'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

Other Publishing stories related to: ''Reader's Digest' Wants Your Life Story in 150 Words or Less'


The Top 10 Library Stories of 2020

PW looks back at the library stories that captivated the publishing world this year—and what they portend for 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #library stories #publishing world


The story behind ‘And the People Stayed Home,’ the little poem that became so much more

With one Facebook post, Kitty O’Meara set off a wave of hope — and a creative windfall. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-10 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook post


André Gregory’s ‘This Is Not My Memoir’ is a free-form monologue about his quest for meaning in life and art

The boundary-smashing theater director turns an exuberant flow of reminiscences into a relatively coherent roller-coaster of narrative. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-09 12:59:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


How a DACA recipient came to tell the stories of 'The Undocumented Americans'

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio talks about her eye-opening book "The Undocumented Americans" and what it taught her about herself. She'll join the LAT Book Club on Dec. 15. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-12-08 15:00:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #undocumented americans #ll join #book club


OUP launches 'gift of words' campaign

Oxford University Press (OUP) has launched a campaign to highlight the inspiring power of words, involving authors and illustrators such as Anthony McGowan and Lauren Child sharing the quotes they would "gift" to children at Christmas.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-08 00:25:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


A gift guide for the fans of science fiction, fantasy and horror books in your life

Anthologies like “The Big Book of Modern Fantasy” cover a lot of ground. Illustrated books like “Flyway” offer something special. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-07 14:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #science fiction #horror books #illustrated books #big book


150 and not out

Change has been a constant this year: even so, it is still unnerving when the momentum picks up the pace. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-04 05:07:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Generational shift in the Covid-challenged Bookseller 150

The Bookseller's 12th annual list of the industry's most influential people reveals a spate of pandemic heroes. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-03 23:15:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #generational shift #bookseller


Jason Reynolds bought up all his own books from local DC bookstores and gave them to readers.

Jason Reynolds: two-time National Book Award finalist, TIME 100 Next honoree, and, apparently, real-life angel. Yesterday, for Giving Tuesday, the Look Both Ways and Ghost author let us know via Twitter that he’d bought the entire inventory of his books from local bookstores across DC, so... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-03 18:19:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #jason reynolds #giving tuesday #local bookstores #literary hub #national book award


Words Without Borders in December: Female Sudanese Novelists ‘Caught in a Limbo’

'Not being Arab nor African enough,' translator Sawad Hussain writes, female writers aren't supported by Sudan's 'literary ecosystem.' The post Words Without Borders in December: Female Sudanese Novelists ‘Caught in a Limbo’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-12-02 16:34:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #post words #novelists


Bloomsbury spreads word with industry-exclusive proof for The Other Black Girl

Bloomsbury has launched its marketing and publicity campaign for Zakiya Dalila Harris' publishing-set novel, The Other Black Girl, with a proof going exclusively to industry professionals. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-01 04:30:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #black girl #publicity campaign #industry professionals #bloomsbury


Andrew Hunter Murray | 'I wanted the story to be the uncovering of a secret about this world'

Andrew Hunter Murray was out walking when an image occurred to him: a still Earth, half in light, half in darkness, no longer rotating. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-27 04:30:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Life Isn’t a Narrative: A Conversation with JoAnn Wypijewski

JoAnn Wypijewski is a writer, editor, and journalist based in New York. From 1982 to 2000, she was an editor at The Nation magazine and co-editor, with Kevin Alexander Gray and Jeffrey St. Clair, of Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence (2014). She has written for CounterPunch,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-11-26 18:00:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #life isn #anthology


Sphere to publish new ghost stories from the 'very finest storytellers'

Sphere will publish The Haunting Season, a "dazzling" collection of "haunted tales". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-26 08:00:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ghost stories


Corduner to narrate audiobook of human rights lawyer's Parting Words

Sphere has announced that actor Allan Corduner will narrate the audiobook of Parting Words by 100-year-old human rights lawyer Benjamin Ferencz.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-26 03:14:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #narrate audiobook #parting words #audiobook


The Libraries of My Life

My library is a response to the void of my parents’ house: there are traces of all the public libraries I’ve visited since childhood. Continue reading at The Paris Review

[ The Paris Review | 2020-11-25 15:50:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #public libraries #libraries


Penguin Random House is buying Simon & Schuster. That’s bad for readers.

For book lovers, the announcement may feel like background noise, but the ramifications are huge. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-25 12:57:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book lovers #random house


Just-right stories: The four best audiobooks of November 2020

In the mood for bite-sized entertainment? Essays about nature and outstanding short stories make for deep but quick listening this month. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-11-24 20:14:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bite-sized entertainment #quick listening #short stories


Just-right stories: The four best audiobooks of November 2020

In the mood for bite-sized entertainment? Essays about nature and outstanding short stories make for deep but quick listening this month. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-11-24 20:14:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bite-sized entertainment #quick listening #short stories


Just-right stories: The four best audiobooks of November 2020

In the mood for bite-sized entertainment? Essays about nature and outstanding short stories make for deep but quick listening this month. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-11-24 20:14:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bite-sized entertainment #quick listening #short stories