk at his friend Max’s. As a stunned classroom looked on,
the teacher said, ‘I shouldn’t have done that.” That was the moment AJ
realized that adults are just as big fuck-ups as kids.

Piper Kerman ended up in the middle of an international drug ring,
for which she would later serve a year in prison, because she had one
conversation, with one woman, one night.

Karol Nielsen saw an New York Times photo essay on families going to
war, sparking her own memory about her father being sent to Vietnam
when she was six months old. Her “Moment” is a poem about her father
in a series of tweets.

Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky, writes about the time his plane landed
in the middle of a 7.5 earthquake in the South Pacific, and the
feeling of being between air and land, and watching the world outside
shake around him.

A longer explanation and more examples can be found here, and please
be in touch with any questions:
http://www.smithmag.net/themoment/

Tagged: Calls for Submissions, Personal Narratives, Publishing, Writing

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