'Reader's Digest' Wants Your Life Story in 150 Words or Less

Oh boy, do I have a contest for you long-winded Facebookers and personal bloggers. It's called, "Your Life: The Reader's Digest Version." The venerable magazine is willing to shell out $25,000 if you can keep The Story of You to a crisp and compelling 150 words (words, not characters—this isn't Twitter). Hell, I'd fork over that much if certain "friends" would stop sending me six-page family missives disguised as Christmas cards. Short and sweet, people! You are not that interesting. Jane Lynch, star of Glee and host of next month's Emmy Awards, gets the ball rolling with her own abbreviated life story on the magazine's Facebook page (see it after the jump). Shame, it sounds nothing like her caustic Sue Sylvester character from the Fox musical. Rather, it's an earnest promo-within-a-promo for Lynch's memoir, Happy Accidents, dropping in September. More celebrities with books to hawk will follow. But if Lynch, a sought-after, award-winning actress (Best in Show, Role Models, Party Down), can give a snapshot into her psyche within just a few sentences, so can you. I'd be even happier with a haiku. Jane Lynch's entry: "At the tender age of 50, I realized that I had the family, friends and the acting career I had always wanted. I had suffered on the way, feeling out of place, overcontrolling and drinking too much, but all that suffering had not fueled anything useful. The good things were a result of happy accidents that I had been willing, and let's hope smart enough, to... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'

[ AdWeek | 2011-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #award-winning actress #role models #tender age #acting career #good things #stay open

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Amazon sale discounts Kindle e-readers by up to 21 percent

If you've had your eye on one of Amazon's premium e-readers but haven't yet pulled the trigger, today might be the day to do so. As part of a wide-ranging sale across various own-brand Amazon devices, the Kindle Oasis, Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition and standard Kindle Paperwhite are all... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-08-15 08:46:55 UTC ]
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Zofia Posmysz, whose Holocaust story reached opera stage, dies at 98

Her semi-autobiographical novel, “The Passenger,” centered on the reunion of an Auschwitz survivor and her former Nazi guard and inspired a noted opera. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-08-14 23:45:29 UTC ]
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I could not believe how bravely Salman Rushdie faced the threats to his life. That’s true courage | Hadley Freeman

In our conversations and emails, his determination to not let the fatwa define him has been evidentThat Salman Rushdie was nearly murdered at an event in New York while talking about whether the United States was a safe haven for exiled writers is an irony he’d have rejected as too far-fetched... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-08-14 12:39:00 UTC ]
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After Roe v. Wade Reversal, Readers Flock to Publications Aimed at Women

The surge of readers has buoyed a part of the digital media world that has gradually declined in recent years. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-08-14 09:00:18 UTC ]
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5 books and films that tell the story of the trauma of the Partition of India and its aftermath

On the 75th anniversary of India’s partition, scholars from the US, Canada, France, UK and Australia write about their favorite book or film that best explains the trauma of a violent division. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2022-08-12 12:16:11 UTC ]
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The incredible feats and lonely life of sports legend Jim Thorpe

David Maraniss shows how the legendary athlete was celebrated, belittled and exploited. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-08-12 10:00:27 UTC ]
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The Best Short Stories about Parents and Parenthood

Fiction often deals with domestic matters, including family, and some of the finest short stories treat the important, though sometimes fraught, relationship between parents and their children. What makes a good parent? What if two parents disagree over what’s best for their children, or for the... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2022-08-08 14:00:43 UTC ]
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The Best Short Stories about Children and Childhood

What are some of the best short stories about childhood, and the experiences of children? Although there are dozens of classic tales about those formative years, the following stories represent, for our money, some of the finest stories about children taking the rocky path of knowledge and... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2022-08-05 14:00:32 UTC ]
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Too Busy for a Novel? Read These Short Stories Instead

One of the central questions I had when shaping my story collection, Proof of Me, was how to invite into it a unified feel, how to place each story to be in conversation—geographically, thematically, linearly—with what follows. I also sought for each story to stand on its own, offering a... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-08-05 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Bora Chung Soars with a Provocative Collection of Stories

Bora Chung soars into the unchartered territory of the imagination with her stunning, provocative collection of stories. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-08-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A fresh look at Ruth Asawa’s extraordinary life

On the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of Ruth Asawa's work in England and Norway, the show’s co-curators have edited a book of essays about her life. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-08-04 15:37:02 UTC ]
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Breaking Down the Translation Pyramid: On Translating Dhumketu’s Pioneering Short Stories from Gujarati

Dhumketu (1892-1965), one of the towering figures of Gujarati literature, often described the short story form as an incomparable flower in the garden of literature, as delicate as the juhi, as exquisitely beautiful as a golden bird, as electrifying as a bolt of lightning. For him, the short... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-01 08:51:21 UTC ]
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The Best Short Stories about Relationships

Writers of short stories have said a great deal about relationships of various kinds, and although the novel may be the preferred form for teasing out the complexities and conflicts of a long-term relationship, the short-story form can also provide writers with enough space to pinpoint a... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2022-07-29 14:00:30 UTC ]
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David Lott Sees His Stories Published

The late author's story collection 'Back in Brookford' was released through his self-publishing imprint, Nichols Street Press, in June. The stories use details common to late-20th-century life as anchors for eerie and unsettling events. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-07-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Paradise comes thrillingly to life in ‘Hokuloa Road’

Elizabeth Hand’s new book is no ordinary mystery novel but a genre-bending tale that captures the richness of Hawaii Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-07-28 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Reader does this question need a comma? A new book offers grammar help.

Roving grammarian Ellen Jovin helps settle questions about commas, split infinitives and more in “Rebel With a Clause” Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-07-26 12:00:53 UTC ]
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Teens who mostly read paper books are better readers, a recent study says.

Sorry to Kindle loyalists: people who read paper books tend to be more advanced readers, according to a recent study of the reading habits of thousands of teens around the world. The study, conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, looked at the way teenagers in 30... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-07-25 17:18:30 UTC ]
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10 Indispensable Black, Queer, and Feminist Coming-of-Age Stories

Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, author of the new novel 'Big Girl,' recommends 10 essential stories of young people coming into deeper understandings of race, gender, class, sexuality, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-07-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Readers’ Favorite Phantoms, Specters and Chain-Dragging Ghosts

In 1904, after the Book Review published an appreciation of Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” its letters page overflowed with ghost-story recommendations. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-07-22 15:44:31 UTC ]
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Isaac Fitzgerald on How We Tell Ourselves Stories To Get By

This week on The Maris Review, Isaac Fitzgerald joins Maris Kreizman to discuss his memoir, Dirtbag, Massachusetts, out now from Bloomsbury Publishing. Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. * On deciphering truth from fiction when writing memoir: “My parents were... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-07-21 08:51:06 UTC ]
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