'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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The winner of this year’s Story Prize is Brandon Taylor’s Filthy Animals.

Tonight, The Story Prize announced that the 2021 winner is Brandon Taylor for Filthy Animals. The Story Prize’s $20,000 top prize is among the largest first-prize amounts of any annual U.S. book award for fiction. Now in it’s 18th year, The Story Prize annually honors the author of an... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

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The New York Public Library makes four banned books free nationwide on its e-reader app

The New York Public Library made four banned books available nationwide on SimplyE, its free-reader app. The titles include Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi and Catcher in the... Continue reading at Engadget

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10 of the Best Novels and Short Stories about Monsters

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Brandon Taylor's 'Filthy Animals' Wins 2022 Story Prize

Taylor's second book, published by Riverhead, won the $20,000 prize honoring an outstanding story collection published in 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

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Su Tong and His Stories on Women’s Lives

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Delia Ephron writes rom-coms. Then her life turned into one.

The author behind such favorites as “You’ve Got Mail” shares her own made-for-Hollywood tale in “Left on Tenth” Continue reading at The Washington Post

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The 100-year-old story of South Africa's first history book in the isiZulu language

Magema Fuze’s book was a radical act of publishing. It contained histories of chiefdoms and kingdoms - from the Zulu to the Ngcobo. Continue reading at The Conversation

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The Best Short Stories of All Time

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A Son Looks Back on Life With an Irascible and Beloved Mother

“Tasha” is Brian Morton’s memoir of his complicated relationship with the woman who raised him. Continue reading at The New York Times

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The unconventional life and radical vision of Maria Montessori

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Maia Kobabe on Fighting to Reach Marginalized Readers

At Slate, Maia Kobabe discusses writing Gender Queer, a memoir about self-acceptance and understanding, which has been challenged in schools and libraries across the country in recent months. “What I’m learning is that a book challenge is like a community attacking itself,” Kobabe says. “The... Continue reading at The Millions

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15 of the Best Short Stories Written by Women

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Punk saved Sasha LaPointe's life. Her memoir on her Native roots helped her heal

Sasha LaPointe escaped a difficult childhood on a reservation by diving into Seattle punk. Her memoir, "Red Paint," finds solace in her Native roots. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

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The Story Behind Jonathan Franzen’s New Backlist Book Cover Redesigns

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Newly Published, From a Vermont Sanctuary to Chicago’s Spoken Word

A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading. Continue reading at The New York Times

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Connecting Readers with the Right Books: Closeup on Learn with NoveList

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10 Slice-of-Life Romance Manga to Make You Smile

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