Larry Smith is the co-founder and editor of SMITH Magazine, and co-editor of the recently published Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure -- a crowd-sourcing tome that’s still climbing the New York Times Best Sellers list. He's currently a contributing editor of ESPN Magazine and has been the articles editor of Men's Journal, executive editor of Yahoo Internet Life, editor at Might magazine, a founding editor of P.O.V., and editor-in-chief of its sister publication, EGG. He serves on the boards of alternative news organization AlterNet and computer literacy organization the LAMP. Here we go... Hometown (today): Park Slope, Brooklyn Hometown (growing up): Moorestown, NJ Website: smithmag.net Blogsite: smithmag.net Booksite: Not Quite What I Was Planning on Amazon.com or www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

SMITH Magazine. Um... Er... Do you think it's at all egotistical to name the magazine after yourself when you’re not quite Malcolm?
Sure, unless you know the back story. The codename for the prototype was "Smitty," after my grandfather, a great storyteller in his day. When he was in his late eighties, I picked up a video camera and asked him if he'd tell me the story of his life. He demurred, saying his story wasn't interesting. After a little goading he started talking about his life, coming to America from Russia at three years old, growing up in the slums of Philly, how his brothers helped put him through pharmacy school. He kept talking and talking and talking.

Why do you think that is?
Because everyone has a story -- not just New Yorker writers or bestselling memoirists. Which is why "everyone has a story" is our tagline. Sometimes they just need to be asked for it. So "Smitty" magazine just sort of turned into "SMITH" -- I like the way the word looked in all caps as a logo, and it made perfect sense as a name for a populist storytelling magazine: Smith is not only someone who works to create something (a blacksmith or a wordsmith) but is the most popular last name in America. SMITH represents us all, person-to-person, story-to-story.

What would you name it if you couldn't call it SMITH?
Garcia. Garcia's catching up to Smith quickly — it's #8 on the most popular surname list. Todos tenemos una historia, baby!

So, give us the six-word-skinny on your book.
There's a literary legend that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words and he came up with, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." As we approached our one-year anniversary of SMITH, we decided to give Hemingway’s form a new personal, non-fiction twist, inviting readers to tell their life story in six words. Or, as you requested, in six words: "Hemingway opened door; world burst through."

You claim this is a crowd-sourcing book; very Web 2.0 of you. For the layman, that means...
A book with 832 contributors, all credited, many of whom became evangelists for the book. When we made the book deal, we insisted that every contributor get a book, and we sent that book out in a packet with stickers, postcards, and tips on how to get a story about the book in their local newspaper. Now we've got hundreds of obsessed champions for what we and they all call "our book."

Very Utopian. And nice job garnering more than a few celebrity memoirs. Any important people not get picked?
Well, Anthony Ramirez, a writer with The New York Times, told the New Yorker writer who covered our book party that he had submitted a memoir that wasn't accepted and "desperately wanted to get in." We'll hook him up for book two. And then there's this ... www.smithmag.net/sixwords/story.php?did=5228

What was the first thing you did when your book landed on the Times Best Sellers List?
Tried not to die. I was driving down the 101 in Silicon Valley after Rachel Fershleiser, my co-editor, and I had done a reading at Google. When we got the message from our editor in New York, I was swerving all over the place with excitement.

SMITH Inc. now includes a magazine, a book, a blog, and "Powered by Smith," a story-telling consulting arm. Where does your quest for a good yarn and global domination end?
Unclear. In this media age it's hard to plan for more than six to twelve months in advance. For now, I can tell you where it's going: to pickles.

Our newest batch of insanity is a contest with a genius pickle maker, Rick's Picks. Three winners of the "What's your pregnancy story?" contest in SMITH will have their story and image distributed nationally on a line of pickles, the aptly named Slices of Life - "the pickle of pregnancy." What's more fun than that?

Not much. Although when I was pregnant I sure did crave kimchi pancakes. Not sure if you could strike me a deal there -- but I’m open if you are. Here is what I’m fascinated about: the speed with which you were able to attract, curate, and then publish the stories of the average Jane and Joe.
We've barely scratched the surface of what we can do with the tools we have now: blogs, RSS feeds, databases, audio and video. We don't need more speed with our storytelling; we need more context, more insight, more thoughtfulness. And mobile phone storytelling. Yeah, that'll be big.

Biggest obstacle to getting a book published?
Nothing, in the age of Blurb.com and Lulu.com. Sure, it's excellent to have a book deal with a major or minor publisher. But in this day and age, if you believe in your idea, no one can stop you.

What's Heaven look like to you?
Again, hard to see past the next year, much less the end of the line, but right now heaven looks like an office in the Flatiron Building, ten employees powered by the love of what they do, free yoga, unlimited Rick's Picks, Honest Tea, Gorilla Coffee, and all the pretzel croissants they can eat from the City Bakery.

Nice plug. You’re good, since I also hear you scored yourself the Honest Tea Cap gig. Inquiring minds have to know...
Honest Tea is running 100 six-word memoirs from SMITH Magazine across 3 million Honest Tea bottle caps, most likely this fall. Honest Tea is a great, socially conscious, smart, profitable company I'm proud to work with. And I love their tea.

When one of your 832 contributors comes down with a mean case of writer's block, what do you recommend?
Bourbon on the rocks, chased with a bag of edamame and Comedy Central.

Whose six-word-memoir would you kill to hear?
Tom Waits would be great; maybe he'd scribble a six-word lyric. And Bill Clinton. Love to see how that insatiable guy gets it all down to size.

And now for the obvious. What's your six-word-memoir?
Big hair, big heart, big hurry.

Truer words were never spoken.
That's only five.