The Moment - by Larry Smith (Paperback)

About the Book

From the creators of Six-Word Memoirs comes The Moment, a collection of personal stories from writers both famous and obscure revealing how a single instant changed their lives forever. An innocuous decision, an unforeseen accident, a chance conversation, a tag sale, a terrorist strike, a tweet . . . sometimes all it takes is a single moment to redirect the course of an entire life. In the tradition of Smith magazine s Not Quite What I Was Planning and the sensational Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak and in the spirit of StoryCorps, the Moth, and This American Life The Moment unveils everyday people s inner lives in narratives of all shapes and sizes, with stories from six to 1,000 words, photographs, comics, illustrations, handwritten letters, and more. It s enough to change your life forever."

Book Synopsis

From the creators of Six-Word Memoirs comes The Moment, a collection of personal stories from writers both famous and obscure revealing how a single instant changed their lives forever.

An innocuous decision, an unforeseen accident, a chance conversation, a tag sale, a terrorist strike, a tweet . . . sometimes all it takes is a single moment to redirect the course of an entire life. In the tradition of Smith magazine's Not Quite What I Was Planning and the sensational Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak--and in the spirit of StoryCorps, the Moth, and This American Life--The Moment unveils everyday people's inner lives in narratives of all shapes and sizes, with stories from six to 1,000 words, photographs, comics, illustrations, handwritten letters, and more. It's enough to change your life forever.

From the Back Cover

The turning points, revelations, epiphanies, dramatic changes, the opening or closing of a door--in a life, a career, a love--can occur in a single glorious, terrible, unpredictable, serendipitous, crucial, calamitous, chaotic, amazing . . . Moment.

The creators of the enormously popular Not Quite What I Was Planning and Six-Word Memoir series now offer stories of the Moment--the one-time chances, unexpected coincidences, and sudden catastrophes that made all the difference in the story of one life.

The results are triumphant, outrageous, heartwarming, heartbreaking, embarrassing, illuminating, and inspiring--life-changing moments from contributors Dave Eggers, Diane Ackerman, Elizabeth Gilbert, Bill Ayers, Jennifer Egan, A. J. Jacobs, Judy Collins, and many more.

Review Quotes

"A fabulously appealing exercise both for writers and for readers." - Telegraph
"A perfect distraction and inspiration, and a collection that begs to be shared." - Denver Post
"Compulsive reading . . . as insightful as any 300+ page biography." - Publishers Weekly
"Irresistibly clever." - Chicago Tribune
"Will thrill minimalists and inspire maximalists." - Vanity Fair
"Smith seems to have struck a chord in the current zeitgeist, unleashing a torrent of self-expression not unlike the one launched by Frank Warren when he began inviting people to write their secrets on the back of postcards." - Toronto Star
"These tiny windows into people's lives are at once addictive and illuminating, challenging and accessible." - BlackBook