I’m forever making lists of books I love. I have a long list of creative nonfiction books that I recommend my students look at. But lately I’ve been getting into reading theory and commentary on nonfiction as a form, so I’ll also start a running list of those “books on books.” I feel a bit behind in learning about this stuff, so my list is a bid rudimentary, and I’d love suggestions!

Thomas Larson. The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading & Writing Personal Narrative. Ohio University Press, 2007.

Leigh Gilmore. The Limits of Autobiography: Trauma and Testimony. Cornell University Press, 2001.

Dan Lehman. Matters of Fact: Reading Nonfiction Over the Edge. Ohio State University Press, 1997.

Susan Sontag. Regarding the Pain of Others. Picador, 2003.

Sidonie Smith & Julia Watson, eds. Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader. University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

Jean-Guy Goulet & Bruce Granville Miller, eds. Extraordinary Anthropology: Transformations in the Field. University of Nebraska Press, 2007.

Jennifer Jensen Wallach. Closer to the Truth than Any Fact: Memoir, Memory, and Jim Crow. University of Georgia Press, 2008.