'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'


7 Translated Books About Queer Life in Taiwan and China

Before writing my debut novel Bestiary, I began a year-long process of translating letters written by my grandmother, many of which were addressed to people I didn’t know. While attempting these translations, I realized the impossibilities and possibilities of the task—the losses and gaps and... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #china appeared #electric literature #debut novel


Historical Fiction and the Power of Stories

How historical fiction gave one reader deeper and more vivid insights into history and guided her career in teaching and librarianship. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-09-28 10:35:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #historical fiction


Wheatle brings 'light-hearted tribute to teen life' to Barrington Stoke

Barrington Stoke will publish The Humiliations of Welton Blake, a new teen novella from Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize winner Alex Wheatle.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-28 09:36:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #teen life #barrington stoke #guardian children


Our food shopping habits have human and environmental costs. ‘The Secret Life of Groceries’ adds them up.

Benjamin Lorr peers at the dark underbelly of the food industry, one that depends on inexhaustible supply. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-28 05:44:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #secret life


The LARB Banned Books Reader

IN HONOR of Banned Books Week, LARB’s editors have compiled a brief anthology of essays on works of literature that were — and, in some cases, still are — officially unavailable to large groups of readers around the world, as well as interviews with authors who have faced censorship. In this... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-09-27 12:30:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital download #anthology


Canbury Press releases Unbound-funded immigrant stories

Indie publisher Canbury Press is released the Unbound-funded illustrated book 99 Immigrants Who Made Britain Great, featuring an introduction from Bonnie Greer. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-25 10:42:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #illustrated book #indie publisher


12 Manga For Kids, From Early To Middle Grade Readers

If you’re ready for your early readers and middle schoolers to explore manga, this is our list of the best manga for kids to get started, including Children of the Sea by Daisuke Igarashi. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-09-25 10:36:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #early readers #middle schoolers #including children #manga


The Book That Changed My Life: Giving Voice to the Divine, Inexplicable Ocean

In the early summer of 1994, I walked into Alice’s Bookshop in North Carlton; a small shop in an old terrace on a straight boulevard that runs north out of Melbourne, Victoria. Being so close to the venerable sandstone of Melbourne University, there’s an old-fashioned gravity about the place.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-24 08:48:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #giving voice #early summer #small shop #bookshop


Faber wins story of Nina Simone memento

Faber is to publish musician and composer Warren Ellis' debut title, Nina Simone's Gum, featuring an introduction by Nick Cave.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-23 16:08:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #debut title #nick cave


SDG Book Club for Young Readers: A Portuguese-Language Expansion

Two years into its work, the book program for children devised by the United Nations and IPA gets a lusophone wing. The post SDG Book Club for Young Readers: A Portuguese-Language Expansion appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-09-23 13:02:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #young readers #book program #united nations #book club


In ‘The Book of Two Ways,’ Jodi Picoult delivers another powerful story about heart-wrenching moral choices

The book takes a “Sliding Doors” approach, as a woman, on the heels of a near-death experience, contemplates her next move. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-22 14:35:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book takes #powerful story #near-death experience


L.A.'s poet laureate isn't mincing words: 'The world's on fire. We're just trying to survive.'

L.A. poet laureate Robin Coste Lewis joins the L.A. Times Book Club Sept. 24 for Black Poets in a Time of Unrest, an evening of discussion and poetry performances. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-09-17 20:34:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #black poets #times book


Absolute snack Stanley Tucci is writing a memoir about his life as a foodie.

There are very few celebrities whose meals interest me. (Yes, I do hate Instagram, thank you.) But here’s one: Stanley Tucci, who announced today that he’s working on a memoir called Taste: My Life Through Food. Publisher Gallery Books described it as “intimate and charming reflection of Tucci’s... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-17 18:45:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #stanley tucci #announced today #memoir


By Telling New Stories, We Build a New Future

In order to fit more texts into my Asian American literature course, I sometimes assign the play adaptation of Jessica Hagedorn’s novel Dogeaters. The novel is canonized within Asian American literature and features an imagined version of the Philippines made from film and radio tropes, found... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-17 11:00:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #future appeared #electric literature #american literature


A Little Library Life: On Finding Sanctuary in On-Campus Libraries

One reader on finding solace and sanctuary in college libraries as a transfer student. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-09-17 10:39:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #finding solace #libraries


The Back Story Behind ‘Transcendent Kingdom’: Yaa Gyasi Is a Solid Friend

Loyalty spurred the best-selling author to visit a neuroscientist’s lab. What she saw there inspired her next narrator. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-09-17 09:00:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #transcendent kingdom #yaa gyasi #best-selling author


Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi | 'Stories have such power you cannot imagine'

The First Woman, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's powerful feminist novel about a headstrong young woman’s coming-of-age in 1970s Uganda, has had a long and fraught path to publication. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 17:05:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Sigrid Nunez’s ‘What Are You Going Through’ is an ambitious novel about the meaning of life and death

Nunez’s first novel since winning the National Book Award follows a woman and her terminally ill friend. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-16 16:32:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sigrid nunez #national book award #first novel


Story of ‘bloodthirsty unicorns’ brings debut author record publishing deal

Annabel Steadman’s fantasy series Skandar and the Unicorn Thief has won a seven-figure book contract, with film rights also sold to Sony PicturesA 28-year-old first-time author from Canterbury has landed what is believed to be the world’s largest ever book advance for a debut children’s writer,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-09-16 13:34:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #debut children #fantasy series #bloodthirsty unicorns #annabel steadman #unicorn thief #film rights #first-time author #simon schuster #debut author


Walter Mosley changes gears with ‘The Awkward Black Man,’ a meditation on health, aging and life

The story collection is a departure for the beloved writer best known for his Easy Rawlins mysteries. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #walter mosley #story collection #beloved writer