The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Artists Famous & Obscure

by Larry Smith

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061719653
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/03/2012
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

LARRY SMITH is an adjunct associate professor of economics at the University of Waterloo and a recipient of the University of Waterloo’s Distinguished Teacher Award. During his longstanding tenure, Smith has taught and counselled more than 23,000 students on the subject of their careers, representing more than 10 percent of UW’s alumni. Smith has worked with more than 500 teams of student entrepreneurs, advising them as they have created companies of significant size and success across industries as broad-reaching as communications, software, robotics, entertainment, design and real estate. Smith is also president of Essential Economics Corporation, an economic consulting practice that serves a wide range of public and private clients. “Why You Will Fail to have a Great Career,” his TEDx Talk based on his experience counselling students, has been viewed by over six million people.

Editorial Reviews

Have you ever taken a wrong turn and never looked back, or picked door number one instead of door number two? The results of split-second choices and unexpected events frame this fascinating collection of new, brief, personal narratives solicited by Smith (founding editor, SMITH magazine). Here are words and sketches by 125 contributors whose on-the-spot decisions or transformational moments led to a permanent change in lifestyle, career, or relationships. Melissa Etheridge details her decision to perform at the 2005 Grammy Awards when she was undergoing chemotherapy. In "Those Old Keys," it's the clacking of the keys on his father's typewriter that inspire NPR's Alan Cheuse to become a writer. "If I Don't Die Today, I Will Marry Kristin Moore" describes the decision photojournalist Aaron Huey made while crawling through a muddy field as Taliban gunfighters shot over him. First kisses, childbirth, accidents, and jury verdicts are other topics covered. VERDICT Each author's ability to concisely describe such big moments pulls the reader in. Book and writing groups will have a lot to talk about after reading this first-rate collection.—Joyce Sparrow, Kenneth City, FL

Library Journal

Writers and other artists candidly report on the private moments that transformed their destinies. Smith, proprietor of an eponymous magazine and holder of the six-word memoir franchise, gathers stories of life-changing events from a cadre of ready, self-aware authors, each done in a page or two. A short selection of the contributors: A.J. Jacobs, Melissa Etheridge, Gregory Maguire, Dave Eggers, Elizabeth Gilbert, Jennifer Egan and Judy Collins. There are many "wake-up calls," some smiles and plenty of tears in these first-person explorations of a few eternal truths. Each of the 125 participants deserves our regard, but the enterprise occasionally becomes a little too rich. The earnest narratives tell of coming out and hiding, of seeking the light, the path, the truth, the way and/or the writers' inner selves. Those goals were achieved by aid of a word, sign, teacher, family road trip, some dope, an inner voice or, more than once, a Eurail pass. As often as it contains instructive memoirs, such a collection verges on a solipsistic mélange. It's only natural. Consider all that Too Much Information from strangers about their parents and children, about adolescent and senescent love, about death, fear, illness, stress, ritual, addiction, separation, reconciliation and one dead mouse. It's all released in a torrent of heartfelt, short stories. The therapeutic public confessionals are augmented with photos, graphics, varied typography and vagrant sentences about still more moments. An easily read compendium of brief inspirational memory pieces--not necessarily literature, but more in the style of a college-application essay or an assignment in an adult creative-writing course.

Kirkus Reviews