The Situation and the Story

The Art of Personal Narrative.

All narrative writing transforms the raw material of life into a story that shapes experience and reveals meaning. In fiction, narrators may be unreliable—but in nonfiction, readers must believe the narrator is telling the truth.

"The Situation and the Story" explores how writers find that truthful voice within themselves. Drawing on a century of memoirs and essays, Vivian Gornick examines how authors like Edmund Gosse, Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, and Marguerite Duras craft personal narratives that ring true.

Based on fifteen years of teaching in MFA programs, this influential guide shows writers how to tell honest stories by first learning how to recognize truth in the work of others—and in their own.