A sentiment heard after Michael Jackson’s sudden death eclipsed everything in its media path, including the long-expected death of actress Farrah Fawcett hours earlier, was that Fawcett got cheated out of her obituary.

That sort of thing happens every day, although it’s usually the life of someone less famous than Fawcett getting overshadowed by news more mundane than Jackson’s. Everyone has a story, yet most people never see their names and pictures in the paper or on TV, dead or alive.

Like so much in this world, this is one of those things where if you want a job done right, you would be well-advised to do it yourself. If you want family and friends to know your life story, or if you want someone else’s story told, the time to do it is when the subject has the time and memory required.

(New York, NY)—Memoirs are still the hottest genre in the publishing industry, according to experts, so if you’re asking, “How do I tell my story?” then you’re in luck.

Larry Leichman, cofounder of Arbor Books (www.arborbooks.com), a top ghostwriting firm, says that despite recent controversies, memoirs still dominate The New York Times’ best sellers lists and consistently rank as top sellers at Amazon.com, a situation Mr. Leichman says is related to our fascination with the lives of others.

The sales figures for the memoir genre support that opinion, jumping from $170 million in 1999 to nearly $300 million today, according to the Bowker Industry Report.

What is Memoir (and)?
Memoir (and) is a biannual literary journal dedicated to memoir in many forms, from the traditional to the experimental-and including the visual. Available in over 800 bookstores across North America, it recently ranked 24th out of 179 magazines in Barnes & Noble’s sales by rank report in the literary category. Its distributors include Source Interlink, Ubiquity and Ingram in the United States, and Disticor in Canada. Published by the nonprofit Memoir Journal, each issue of Memoir (and) includes an admixture of emerging and established writers and artists who’ve contributed a selection of prose, poetry, narrative photography and graphic memoir.

What prizes are offered?
Four prizes for memoirs are awarded each reading period (see below). There is no entry fee. Previous contest winners can be found in our updates page. The Fall+Winter 2009 (Issue 5) contest winners will be announced on June 15th. Subscribe in reader to our What’s New! page and you’ll be notified right away!