37 Words
A Side Project
The Story
I started collecting these submissions, all around the eponymous prompt, in Summer of 2017, as I made my unplanned way across the Southeastern United States. I would take this prompt to Europe, collecting 80+ “life stories” from people in my travels. Below are the few I can presently find–the remaining are committed only to paper, somewhere in a bookshelf I hope—and not a landfill! Tragically, at the moment (ever-stretching into the future) the majority of these life stories that I have received are irretrievably lost.
Submissions are actively being accepted again, and I will do my best to track down the remaining 70 people whose lives I have so carelessly misplaced this half-decade past.
Why
The number 37 is a mere prompt, not (as you can see below) a strictly enforced editorial requirement. The number itself was selected to force people’s serious reflection, but to allow for play. It is a prime number as well, indivisible by any other than 1 and itself, as each life is unique to the person pursuing it.
It is my goal to eventually have a hundred or so of these to publish as a compendium somewhere. I’m inspired by the work of Post Secret, but this is neither a homage nor alternative to that enormous labor of love.
Your Life
Submit your entry below with any information you would like to accompany the entry: Name, age, location. None are required, and they may be provided with the request not to be published.
You retain ownership of your work if a name is provided (not necessarily to be published), but grant an irrevocable license for AndMoreWords to publish or display the work in part or whole, in digital and print forms.