Smith Magazine
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| Smith Magazine | |
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 Smith Magazine. Everyone has a story. Tell yours here. |
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| URL | www.smithmag.net |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Online Magazine |
| Owner | Magsmith, LLC |
| Created by | Larry Smith, Tim Barkow |
| Launched | 2006 |
Smith Magazine is an online magazine devoted to storytelling in all its forms. Smith's content is participatory in nature, and the magazine welcomes contributions from all its readers.
Contents |
[edit] Content and coverage
The site focuses on "personal media": blogs, memoirs, diaries, viral videos, social networks, "the mash-up between the professional and the amateur, and art projects rooted in personal. It’s all about the highly personal take on everything." Since its 2006 launch, Smith has been heralded as “a vision for the future of populist storytelling,[1]” “a gigantic cocktail party to which everyone is invited to come, listen, and contribute their own personal stories,[2]” and “the pulse of today’s cultural narrative[3].”
In the spring of 2006, Smith launched the critically acclaimed webcomic Shooting War, which became a full-color graphic novel from Grand Central Publishing in the fall of 2007.
In January 2007, Smith launched its second webcomic, a true story of Hurricane Katrina called A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. New chapters appear on Smith monthly. A.D. has received coverage in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Toronto Star, Rolling Stone, AlterNet, Boing Boing, Wired.com, the USA Today blog "Pop Candy," and NPR, as well as hundreds of blogs. A four-color hardcover book edition of A.D. is forthcoming from Pantheon Books in 2009.[4]
In February 2008, Harper Perennial published the New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs By Writers Famous and Obscure, which came from a six-word memoir contest held on Smith (and co-sponsored by Twitter) in 2007. Not Quite What I Was Planning collects almost 1,000 six-word memoirs, including pieces from celebrities like Stephen Colbert, Jane Goodall, Dave Eggers, and more. Vanity Fair magazine wrote that Not Quite What I Was Planning "will thrill minimalists and inspire maximalists," while Publisher's Weekly said it made for "compulsive reading and prove arguably as insightful as any 300+-page biography." [5]
In April 2008, Smith launched its third webcomic project, "Next Door Neighbor," edited by Dean Haspiel. "Next Door Neighbor" featuring true-life stories of next-door neighbors by some of the comics industry's top talents. New episode appear biweekly.
In May 2008, SMITH announced three new Six-Word Memoir book projects: Six Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak (due out February 2009), then a book of six-word memoirs by and for teens, and finally a straightforward sequel to the first book.
[edit] Contributors and recurring features
Featured bloggers on Smith include Larry Smith, Tim Barkow, Jeffrey Yamaguchi, Jeremy Sadowski, Katherine Sharpe, Kathy Ritchie, Rachel Fershleiser, and Douglas Rushkoff.
Storytelling "anchors" of the site include "Six Words" ("Six Words," "Six Words on Love & Heartbreak," and "A Life in Bites"), "Story Projects" ("Next Door Neighbors," "Pregnancy Stories," "Brushes With Fame," "My Ex," and "My Life So Far"), "Blogs" ("Memoirville," "Obsessions," and "The Diary Project") and Comics ("Shooting War," "A.D.", and "Next Door Neighbor").
[edit] History
Smith was founded January 6, 2006—National Smith Day—by writer/editor Larry Smith and designer Tim Barkow. Previous to launching Smith, Larry Smith was articles editor of Men’s Journal, and has been the executive editor of Yahoo! Internet Life, and senior editor at ESPN Magazine, and a founding editor of P.O.V. and Might magazines. Tim Barkow is a former editor at Wired and the online general manager at Portland Monthly.
[edit] Books published
- Neufeld, Josh. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. Pantheon Graphic Novels, 2009 (forthcoming).
- Smith, Larry, and Fershleiser, Rachel. Six Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak. Harper Perennial, 2009 (forthcoming).
- Lappé, Anthony, and Goldman, Dan. Shooting War. Grand Central Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0446581202.
- Smith, Larry, and Fershleiser, Rachel. Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Harper Perennial, 2008. ISBN 978-0061374050.
[edit] References
- ^ Bussell, Rachel Kramer, "Larry Smith, Founder and Editor in Chief, Smith Magazine," The Gothamist, April 23, 2007. Retrieved on December 12, 2007.
- ^ Frith, Susan, "Web, Take Two," The Penn Gazzette, Sept./Oct. 2007
- ^ Kealoha, Ami, Smith Magazine, Cool Hunting, Jan. 23, 2006. Retrieved on December 12, 2007.
- ^ "Pantheon to Publish A.D.:New Orleans After the Deluge: Josh Neufeld's Real-Life Saga," ICv2, May 8, 2008. Retrieved on June 4, 2008.
- ^ "Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 1/14" Publisher's Weekly, Jan. 14, 2008.
