April Brings Ramadan, Big Little Lies, and a Six-Word Search for Rain (Lots of It)
“Ramadan: No water? Not even air!”— a Backstory We Love
While living in Columbus, Ohio a few years ago, I met Sara Abou Rashed, a 17-year-old Palestinian-Syrian-American, at a teen writing workshop I was leading. That night, Sara wrote a Six-Word Memoir: “Escaped war; war never escaped me.” Later, I asked her to share a backstory to those six words at a “Six Words Live” story show. A year later, she performed an expanded, show-stopping version of the story at Manhattan’s Tenement Museum of immigration. And after the show Sara enjoyed her first slice of NYC pizza and we hatched a plan for what would become A Map of Myself, Sara’s one-woman show. In 70 minutes, Sara tells her story of escaping the war in Syria and eventually find her way to Columbus, Ohio at age 14. In celebration of Ramadan, read Sara’s backstory about what the holiest month of the year means to her, and to so many Muslims across the world.
The Craft of Writing #5: Imagery
I’m partial to the number six, but in fact there are five main types of imagery: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile—a.k.a. the five senses. Your grade school teacher probably encouraged you to use all five senses to create vivid imagery, and she wasn’t wrong. Sensory imagery offers the reader a shortcut to understanding, which is perfect when you have a creative constraint (like only using six words!). When you have a lot to say but only a little space, imagery can make your writing more visceral and more meaningful.
I’m more Clark Kent than Superman. ——Roger Sperry
Everything I touch turns to mold. —Lisa Anne Auerbach
American backbone, Arab marrow, much trouble. —Rabih Alameddine
Town car, tailored suit, dirty nails. —Nicole Blades
Cooking chicken soup stirs mother memories. —Carol Smith
Dorothy Gale had the right idea. —Pamela Vissing
Many hands have kept me afloat. —Nick Flynn
Pro Tip: Imagery is ideally both concrete and meaningful. “I love wearing my mom’s sweater” tells the reader you like to wear your mom’s sweater, but it doesn’t allow the reader to really see the sweater and really understand why it’s meaningful. “Mom’s turquoise sweater hugs me now” allows us to visualize the sweater and understand why it’s so important.
Six-Word Search: It’s Raining Sixes
Our passionate community of storytellers have shared more than 1.4 million life stories on sixwordsmemoirs.com. While we feature six “Editor’s Picks” on the site each day, sometimes we like to step back and look at the big picture. Each month, we’ll be combing through our archives with a search term to see what gems we can uncover. Since April is known for its showers, we’ve been searching for “rain.” Here are some of our favorites:
After the rain, the buds emerge. —lillybrook
Yelling off cliffs, dancing in rain. —Purplecrayon
Rain inadequate to float my ark. —JohnZ
Kiss me like it’s raining —Embem
Light refracts through tears, creating rainbows. —MaxWrites
She’s my umbrella in the rain. —jl333
So, what should we search next?
Celebrity Six: Jane Goodall Winner
This month, we dove deep into the mind of famed primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall in celebration of her birthday and Earth day. Reader Jacqueline Rice summed up Goodall’s conservation efforts best with her six words: "Unequivocally enthusiastic chimp champion. Dame Jane."
Congrats Jacqueline! We’ll be sending you a copy of Not Quite What I Was Planning, our New York Times bestselling book in which Jane Goodall’s memoir appears.
Classroom of the Month: Michelle Wolff’s Eight Years of Six Words
“Everybody can do six words,” says Michelle Wolff, a high school English teacher in Harrison Township, Michigan. “Not everybody can do six hundred or six thousand… but they can all write six; the form is accessible to kids of varying levels.” Wolff, a regular writer on the Six-Word Memoirs site who’s shared more than 2,000 stories and is a contributor to our Six Words Fresh Off the Boat book, has been teaching Six Words to her students for eight years. Her freshman class writes memoirs for characters in novels, such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, while her seniors start with Six-Word Memoirs as an introduction to a longer memoir unit. Read more about Wolff’s work on our Six In School blog, and see how other teachers across the world are using the form to instruct and engage their students.
Six-Word Lies Contest Ends April 30
This month, we’re asking you to lie to us. Your lies can be anywhere from little white ones to obviously false claims. Only rule: you can’t tell the truth. Here are some of our favorites so far:
I've read the terms and conditions. —Anirudh
That problem will certainly resolve itself. —L2L3
Pulling your hair? He likes you. —MaxWrites
I would never lie to you. —KT1
Shimmer in my hair is silver. —CanadaGoose
Remember to leave a comment on the contest page at sixwordmemoirs.com for a chance to win a Six-Word Memoir book of your choice! The contest ends on April 30th.