definition of biography nonfiction

Definition of Biography

A biography is the non- fiction , written history or account of a person’s life. Biographies are intended to give an objective portrayal of a person, written in the third person. Biographers collect information from the subject (if he/she is available), acquaintances of the subject, or in researching other sources such as reference material, experts, records, diaries, interviews, etc. Most biographers intend to present the life story of a person and establish the context of their story for the reader, whether in terms of history and/or the present day. In turn, the reader can be reasonably assured that the information presented about the biographical subject is as true and authentic as possible.

Biographies can be written about a person at any time, no matter if they are living or dead. However, there are limitations to biography as a literary device. Even if the subject is involved in the biographical process, the biographer is restricted in terms of access to the subject’s thoughts or feelings.

Biographical works typically include details of significant events that shape the life of the subject as well as information about their childhood, education, career, and relationships. Occasionally, a biography is made into another form of art such as a film or dramatic production. The musical production of “Hamilton” is an excellent example of a biographical work that has been turned into one of the most popular musical productions in Broadway history.

Common Examples of Biographical Subjects

Most people assume that the subject of a biography must be a person who is famous in some way. However, that’s not always the case. In general, biographical subjects tend to be interesting people who have pioneered something in their field of expertise or done something extraordinary for humanity. In addition, biographical subjects can be people who have experienced something unusual or heartbreaking, committed terrible acts, or who are especially gifted and/or talented.

As a literary device, biography is important because it allows readers to learn about someone’s story and history. This can be enlightening, inspiring, and meaningful in creating connections. Here are some common examples of biographical subjects:

• political leaders
• entrepreneurs
• historical figures
• serial killers
• notorious people
• political activists
• adventurers/explorers
• religious leaders
• military leaders
• cultural figures

Famous Examples of Biographical Works

The readership for biography tends to be those who enjoy learning about a certain person’s life or overall field related to the person. In addition, some readers enjoy the literary form of biography independent of the subject. Some biographical works become well-known due to either the person’s story or the way the work is written, gaining a readership of people who may not otherwise choose to read biography or are unfamiliar with its form.

Here are some famous examples of biographical works that are familiar to many readers outside of biography fans:

• Alexander Hamilton (Ron Chernow)
• Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Caroline Fraser)
• Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
• Churchill: A Life (Martin Gilbert)
• The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (Simon Winchester)
• A Beautiful Mind (Sylvia Nasar)
• The Black Rose (Tananarive Due)
• John Adams (David McCullough)
• Into the Wild ( Jon Krakauer )
• John Brown (W.E.B. Du Bois)
• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo (Hayden Herrera)
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Doris Kearns Goodwin)
• Shirley Jackson : A Rather Haunted Life ( Ruth Franklin)
• the stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit (Michael Finkel)

Difference Between Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir

Biography, autobiography , and memoir are the three main forms used to tell the story of a person’s life. Though there are similarities between these forms, they have distinct differences in terms of the writing, style , and purpose.

A biography is an informational narrative and account of the life history of an individual person, written by someone who is not the subject of the biography. An autobiography is the story of an individual’s life, written by that individual. In general, an autobiography is presented chronologically with a focus on key events in the person’s life. Since the writer is the subject of an autobiography, it’s written in the first person and considered more subjective than objective, like a biography. In addition, autobiographies are often written late in the person’s life to present their life experiences, challenges, achievements, viewpoints, etc., across time.

Memoir refers to a written collection of a person’s significant memories, written by that person. Memoir doesn’t generally include biographical information or chronological events unless it’s relevant to the story being presented. The purpose of memoir is reflection and an intention to share a meaningful story as a means of creating an emotional connection with the reader. Memoirs are often presented in a narrative style that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Examples of Biography in Literature

An important subset of biography is literary biography. A literary biography applies biographical study and form to the lives of artists and writers. This poses some complications for writers of literary biographies in that they must balance the representation of the biographical subject, the artist or writer, as well as aspects of the subject’s literary works. This balance can be difficult to achieve in terms of judicious interpretation of biographical elements within an author’s literary work and consideration of the separate spheres of the artist and their art.

Literary biographies of artists and writers are among some of the most interesting biographical works. These biographies can also be very influential for readers, not only in terms of understanding the artist or writer’s personal story but the context of their work or literature as well. Here are some examples of well-known literary biographies:

Example 1:  Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay  (Nancy Milford)

One of the first things Vincent explained to Norma was that there was a certain freedom of language in the Village that mustn’t shock her. It wasn’t vulgar. ‘So we sat darning socks on Waverly Place and practiced the use of profanity as we stitched. Needle in, . Needle out, piss. Needle in, . Needle out, c. Until we were easy with the words.’

This passage reflects the way in which Milford is able to characterize St. Vincent Millay as a person interacting with her sister. Even avid readers of a writer’s work are often unaware of the artist’s private and personal natures, separate from their literature and art. Milford reflects the balance required on the part of a literary biographer of telling the writer’s life story without undermining or interfering with the meaning and understanding of the literature produced by the writer. Though biographical information can provide some influence and context for a writer’s literary subjects, style, and choices , there is a distinction between the fictional world created by a writer and the writer’s “real” world. However, a literary biographer can illuminate the writer’s story so that the reader of both the biography and the biographical subject’s literature finds greater meaning and significance.

Example 2:  The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens  (Claire Tomalin)

The season of domestic goodwill and festivity must have posed a problem to all good Victorian family men with more than one family to take care of, particularly when there were two lots of children to receive the demonstrations of paternal love.

Tomalin’s literary biography of Charles Dickens reveals the writer’s extramarital relationship with a woman named Nelly Ternan. Tomalin presents the complications that resulted for Dickens from this relationship in terms of his personal and family life as well as his professional writing and literary work. Revealing information such as an extramarital relationship can influence the way a reader may feel about the subject as a person, and in the case of literary biography it can influence the way readers feel about the subject’s literature as well. Artists and writers who are beloved , such as Charles Dickens, are often idealized by their devoted readers and society itself. However, as Tomalin’s biography of Dickens indicates, artists and writers are complicated and as subject to human failings as anyone else.

Example 3:  Virginia Woolf  (Hermione Lee)

‘A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living’: so too with the biography of that self. And just as lives don’t stay still, so life-writing can’t be fixed and finalised. Our ideas are shifting about what can be said, our knowledge of human character is changing. The biographer has to pioneer, going ‘ahead of the rest of us, like the miner’s canary, testing the atmosphere , detecting falsity, unreality, and the presence of obsolete conventions’. So, ‘There are some stories which have to be retold by each generation’. She is talking about the story of Shelley, but she could be talking about her own life-story.

In this passage, Lee is able to demonstrate what her biographical subject, Virginia Woolf, felt about biography and a person telling their own or another person’s story. Literary biographies of well-known writers can be especially difficult to navigate in that both the author and biographical subject are writers, but completely separate and different people. As referenced in this passage by Lee, Woolf was aware of the subtleties and fluidity present in a person’s life which can be difficult to judiciously and effectively relay to a reader on the part of a biographer. In addition, Woolf offers insight into the fact that biographers must make choices in terms of what information is presented to the reader and the context in which it is offered, making them a “miner’s canary” as to how history will view and remember the biographical subject.

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What Is Biography? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Biography definition.

A  biography  (BYE-og-ruh-fee) is a written account of one person’s life authored by another person. A biography includes all pertinent details from the subject’s life, typically arranged in a chronological order. The word  biography  stems from the Latin  biographia , which succinctly explains the word’s definition:  bios  = “life” +  graphia  = “write.”

Since the advent of the written word, historical writings have offered information about real people, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that biographies evolved into a separate literary genre.  Autobiographies  and memoirs fall under the broader biography genre, but they are distinct literary forms due to one key factor: the subjects themselves write these works. Biographies are popular source materials for documentaries, television shows, and motion pictures.

The History of Biographies

The biography form has its roots in Ancient Rome and Greece. In 44 BCE, Roman writer Cornelius Nepos published  Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae  ( Lives of the Generals ), one of the earliest recorded biographies. In 80 CE, Greek writer Plutarch released  Parallel Lives , a sweeping work consisting of 48 biographies of famous men. In 121 CE, Roman historian Suetonius wrote  De vita Caesarum  ( On the Lives of the Caesars ), a series of 12 biographies detailing the lives of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire. These were among the most widely read biographies of their time, and at least portions of them have survived intact over the millennia.

During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church had a notable influence on biographies. Historical, political, and cultural biographies fell out of favor. Biographies of religious figures—including saints, popes, and church founders—replaced them. One notable exception was Italian painter/architect Giorgio Vasari’s 1550 biography,  The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , which was immensely popular. In fact, it is one of the first examples of a bestselling book.

Still, it wasn’t until the 18th century that authors began to abandon multiple subjects in a single work and instead focus their research and writing on one subject. Scholars consider James Boswell’s 1791  The Life of Samuel Johnson  to be the first modern biography. From here, biographies were established as a distinct literary genre, separate from more general historical writing.

As understanding of psychology and sociology grew in the 19th and early 20th centuries, biographies further evolved, offering up even more comprehensive pictures of their subjects. Authors who played major roles in this contemporary approach to biographing include Lytton Strachey, Gamaliel Bradford, and Robert Graves.

Types of Biographies

While all biographical works chronicle the lives of real people, writers can present the information in several different ways.

• Popular biographies are life histories written for a general readership.  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  by Rebecca Skloot and  Into the Wild  by Jon Krakauer are two popular examples.
• Critical biographies discuss the relationship between the subject’s life and the work they produced or were involved in; for example,  The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune  by Conor O’Clery and  Unpresidented: A Biography of Donald Trump  by Martha Brockenbrough.
• Historical biographies put greater understanding on how the subject’s life and contributions affected or were affected by the times in which they lived; see  John Adams  by David McCullough and  Catherine the Great  by Peter K. Massie.
• Literary biographies concentrate almost exclusively on writers and artists, blending a conventional  narrative  of the historical facts of the subject’s life with an exploration of how these facts impacted their creative output. Some examples include  Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay  by Nancy Milford and  Jackson Pollock: An American Saga  by Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh.
• Reference biographies are more scholarly writings, usually written by multiple authors and covering multiple lives around a single topic. They verify facts, provide background details, and contribute supplemental information resources, like bibliographies, glossaries, and historical documents; for example,  Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007  and the  Dictionary of Canadian Biography .
• Fictional biographies, or biographical novels, like  The Other Boleyn Girl  by Philippa Gregory, incorporate creative license into the retelling of a real person’s story by taking on the structure and freedoms of a novel. The term can also describe novels in which authors give an abundance of background information on their characters, to the extent that the novel reads more like a biography than fiction. An example of this is George R.R. Martin’s  Fire and Blood , a novel detailing the history of a royal family from his popular  A Song of Ice and Fire

Biographies and Filmed Entertainment

Movie makers and television creators frequently produce biographical stories, either as dramatized productions based on real people or as nonfiction accounts.

Documentary

This genre is a nonfictional movie or television show that uses historical records to tell the story of a subject. The subject might be a one person or a group of people, or it might be a certain topic or theme. To present a biography in a visually compelling way, documentaries utilize archival footage, recreations, and interviews with subjects, scholars, experts, and others associated with the subject.

Famous film documentaries include  Grey Gardens,  a biography of two of Jacqueline Kennedy’s once-wealthy cousins, who, at the time of filming, lived in squalor in a condemned mansion in the Hamptons; and  I Am Not Your Negro , a biography of the life and legacy of pioneering American author James Baldwin.

Television documentary series tell one story over the course of several episodes, like  The Jinx :  The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst , a biography of the real estate heir and alleged serial killer that focused on his suspected crimes. There are many nonfiction television shows that use a documentary format, but subjects typically change from one episode to the next, such as A&E’s  Biography  and PBS’s  POV .

These films are biographical motion pictures, written by screenwriters and performed by actors. They often employ a certain amount of creative liberty in their interpretation of a real life. This is largely done to maintain a feasible runtime; capturing all of the pivotal moments of a subject’s life in a 90- or 120-minute movie is all but impossible. So, filmmakers might choose to add, eliminate, or combine key events and characters, or they may focus primarily on one or only a few aspects of the subject’s life. Some popular examples:  Coal Miner’s Daughter , a biography of country music legend Loretta Lynn;  Malcom X , a biopic centered on the civil rights leader of the same name; and  The King’s Speech , a dramatization of Prince Albert’s efforts to overcome a stutter and ascend the English throne.

Semi-fictionalized account

This approach takes a real-life event and interprets or expands it in ways that stray beyond what actually happened. This is done for entertainment and to build the story so it fits the filmmaker’s vision or evolves into a longer form, such as a multi-season television show. These accounts sometimes come with the disclaimer that they are “inspired by true events.” Examples of semi-fictionalized accounts are the TV series  Orange Is the New Black ,  Masters of Sex , and  Mozart of the Jungle —each of which stem from at least one biographical element, but showrunners expounded upon to provide many seasons of entertainment.

The Functions of Biography

Biographies inform readers about the life of a notable person. They are a way to introduce readers to the work’s subject—the historical details, the subject’s motivations and psychological underpinnings, and their environment and the impact they had, both in the short and long term.

Because the author is somewhat removed from their subject, they can offer a more omniscient, third-person narrative account. This vantage point allows the author to put certain events into a larger context; compare and contrast events, people, and behaviors predominant in the subject’s life; and delve into psychological and sociological themes of which the subject may not have been aware.

Also, a writer structures a biography to make the life of the subject interesting and readable. Most biographers want to entertain as well as inform, so they typically use a traditional  plot  structure—an introduction,  conflict , rising of tension, a climax, a resolution, and an ending—to give the life story a narrative shape. While the ebb and flow of life is a normal day-to-day rhythm, it doesn’t necessarily make for entertaining reading. The job of the writer, then, becomes one of shaping the life to fit the elements of a good plot.

Writers Known for Biographies

Many modern writers have dedicated much of their careers to biographies, such as:

• Kitty Kelley, author of  Jackie Oh! An Intimate Biography; His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra ; and  The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty
• Antonia Fraser, author of  Mary Queen of Scots ;  Cromwell; Our Chief of Men ; and  The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605
• David McCullough, author of  The Path Between the Seas; Truman ; and  John Adams
• Andrew Morton, author of  Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words; Madonna ; and  Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography
• Alison Weir, author of  The Six Wives of Henry VIII; Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God; Queen of England ; and  Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess

Examples of Biographies

1. James Boswell,  The Life of Samuel Johnson

The biography that ushered in the modern era of true-life writing,  The Life of Samuel Johnson  covered the entirety of its subject’s life, from his birth to his status as England’s preeminent writer to his death. Boswell was a personal acquaintance of Johnson, so he was able to draw on voluminous amounts of personal conversations the two shared.

What also sets this biography apart is, because Boswell was a contemporary of Johnson, readers see Johnson in the context of his own time. He wasn’t some fabled figure that a biographer was writing about centuries later; he was someone to whom the author had access, and Boswell could see the real-world influence his subject had on life in the here and now.

2. Sylvia Nasar,  A Beautiful Mind

Nasar’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-nominated biography of mathematician John Nash introduced legions of readers to Nash’s remarkable life and genius. The book opens with Nash’s childhood and follows him through his education, career, personal life, and struggles with schizophrenia. It ends with his acceptance of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics. In addition to a Pulitzer nomination,  A Beautiful Mind  won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, was a  New York Times  bestseller, and provided the basis for the Academy Award-winning 2001 film of the same name.

3. Catherine Clinton,  Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom

Clinton’s biography of the abolitionist icon is a large-scale epic that chronicles Tubman’s singular life. It starts at her birth in the 1820s as the slave Araminta Ross, continuing through her journey to freedom; her pivotal role in the Underground Railroad; her Moses-like persona; and her death in 1913.

Because Tubman could not read or write, she left behind no letters, diaries, or other personal papers in her own hand and voice. Clinton reconstructed Tubman’s history entirely through other source material, and historians often cite this work as the quintessential biography of Tubman’s life.

4. Megan Mayhew Bergman,  Almost Famous Women

Almost Famous Women  is not a biography in the strictest sense of the word; it is a fictional interpretation of real-life women. Each short story revolves around a woman from history with close ties to fame, such as movie star Marlene Dietrich, Standard Oil heiress Marion “Joe” Carstairs, aviatrix Beryl Markham, Oscar Wilde’s niece Dolly, and Lord Byron’s daughter Allegra. Mayhew Bergman imagines these colorful women in equally colorful episodes that put them in a new light—a light that perhaps offers them the honor and homage that history denied them.

Further Resources on Biography

Newsweek  compiled their picks for the  75 Best Biographies of All Time .

The Open Education Database has a list of  75 Biographies to Read Before You Die .

Goodreads put together a list of readers’  best biography selections .

If you’re looking to write biographies,  Infoplease  has instructions for writing shorter pieces, while  The Writer   has practical advice for writing manuscript-length bios.

Ranker  collected  a comprehensive list of famous biographers .

Related Terms

• Autobiography
• Short Story

Literary Devices

Literary devices, terms, and elements, definition of biography.

A biography is a description of a real person’s life, including factual details as well as stories from the person’s life. Biographies usually include information about the subject’s personality and motivations, and other kinds of intimate details excluded in a general overview or profile of a person’s life. The vast majority of biography examples are written about people who are or were famous, such as politicians, actors, athletes, and so on. However, some biographies can be written about people who lived incredible lives, but were not necessarily well-known. A biography can be labelled “authorized” if the person being written about, or his or her family members, have given permission for a certain author to write the biography.

The word biography comes from the Greek words bios , meaning “life” and – graphia , meaning “writing.”

Difference Between Biography and Autobiography

A biography is a description of a life that is not the author’s own, while an autobiography is the description of a writer’s own life. There can be some gray area, however, in the definition of biography when a ghostwriter is employed. A ghostwriter is an author who helps in the creation of a book, either collaborating with someone else or doing all of the writing him- or herself. Some famous people ask for the help of a ghostwriter to create their own autobiographies if they are not particularly gifted at writing but want the story to sound like it’s coming from their own mouths. In the case of a ghostwritten autobiography, the writer is not actually writing about his or her own life, but has enough input from the subject to create a work that is very close to the person’s experience.

Common Examples of Biography

The genre of biography is so popular that there is even a cable network originally devoted to telling the stories of famous people’s lives (fittingly called The Biography Channel). The stories proved to be such good television that other networks caught on, such as VH1 producing biographies under the series name “Behind the Music.” Some examples of written biographies have become famous in their own right, such as the following books:

• Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (made even more famous by the musical “Hamilton,” created by Lin-Manuel Miranda)
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

Significance of Biography in Literature

The genre of biography developed out of other forms of historical nonfiction, choosing to focus on one specific person’s experience rather than all important players. There are examples of biography all the way back to 44 B.C. when Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos wrote Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae (“Lives of those capable of commanding”). The Greek historian Plutarch was also famous for his biographies, creating a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans in his book Parallel Lives . After the printing press was created, one of the first “bestsellers” was the 1550 famous biography Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari. Biography then got very popular in the 18th century with James Boswell’s 1791 publication of The Life of Samuel Johnson . Biography continues to be one of the best selling genres in literature, and has led to a number of literary prizes specifically for this form.

Examples of Biography in Literature

And I can imagine Farmer saying he doesn’t care if no one else is willing to follow their example. He’s still going to make these hikes, he’d insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you’re saying that their lives matter less than some others’, and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.

( Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder)

Tracy Kidder’s wonderful example of biography, Mountains Beyond Mountains , brought the work of Dr. Paul Farmer to a wider audience. Dr. Farmer cofounded the organization Partners in Health (PIH) in 1987 to provide free treatment to patients in Haiti; the organization later created similar projects in countries such as Russia, Peru, and Rwanda. Dr. Farmer was not necessarily a famous man before Tracy Kidder’s biography was published, though he was well-regarded in his own field. The biography describes Farmer’s work as well as some of his personal life.

On July 2, McCandless finished reading Tolstoy’s “Family Happiness”, having marked several passages that moved him: “He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others…” Then, on July 3, he shouldered his backpack and began the twenty-mile hike to the improved road. Two days later, halfway there, he arrived in heavy rain at the beaver ponds that blocked access to the west bank of the Teklanika River. In April they’d been frozen over and hadn’t presented an obstacle. Now he must have been alarmed to find a three-acre lake covering the trail.

( Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer)

Jon Krakauer is a writer and outdoorsman famous for many nonfiction books, including his own experience in a mountaineering disaster on Mount Everest in 1996. His book Into the Wild is a nonfiction biography of a young boy, Christopher McCandless who chose to donate all of his money and go into the wilderness in the American West. McCandless starved to death in Denali National Park in 1992. The biography delved into the facts surrounding McCandless’s death, as well as incorporating some of Krakauer’s own experience.

A commanding woman versed in politics, diplomacy, and governance; fluent in nine languages; silver-tongued and charismatic, Cleopatra nonetheless seems the joint creation of Roman propagandists and Hollywood directors.

( Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff)

Stacy Schiff wrote a new biography of Cleopatra in 2010 in order to divide fact from fiction, and go back to the amazing and intriguing personality of the woman herself. The biography was very well received for being both scrupulously referenced as well as highly literary and imaginative.

Confident that he was clever, resourceful, and bold enough to escape any predicament, [Louie] was almost incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into war, this resilient optimism would define him.

( Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand)

Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling biography Unbroken covers the life of Louis “Louie” Zamperini, who lived through almost unbelievable circumstances, including running in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, being shot down as a bomber in WWII, surviving in a raft in the ocean for 47 days, and then surviving Japanese prisoner of war camps. Zamperini’s life story is one of those narratives that is “stranger than fiction” and Hillenbrand brings the drama brilliantly to the reader.

I remember sitting in his backyard in his garden, one day, and he started talking about God. He [Jobs] said, “ Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50/50, maybe. But ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about it more, and I find myself believing a bit more, maybe it’s because I want to believe in an afterlife, that when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated, somehow it lives on.”

( Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson)

Steve Jobs is one of the most famous cultural icons of modern-day America and, indeed, around the world, and thus his biography was eagerly awaited. The author, Walter Isaacson, was able to interview Jobs extensively during the writing process. Thus, the above excerpt is possible where the writer is a character in the story himself, asking Jobs about his views on life and philosophy of the world.

Test Your Knowledge of Biography

1. Which of the following statements is the best biography definition? A. A retelling of one small moment from another person’s life. B. A novel which details one specific character’s full life. C. A description of a real person’s entire life, written by someone else.

2. Which of the following scenarios qualifies as a biography? A. A famous person contracts a ghostwriter to create an autobiography. B. A famous author writes the true and incredible life story of a little known person. C. A writer creates a book detailing the most important moments in her own life.

3. Which of the following statements is true? A. Biographies are one of the best selling genres in contemporary literature. B. Biographies are always written about famous people. C. Biographies were first written in the 18th century.

What Is a Biography?

Learning from the experiences of others is what makes us human.

At the core of every biography is the story of someone’s humanity. While biographies come in many sub-genres, the one thing they all have in common is loyalty to the facts, as they’re available at the time. Here’s how we define biography, a look at its origins, and some popular types.

“Biography” Definition

A biography is simply the story of a real person’s life. It could be about a person who is still alive, someone who lived centuries ago, someone who is globally famous, an unsung hero forgotten by history, or even a unique group of people. The facts of their life, from birth to death (or the present day of the author), are included with life-changing moments often taking center stage. The author usually points to the subject’s childhood, coming-of-age events, relationships, failures, and successes in order to create a well-rounded description of her subject.

Biographies require a great deal of research. Sources of information could be as direct as an interview with the subject providing their own interpretation of their life’s events. When writing about people who are no longer with us, biographers look for primary sources left behind by the subject and, if possible, interviews with friends or family. Historical biographers may also include accounts from other experts who have studied their subject.

The biographer’s ultimate goal is to recreate the world their subject lived in and describe how they functioned within it. Did they change their world? Did their world change them? Did they transcend the time in which they lived? Why or why not? And how? These universal life lessons are what make biographies such a meaningful read.

Origins of the Biography

Greco-Roman literature honored the gods as well as notable mortals. Whether winning or losing, their behaviors were to be copied or seen as cautionary tales. One of the earliest examples written exclusively about humans is Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (probably early 2 nd century AD). It’s a collection of biographies in which a pair of men, one Greek and one Roman, are compared and held up as either a good or bad example to follow.

In the Middle Ages, Einhard’s The Life of Charlemagne (around 817 AD) stands out as one of the most famous biographies of its day. Einhard clearly fawns over Charlemagne’s accomplishments throughout, yet it doesn’t diminish the value this biography has brought to centuries of historians since its writing.

Considered the earliest modern biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) by James Boswell looks like the biographies we know today. Boswell conducted interviews, performed years of research, and created a compelling narrative of his subject.

The genre evolves as the 20th century arrives, and with it the first World War. The 1920s saw a boom in autobiographies in response. Robert Graves’ Good-Bye to All That (1929) is a coming-of age story set amid the absurdity of war and its aftermath. That same year, Mahatma Gandhi wrote The Story of My Experiments with Truth , recalling how the events of his life led him to develop his theories of nonviolent rebellion. In this time, celebrity tell-alls also emerged as a popular form of entertainment. With the horrors of World War II and the explosion of the civil rights movement, American biographers of the late 20 th century had much to archive. Instantly hailed as some of the best writing about the war, John Hersey’s Hiroshima (1946) tells the stories of six people who lived through those world-altering days. Alex Haley wrote the as-told-to The Autobiography of Malcom X (1965). Yet with biographies, the more things change, the more they stay the same. One theme that persists is a biographer’s desire to cast its subject in an updated light, as in Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair that Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn (2016).

Types of Biographies

Contemporary Biography: Authorized or Unauthorized

The typical modern biography tells the life of someone still alive, or who has recently passed. Sometimes these are authorized — written with permission or input from the subject or their family — like Dave Itzkoff’s intimate look at the life and career of Robin Williams, Robin . Unauthorized biographies of living people run the risk of being controversial. Kitty Kelley’s infamous His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra so angered Sinatra, he tried to prevent its publication.

Historical Biography

The wild success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is proof that our interest in historical biography is as strong as ever. Miranda was inspired to write the musical after reading Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton , an epic 800+ page biography intended to cement Hamilton’s status as a great American. Paula Gunn Allen also sets the record straight on another misunderstood historical figure with Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat , revealing details about her tribe, her family, and her relationship with John Smith that are usually missing from other accounts. Historical biographies also give the spotlight to people who died without ever getting the recognition they deserved, such as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks .

Biography of a Group

When a group of people share unique characteristics, they can be the topic of a collective biography. The earliest example of this is Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pirates (1724), which catalogs the lives of notorious pirates and establishes the popular culture images we still associate with them. Smaller groups are also deserving of a biography, as seen in David Hajdu’s Positively 4th Street , a mesmerizing behind-the-scenes look at the early years of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña as they establish the folk scene in New York City. Likewise, British royal family fashion is a vehicle for telling the life stories of four iconic royals – Queen Elizabeth II, Diana, Kate, and Meghan – in HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style by style journalist Elizabeth Holmes.

Autobiography

This type of biography is written about one’s self, spanning an entire life up to the point of its writing. One of the earliest autobiographies is Saint Augustine’s The Confessions (400), in which his own experiences from childhood through his religious conversion are told in order to create a sweeping guide to life. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first of six autobiographies that share all the pain of her childhood and the long road that led to her work in the civil rights movement, and a beloved, prize-winning writer.

Memoirs are a type of autobiography, written about a specific but vital aspect of one’s life. In Toil & Trouble , Augusten Burroughs explains how he has lived his life as a witch. Mikel Jollett’s Hollywood Park recounts his early years spent in a cult, his family’s escape, and his rise to success with his band, The Airborne Toxic Event. Barack Obama’s first presidential memoir, A Promised Land , charts his path into politics and takes a deep dive into his first four years in office.

Fictional Biography

Fictional biographies are no substitute for a painstakingly researched scholarly biography, but they’re definitely meant to be more entertaining. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler constructs Zelda and F. Scott’s wild, Jazz-Age life, told from Zelda’s point of view. The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict brings readers into the secret life of Hollywood actress and wartime scientist, Hedy Lamarr. These imagined biographies, while often whimsical, still respect the form in that they depend heavily on facts when creating setting, plot, and characters.

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Memoir, Biography, Narrative Nonfiction—How Are They Different?

Posted by Lisa Dale Norton | Feb 1, 2019 | Writing Insights | 0 |

Here we are in February, the time of year when we throw ourselves back into writing the story of our life. The end of the year, with its deepening dark and circle of celebrations, distracts. But now, we begin again, clawing our way through the relentlessness of the information cycle to a quiet rhythm of shaping words, and asking fundamental questions: What is a memoir? How is it different from biography, and how are both related to that thing called narrative nonfiction?           

Here’s my take on it:

Memoir is a story based on your life experience and what you have learned from it.

It is a winnowing of all that has happened into a tight view of a slim section of experience: the coming of age years; the head-spinning start of a career; early motherhood. But always, it is a winnowing of the vast, complicated arc of events that has constituted your life. Narrow, narrow, narrow. Find one series of events that linked together explores some vulnerable and pressing universality of life.

Biography is all about you, too—and all is the correct word. This is where you get to write about where you were born, and what went on during your young years, leaving home, setting out to make your way in the world, love, relationship, work, loss—the whole canvas.

See how biography is different from memoir?

Of course, we hope a biography will show us mistakes made and lessons learned—the vicissitudes that brought a woman to be who she is, pimples and all. We hope for some readers’ transformation as we witness the arc of that person’s life, but this is different from the expectations of the reader of memoir.

 The reader of memoir dives in for the short version, the lens of the camera zooming in to show the close up of just the years from 6 to 18, or just that summer your husband died, or just the college years that led to a Rhodes Scholarship, or just the years when you, through sheer fortitude, worked your way out of poverty, of just those events that came together to make you the vocal activist you are today. Slim focus. And from that slim focus a nugget of wisdom.

 Narrative nonfiction is a similar but slightly different beast.

This is a form where you might write about yourself and your experience a good deal, but you will also be teaching us something about the world. Maybe it’s the world of a dwindling tribe of the last subsistence whalers in the world (“The Last Whalers: Three Years in the Far Pacific with a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life” by Doug Bock Clark, recently published by Little, Brown and Company), so that the story ends up being about the writer’s experience getting the story, and about the nonfiction information itself.

We could say narrative nonfiction is the wedding of journalism and memoir, and while you may not be a journalist, you can do the same thing with your story by finding a topic that is central to your manuscript and making it an equal and parallel part of the story you write about yourself. Here’s a book where a writer did just that: “Don’t Make Me Pull Over: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip” (Simon & Schuster, 2018), which combined author Richard Ratay’s personal experiences with road trips, and the history of the American road trip from post-WWII to the 1970s.

See what I mean?

If you take the time to peruse the shelves of current nonfiction in your local book shop, you will see a lot of nonfiction with the author as player in the story. Why? Because we are a culture obsessed with the personal, the “I” of everything. Neither good nor bad, just ‘tis. And so, many contemporary nonfiction books give us the writer as a character and that character’s experience. But, they also give us information: the biologist who writes about his early days in the Galapagos, and Charles Darwin; the violinist who writes about becoming first chair of an orchestra, and the violin; the dog lover who writes about her dogs, and the industry of dog shows—two parallel stories that dip into and weave around each other giving us something fresh.

The name narrative nonfiction tells you everything you need to know: narrative, which means a story, and nonfiction, which refers to a topic from our world.

Can you find your project in this spectrum? Doing so now in February will make your writing year more productive, and make you more savvy about the marketplace.

About The Columnist

Lisa Dale Norton

Lisa Dale Norton is an author, developmental book editor, and a dynamic public speaker. She is passionate about layered writing structures in narrative nonfiction that reflect the complexity of life experience, and about the transformative power of writing a memoir. She is a gifted teacher, clear communicator, and a pro at creating an environment were learning can happen. Lisa wrote America’s go-to memoir writing guide, Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir (Macmillan), and the literary nonfiction story Hawk Flies Above: Journey to the Heart of the Sandhills (Picador USA), which won comparisons to the writing of Annie Dillard. https://lisadalenorton.com/

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Definition of biography

Did you know.

So You've Been Asked to Submit a Biography

In a library, the word biography refers both to a kind of book and to a section where books of that kind are found. Each biography tells the story of a real person's life. A biography may be about someone who lived long ago, recently, or even someone who is still living, though in the last case it must necessarily be incomplete. The term autobiography refers to a biography written by the person it's about. Autobiographies are of course also necessarily incomplete.

Sometimes biographies are significantly shorter than a book—something anyone who's been asked to submit a biography for, say, a conference or a community newsletter will be glad to know. Often the word in these contexts is shortened to bio , a term that can be both a synonym of biography and a term for what is actually a biographical sketch: a brief description of a person's life. These kinds of biographies—bios—vary, but many times they are only a few sentences long. Looking at bios that have been used in the same context can be a useful guide in determining what to put in your own.

Examples of biography in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'biography.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Late Greek biographia , from Greek bi- + -graphia -graphy

1665, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Dictionary Entries Near biography

biographize

Cite this Entry

“Biography.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biography. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

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Kids definition of biography, more from merriam-webster on biography.

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Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about biography

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Biography Vs Autobiography: Similarities and Differences with Examples

Do you ever get confused between biography and autobiography? If so, you're not alone. These terms are used interchangeably, but each has its own unique approach. In this blog, we'll discuss biography vs autobiography. After reading this guide, you'll be able to make the difference between an autobiography and a biography. 

What is biography?

Here is a simple definition of biography: 'A biography is a detailed account of an individual's life written by someone else. The author is not the subject of the story. It is also referred to as a bio.' A biography can be about someone who is alive or deceased. It highlights essential moments and happenings in the life of the person in question. This genre essentially incorporates a person's extensive data, including given name, origin, birth date,occupation, and connections. Creating an exceptional piece requires perusing diverse materials such as records, manuals, memoirs, pictures, and interviews. Effective biographies come in writing; however, they can also take other forms such as music, movies. If the targeted subject is dead, then the writer has to do an immense amount of research. You may need to interview the people who knew that person or read already written biographies about that person. But if the person is alive, the writer can interview the target person several times to know about their life experiences.  Biography writing seems like a tiresome job. But you can ease this task by reading our latest guide on professional biography writing . 

Purpose of Biography

The primary goal of biography writing is to tell the readers about the subject's life from childhood to adult life and the rest of the years. Additionally, the biography tells a story of how the person learned life lessons and navigated through the challenges. The person's biography should give a clear picture to the reader about the subject's personality, traits, and how they interact with the world. You must cover all the essential features of biography.

Definition of Autobiography

The story about a person's life written by that person himself or herself is called an autobiography. The literal meaning of the word auto is 'self.' It covers all the elements of the biography but is narrated by the writer himself. Anyone can write their life story as an autobiography. Moreover, the author is himself the subject of the biography.

Purpose of Autobiography

The basic purpose of an autobiography is to portray the author's accomplishments and experiences of life. The majority of autobiographies are written from the author's perspective later in the person's life. So, the first person account is used to tell the author's story.  An autobiography usually starts with the early childhood years. Then, covers information about the person's brought up place, their education years, career, challenges they faced and how they tackled them. These are the key features of autobiography. It is created from the person's diaries. Moreover, the story may have flashbacks and flash forwards, but it must follow the chronological order. Describe the person's life occasions in a sequential manner from early life to their current years. 

Important Aspects of a Strong Autobiography

The primary features of autobiography are as follows:

• The facts are always told in the first person.
• More in-depth and personal than a biography.
• Goes into great depth about the character's life.
• It also explains the motivation behind the main character's behavior.

Common Elements of Biography and Autobiography

Here are a few elements that are common in both types of written formats:

• The purpose of both is to portray a person's life.
• Both are nonfiction because they deal with real-life events that occur during the subject's life.
• Both follow the same chronological order, starting from their early life to the various life stages.
• They include personal insights about the subject's life.
• Both genres may use multiple sources like newspapers, interviews, diaries, photographs and other documents to provide context and in depth narrative.
• The key elements, such as growth, character development, and transformation, are discussed in both. 

Recommended Reading : How to write a biography essay with tips, sample & outline

What is the difference between biography and autobiography?

Along with the similarities, there are also some notable differences between them. The basic difference between autobiography and biography is that autobiography tends to be more subjective in nature. That's why they are written by the subject themselves. Let’s explain the difference between autobiography and biography in detail.

Autobiography Vs Biography Examples

Biography example.

• Name: Alexander Hamilton Author name: Ron Chernow Alexander Hamilton is one of the most fascinating founding fathers of America, and Ron Chernow tells his story in great detail. Chernow traces Hamilton's transformation from an orphan into a political genius by fusing in-depth research with a narrative style. The book clarifies Hamilton's political beliefs and his pivotal role in the development of the US financial system (Chernow, 2004).
• Name: The Life of Samuel Jhonson Author name: Boswell Boswell delves deeply into the life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, his mentor and friend. The biography portrays Dr. Johnson's life, character, unique traits, and intellectual prowess in a fascinating way (Boswell, 1791). Boswell's vivid portrayal brings Johnson to life for the readers, making this one of the best biographies in English literature.
• Name: The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets Author name: Dr. Samuel Jhonson Some of the 17th and 18th century's greatest poets, such as Alexander Pope and John Milton, are discussed in Dr. Johnson's work. In addition to critiquing the works, he delves into the authors' private lives and the geopolitical context of their eras (Johnson, 1781). Johnson's research is very significant because it takes a combined historical and biographical approach.

Autobiography Examples

• Name: The Diary of a Young Girl Author: Anne Frank It is a unique story of a little Jewish girl. Her name is Anne Frank. This book told the story of her and her family's escape from Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II. She spent two years in hiding, and her diary writings provide important insights into the dread, hope, and resiliency she faced (Frank, 1947). Frank's autobiography posthumously acts as both a symbol of perseverance in the face of adversity and a reminder of the injustices of the past.
• Name: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Author: Maya Angelou This moving autobiography traces the early years of Maya Angelou, from being the first black streetcar operator in San Francisco to facing racial discrimination in the South. With incredible grace and courage, Angelou depicts her path of self-discovery and overcoming catastrophic events, including personal pain and racial prejudice. Her narrative of tenacity conveys a powerful message about discovering one's voice (Angelou, 1969).
• Name: Night Author: Elie Wiesel The autobiographical story " Night " by Elie Wiesel describes his and his father's experiences in Nazi concentration camps during WWII. This devastating story explores the loss of innocence and the fight to hold onto faith in humanity in addition to detailing physical suffering and cruel acts. It is proof of the human spirit's ability to persevere in the face of unimaginable evil (Wiesel, 1960).

Bottom Line

It's often challenging to distinguish between an autobiography and a biography. Although there are some significant distinctions between the two genres, you should be aware of them if your aim is to write in any of them. While both biographies and autobiographies are valuable sources of information and amusement about historical personalities (or current figures! ), they serve different purposes. We can enhance our media knowledge and gain a better understanding of the author's aim and appropriate approach to the material by being aware of the distinct objectives of each.  We really hope you find this information useful. You can get in touch with experienced writers who are highly qualified and have years of experience in providing biography writing services .  Take your time and make sure you are creating an engaging narrative that makes the reader feel as though they are right there with you when writing your own life story.

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Biography Genre Definition – Complete List of Book Genres

by Mark Malatesta | Jun 26, 2018 | Book Genres Nonfiction

Home » Book Genres Nonfiction » Biography Genre Definition – Complete List of Book Genres

Biography Genre Definition –  What’s the best definition for the biography genre? A biography is an account of a person’s life written by someone else. Biographies are true stories about real people. They are set within a real historical framework with the unique social and political conditions that existed during the subject’s life. Biographies can be about people who are alive or dead. Most often they’re about someone who was significant (popular (or unpopular) politicians and/or celebrities).

Scroll below now to see 25 biography nonfiction genre examples, or click here to see all nonfiction genres .

Biography Genre Definition – Examples

Review this list of popular examples to help you get a better understanding of the biography nonfiction genre.

1. 1776 by David McCullough

2. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

3. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

4. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

5. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

6. Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

7. Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera

8. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

9. John Adams by David McCullough

10. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

11. Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie

12. No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by Doris Kearns Goodwin

13. Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie

14. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

15. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

16. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

17. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

18. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

19. The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

20. The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser

21. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

22. Truman by David McCullough

23. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

24. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose

25. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

Biography Genre Definition – Related Book Genres

* Autobiography Definition

* Celebrity Nonfiction Book Genre

* Entertainment Book Genre

* Memoir Definition

* Narrative Nonfiction Genre

* General Nonfiction Book Genre

Click here now to see all nonfiction genres .

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What Is Nonfiction? Definition & Famous Examples

POSTED ON Sep 15, 2023

Written by Sarah Rexford

What is nonfiction, and why does it matter to know its definition?

Consider this: you want to write a book about your life, but you’re unsure if it will be listed as fiction or nonfiction . 

Why would a book about your life be fiction, you ask?

Well, while some authors prefer to base their stories strictly on reality, other writers choose to draw from true events while infusing the story with creative liberties. When people see a book listed as nonfiction, they assume that everything in it actually happened and is completely accurate – to the best of the author's knowledge.

Conversely, when a book, movie, or series says “based on true events,” there is a lot of room for interpretations, exaggerations, and even completely made-up characters and parts of the story.

Need A Nonfiction Book Outline?

To get clear about this genre, I first ask (and answer) the question, what is nonfiction? Then, I explain how you can confirm a book is nonfiction, list popular subgenres and types of nonfiction books, share three classic characteristics of nonfiction books, and highlight a few famous nonfiction authors. So, are you ready?

This guide answers “what is nonfiction?” and more:

First, what is nonfiction .

A nonfiction book is one based on true events and as factually correct as possible. It presents true information, real events, or documented accounts of people, places, animals, concepts, or phenomena. There is no place for fictional characters or exaggerations in this genre.

But that doesn't mean it won't read like fiction. There are plenty of people who have such a fascinating or unbelievable story to tell that it doesn't feel real. The Prince Harry memoir comes to mind. It has everything that you might find in a fantasy novel – except it really happened. A real-life prince? Yes. War, drama, and family conflict? Yes. A movie star wife? Also yes.

Others about trauma, death, and struggle have less magic to them, but could be equally difficult to believe due to the difficulties encountered by the author. An example here is the Jennette McCurdy memoir , I'm Glad My Mom Died .

There are plenty of other memoir examples , but memoirs are just one answer to, “What is nonfiction?” In reality, it includes a whole host of other subgenres.

How can I tell if a book is nonfiction?

For starters, any nonfiction book should be listed as nonfiction – whether online or in a physical book store. But if you want to be sure the book you have in your hands falls in this category, here's what you can do:

• Examine the cover. Fiction books often have more artwork on the cover and may include a character or symbolism. Meanwhile, nonfiction book covers are often (though not always), more minimalist. Some may not have any artwork or may include a picture of the author.
• Find clues in the title and subtitle. Nonfiction book titles are often much more literal and descriptive about the subject matter. Exceptions to this are memoir titles, as they might be more interpretive.
• Read the author bio. A nonfiction author bio often leads with the author's qualifications (a degree or lived experience) and reasons for writing the book, while a fiction author bio might be more personal or speak to other books the author has written.
• Look for a preface and/or table of contents. Most nonfiction books are penned to educate or help the reader. Many of them will have a preface introducing the concept or the author's background on the subject matter. Similarly, they'll likely include an easy-to-navigate table of contents, similar to a textbook or educational text.
• Scan the pages for citations or a reference list. Nonfiction books are factual. Therefore, the presented information should be backed up by studies, academic papers, or other reputable sources.
• Read reviews. This is much easier if the book is listed online. But nonfiction book reviews usually use words like “transformation,” “helpful information,” and “life-changing.”
• Consider the style and tone. While any author is free to use any tone in writing , most nonfiction authors default to an educational (even if casual) tone. Memoir authors may be the exception to this one, as most personal accounts are written in the distinct tone and voice of the author.

What types of nonfiction books are there?

When posed with the question, “What is nonfiction?” it's also worth noting the different subgenres, types of writing, and themes in books that appear in the nonfiction category.

Popular nonfiction book genres include:

• Memoir and autobiography
• Spirituality or faith
• Health and fitness
• Art and photography
• Motivational and inspirational

Each of these sub-genres includes the three characteristics of nonfiction that we'll discuss in a bit. But before we get there, consider the different types of writing that could also appear in nonfiction:

• Narrative nonfiction
• Creative nonfiction
• Scientific works
• Historical accounts

3 purposes and characteristics of nonfiction 

Now you have a strong foundation and can confidently answer the question, “What is nonfiction?” Let's go deeper. Why do people read nonfiction? What is the purpose of a nonfiction book?

Equally as important as being able to define nonfiction is to be able to describe the characteristics that make a book an effective nonfiction piece.

1. What is nonfiction? Inspiration.

One of the primary characteristics of nonfiction is its inspirational themes. While there are many types of nonfiction, most of them find a way to weave in enough inspiration to help readers want to better themselves and lead a better life.

Whether your book focuses on a personal victory – instilling in readers the idea that “I overcame this and so can you” – or uses data to inspire readers to join the 5 a.m. Club, nonfiction is inspiration, no matter how overt.

2. What is nonfiction? Education.

Educational nonfiction exists as its own sub-genre. However, even outside of strictly educational books, nonfiction includes lessons for readers who desire to self-educate.

Need an example? James Clear’s bestseller, Atomic Habits , stands as a key example of the power nonfiction has in educating readers – while inspiring change.

3. What is nonfiction? Self-discovery.

Some of the bestselling nonfiction today acts as a guide for readers intent on self-reflection. It often uses repetition in writing to portray a theme.

In fact, at a deeper level, answering the question, “What is nonfiction?” often comes down to identifying how a particular book helps readers see parts of themselves they would not otherwise see. 

Top nonfiction authors

Let's finish this long-winded answer to “What is nonfiction?” with some concrete – and a bit famous – examples. What better way to define what a nonfiction book is than to read some of the top books in the genre? Who knows, maybe you'll learn something along the way!

Elizabeth Gilbert

Readers know Elizabeth Gilbert for her New York Times bestsellers Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic . She put travel memoirs – and nonfiction books – on the map in a whole new way with the former and continues to write great books to this day. Big Magic is a nonfiction book that focuses on creativity – and does so from a vulnerable perspective.

Fiction writers often create vulnerable characters. However, with nonfiction memoirs, it’s arguably more difficult. Why is this? You, the author, are often the protagonist. Whatever you reveal is likely personal.

What you can learn from her: How to write with appropriate vulnerability to connect with your readers on a more personal level. 

Related: Memoir Writing Do's and Don'ts

James Clear

Another bestselling author, James Clear, focuses on self-development through small, atomic-sized habits in his aptly-named nonfiction book, Atomic Habits. His mindset shift guides readers into self-discovery, and his writing inspires change that lasts. Within the pages of his book, you'll find top atomic habits quotes to inspire your personal goals and habits.

Now known as one of the leaders in the self-development world, Clear didn’t start at his current success level. His personal journey further proves the results of his message. 

What you can learn from him: How to provide small, actionable next steps that lead to large, impactful results.

Related: 14 Books Like Atomic Habits To Read Next

Jennette McCurdy

To say Jennette McCurdy is famous would be a massive understatement. With nine million Instagram followers and a bestselling memoir, her writing style is one to take note of. 

I’m Glad My Mom Died is an evocative title that sets readers on a hilarious yet heartbreaking look at Jennette’s life, including deep-seated, personal struggles. 

What you can learn from her: Balance humor and heartbreak to communicate your story with the highs and lows associated with great plots.

David Goggins

At times a polarizing figure, David Goggins’ work ethic is no joke. Known for his extreme self-discipline, stringent workout routine, and early mornings, his book, Can’t Hurt Me , has sold four million copies.

What you can learn from him: Don’t shy away from fully communicating your passion, your past as it relates to your writing, and your progress. Combining all three can help your readers in profound ways. 

These iconic authors paved, and are paving, a definitive answer to the question, “what is nonfiction?” with their work:

• Svetlana Alexievich
• Frederick Douglass
• Rebecca Skloot
• Mark Twain 
• Caroline Fraser 

Fraser focuses on America’s beloved Laura Ingalls Wilder. Svetlana Alexievich’s Nobel Prize winner is known as a landmark work of oral history. Frederick Douglass’s personal narrative tells horrific stories of overcoming with beautiful prose. Rebecca Skloot shares scientific knowledge in a way that resonates with her readers. 

Mark Twain’s adventures are iconic in American history. C.S. Lewis is known for his compelling nonfiction works (as well as his original fiction plots). 

These names, and many more, can provide a foundation on which to draw from as you move into ideating your draft. But you might still be asking if nonfiction is the right path for you – and your book.

Should you write a nonfiction book?

Don't just want to know what nonfiction is but why – and how to write a nonfiction book as well? Well, can you answer any of these questions with a resounding “yes!?”

• Do you live a unique life?
• Have you overcome something life-changing or mindset-altering?
• Do you have a desire to teach a valuable lesson?
• Is there something you know due to your profession, education, or background that could help others?
• Do you want to shift from teaching one-on-one as a service provider to changing multiple people's lives with the same amount of effort?
• Do you have a business that you want to grow?
• Are you passionate about a specific event or time in history – and want more people to learn about it?

The next time someone asks you, “What is nonfiction?” you can explain that nonfiction encompasses writing based on factual events or data – and then hand them a copy of your own book as an example!

Define nonfiction with your own book

So what is nonfiction? As you can see, it's a lot of things. Great nonfiction is storytelling grounded on facts, written with purpose, and crafted in a creative way that readers connect with. Excited to craft your own nonfiction narrative but feeling unsure where to start? Fret not! Here are some helpful guides to get you started:

• How to Write a Biography
• How to Write a Book About Christianity
• How to Write a Psychology Book
• How to Write a Self-Help Book

Now it’s your turn to become the protagonist in your own story. Whether you choose to write a memoir or autobiography or want to share lessons learned from a less-personal perspective, it’s your turn to answer the question, “What is nonfiction?” 

While many nonfiction books (especially self-help) include data and stats, the stories mentioned above are not simply a collection of data but a framework that ties the following together:

• Inspiration 
• Education 
• Self-discovery 

It's important to define what is nonfiction as it relates to your specific writing goals . Think about the themes, topics, and characteristics you want to include in your manuscript. Consider how you want your readers to feel during and after reading your book.

Your nonfiction can mix horror and heartbreak, tragedy and triumph, failures and persistence. You can use your expertise to inspire others to health, wellness, and new levels of self-development. 

Every writer has a unique perspective to share. Your viewpoint matters, and what you have to say can play a vital role in the trajectory of the nonfiction genre!

Need book writing help ? Reference the free resource below for further guidance!

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• This biography offers a few glimpses of his life before he became famous .
• Her biography revealed that she was not as rich as everyone thought .
• The biography was a bit of a rush job .
• The biography is an attempt to uncover the inner man.
• The biography is woven from the many accounts which exist of things she did.
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[ non- fik -sh uh n ]

• the branch of literature comprising works of narrative prose dealing with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality, including biography, history, and the essay ( fiction and poetry and drama ).

She had read all of his novels but none of his nonfiction.

• (especially in cataloging books, as in a library or bookstore) all writing or books not fiction , poetry, or drama, including nonfictive narrative prose and reference works; the broadest category of written works.

/ ˌnɒnˈfɪkʃən /

• writing dealing with facts and events rather than imaginative narration
• modifier relating to or denoting nonfiction

Discover More

Derived forms.

• nonˈfictionally , adverb
• nonˈfictional , adjective

Other Words From

• non·fiction·al adjective
• non·fiction·al·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of nonfiction 1

Example Sentences

Her nonfiction has been published in “Tin House,” “Essay Daily” and other publications.

From serious social commentary to truffle-hunting dogs, nonfiction movies are as vibrant and vital as ever.

This nonfiction doorstop from the ’80s might be languishing in the back of your local used bookstore.

This is actually not a self-help or nonfiction book, but the book that resonates for me is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Her previous book, Cure, hit the New York Times best-seller hardcover nonfiction and science lists.

I was writing Lorrie Moore knock-off short stories before I switched to nonfiction.

Excerpted from The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany.

Ten more nonfiction books, including the stunning memoir Leaving Birmingham (1993), followed it.

Countless essays, works of journalism, and touchstones of narrative nonfiction have shown us otherwise.

But what I find most compelling about Cole is not the ways he escapes the novel, but the ways he escapes nonfiction.

He read nonfiction almost entirely and mainly historical works.

In addition, a large library of books on fiction and nonfiction subjects is maintained.

A chemical compound of highly impressionistic autobiographic nonfiction and highly romantic fiction and folk tales.

Whether fiction or nonfiction, as claimed by the author, this book realizes the relationships between Plains Indian and buffalo.

In the best of her fiction she is truer to life than he is in a good part of his nonfiction.

ALAN v41n1 - Tell Me a (Real) Story: The Demand for Literary Nonfiction

The library connection, tell me a (real) story: the demand for literary nonfiction.

One can hardly pick up a professional journal these days without reading about nonfiction, particularly as it relates to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The demand for the integration of nonfiction into classrooms is made abundantly clear:

This call for “literary nonfiction” has led to much confusion and debate. What is literary nonfiction and how does it differ from nonfiction in general? How does literary nonfiction support the goal of CCSS? What is the value of literary nonfiction? What resources are present to assist educators in locating and using quality literary nonfiction with students? These key questions need answers from those who know and understand nonfiction and its applications in the ELA classroom. Much professional sional development is being offered that ignores these key questions. The purpose of this article is to attempt to provide answers. Before teachers move forward with model frameworks and other curricular decisions, it is essential that a clear understanding of literary nonfiction is paramount.

Toward a Cohesive Definition

The term nonfiction is, basically, a definition of a genre by contradiction or negation. A search using the term literary nonfiction yields the following definitions:

• Nonfiction that reads like fiction and includes elements of fiction (plot, characters, conflict, etc.).
• A branch of writing that employs literary techniques usually associated with poetry to report on actual facts.
• Literary nonfiction is also called narrative nonfiction and creative nonfiction. It includes travel writing, essays, autobiography, memoir, biography, sports writing, science writing, and nature writing.
• Literary nonfiction is when an author uses facts and research to create a story with no “made-up parts.”
• Literary nonfiction is dramatic true stories that can explore a variety of subjects.
• Nonfiction is biography, autobiography, memoir, and informational texts.

However, a search of the standard textbooks in the field of literature for children and young adults yields different results. Through the Eyes of a Child ( Norton, 2010 ), Children’s Literature Briefly ( Tunnell, Jacobs, Young, & Bryan, 2011 ) and the classic Literature for Today’s Young Adults ( Nilsen, Blasingame, Nilsen, & Donelson, 2012 ) offer definitions of nonfiction more along the lines of the following:

• Informational books (nonfiction) present knowledge that is accurate and verifiable.
• Nonfiction includes biography, autobiography, and informational texts.
• Nonfiction is based on fact and not imagination.
• Facts and information about nonfiction are uppermost with storytelling used as an expressive technique.

To add to the confusion is the fact that the CCSS documents ( National Governors Association & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010 ) also offer conflicting views of nonfiction. CCSS make a distinction between nonfiction and what they term informational texts , including literary nonfiction, and offer the types of these texts within the K–5 and the 6–12 Reading Standards’ discussion (pp. 5, 10, 35, 31, 37). It is quite difficult to determine the distinctions among these terms since they are used in a rather haphazard and inconsistent fashion. However, the CCSS does delineate some specific kinds of nonfiction for use in the classroom. Included for K–5 are these types of informational texts:

• autobiography
• books about history, science, and the arts
• technical texts
• digital sources (p. 31)

The informational text types for grades 6–12 include:

• personal essays
• opinion pieces
• biographies
• historic/scientific/technical/economic texts
• digital sources (p. 57)

Autobiographies, then, are appropriate for K–5, but the Standards list memoirs for grades 6–12. Technical texts are delineated for younger readers but not for young adults. Vague descriptions (journalism, historic texts) are listed with little or no elaboration. Given that forms, formats, and genres are shifting and evolving constantly, perhaps this is not as surprising as it appears on the surface. Lines are blurring between and among genres; definitions of what is a text are also changing with the advent of more electronic forms and formats. Even the design of nonfiction demonstrates the evolution of the genre.

What is needed is a consensus among educational stakeholders (teachers, librarians, administrators, parents, curriculum writers, etc.) about the term literary nonfiction and what will qualify as such as new curricula demand its use in larger percentages. (As much as 70% of reading across high school grade levels should be literary nonfiction, according to CCSS.) Moreover, the idea that there might exist a “non-literary” or “non-creative” nonfiction is disturbing. The term that seems to make most sense here is narrative nonfiction —nonfiction that tells a story. This term combines the emphasis on fact and information as well as on story. It includes those types of books already being mentioned in much of the CCSS literature: autobiography, biography, informational texts, and memoir (though a discussion about the artificial distinction between autobiography and memoir needs some closer examination as well). It also includes the element of story rather than the more amorphous concept of being literary or creative. Narrative nonfiction is informational and it is literary. Perhaps educators would be well served to establish a terminology that is consistent.

The Value of Nonfiction

There has been a great deal of consternation expressed about the demands for more nonfiction within the CCSS. I understand this concern because I know that the background I brought to my ELA classes in the late 1970s is not very different from the background educators are bringing with them in the 21st century. As an English major, I had countless courses that included the reading and discussion of the classics. Most of those classics were fiction, however. Few, if any, of my college courses included nonfiction. There was an occasional essay, of course, but the focus was squarely on fiction. So, as I was developing my classroom library, booktalking to students, and reading to stay abreast of YA books, I seldom turned to nonfiction. Today, however, I am quite likely to turn to nonfiction for pleasure reading, to include nonfiction among the required reading for my YA class, and to include nonfiction as I present staff development. What changed over the years?

The first change occurred early in my teaching career as I watched kids gravitate toward certain books when we visited the school library. See if this scenario sounds familiar: at one table is a group of students chatting and laughing and pointing as they turn the pages of The Guinness Book of World Records . At another table, kids have taken out paper and pencils and are trying to replicate drawings in one of Lee J. Ames’s Draw 50 books . A couple of girls are checking out the latest biography of a pop idol (in my time, it was New Kids on the Block and Vanilla Ice), while a handful are scanning the shelf of sports biographies looking for one they might have missed. I usually headed right to the fiction stacks, but not all of my students did the same. Obviously, there was interest in books other than fiction.

The real jolt happened when I asked one of my students why he self-defined as a nonreader on a survey I had conducted with the class. I saw him reading during silent reading time. He carried books with him. He checked books out of the library. Surely these were the behaviors of a reader, right? Basically, his response was that the reading he did was not the same type of reading he saw in most of his ELA classes. Reading biographies of basketball stars or reading drawing books or browsing the Guinness Book of World Records ( Glenday, 2009 ) was not deemed reading by his previous teachers, so he began to define himself as a nonreader. I wondered then (and still do) how many students we lose because our working definition of reading is too narrow or limited?

Reading nonfiction fits easily into the different stages in the development of lifelong readers. For unconscious delight, the reading of serial nonfiction allows readers to become “lost in a book,” enjoying that time when the real world slips away as we are reading. For some, this means specializing in a particular series of informational books, such as Greatest Stars of the NBA ( Finkel, 2004 ). This series combines the narrative techniques of biography with the format of graphic novels and manga. Here is informational text that blurs genre boundaries, that combines forms and formats. Serial reading could also mean reading the works of some of the leading authors of biographies and autobiographies, such as Russell Freedman, or reading the narrative nonfiction of Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Steve Sheinkin, or Sue Macy. It might take the form of students seeking out books about historical periods of interest to them, perhaps moving from Freedom’s Children ( Levine, 1993 ) to Claudette Colvin: Twice toward Justice ( Hoose, 2009 ) to Dionne Graham’s audio narration of Martin Luther King Jr. ’s Letters from Birmingham Jail (2013).

If students prefer to read for vicarious experiences, another stage in the development of lifelong readers, there are many subjects and topics to peruse. Instead of simply reading The Diary of Anne Frank ( Frank, Frank, Pressler, & Massotty, 1995 ), we might offer the graphic novel biography authorized by the Anne Frank House ( Jacobson and Colon, 2010 ), which might lead to the rendition of the 911 report by these same graphic novelists. Then one might move on to other works set during the Holocaust, including Hitler Youth ( Bartoletti, 2005 ), Surviving the Angel of Death ( Kor & Buccieri, 2009 ), and I Have Lived a Thousand Years ( Jackson, 1997 ).

Reading autobiographically might lead a student to read books about topics that touch on their own lives. Books about health and beauty—like Lauren Conrad Beauty ( Conrad & Loehnen, 2012 ), Seventeen 500 Health & Fitness Tips: Eat Right, Work Out Smart, and Look Great! ( Foye, 2011 )—or books about college and career like Seventeen’s Guide to Getting into College: Know Yourself, Know Your Schools, & Find Your Perfect Fit! ( Fenderson, 2008 ) or books about careers, culture, compromise, and a myriad of other topics.

Certainly there is nonfiction that also causes readers to grapple with more philosophical issues, another important stage of reader development. Books about racism and prejudice, about war, poverty, population growth, climate change, the environment, pollution, and other topics can assist readers in not only finding the facts and figures for a report, but also informing them about choices they must make as consumers and human beings.

I already had evidence that my own students were reading for aesthetic experiences, the final stage in the development of lifelong readers. There was obviously value in reading nonfiction. The question for me was, how do I fill in my own reading gaps and develop my collection to include more nonfiction? Though this was a question I considered decades ago, it is still a viable and essential question for teachers entering classrooms today under the CCSS demand for increasing exposure to nonfiction.

Resources for Locating Narrative Nonfiction for Students

Of course, given the emphasis on CCSS means educators are scrambling to locate exemplary narrative nonfiction so that they can develop model frameworks, write curriculum to address the Anchor Standards, and supplement their own reading to include more narrative nonfiction. CCSS provides what they call Exemplar Texts—suggestions for texts to be used in building new lessons. They do point out, however disingenuously, that these are not the only texts that could be used. That is a relief since they list only five (!) texts for middle school grades. Churchill, Frederick Douglas, John Adams, and John Steinbeck get nods at this level, along with Ann Petry ’s bio of Harriet Tubman (2007). For high school, the list includes Washington, Lincoln, Paine, FDR, Patrick Henry, and Ronald Reagan, along with a very few authors who are not white: Angelou, Anaya, and Tan. Given this paucity of resources, where can teachers turn for more narrative nonfiction?

My first answer is this: turn to your school librarians. They have much to offer. Their books are free of charge, too. Talk to the school librarian about books for topics and subjects you plan to use within your curriculum. Certified school librarians know the collection and can assist teachers in all subject matters by locating resources, books, and other materials. Here are some other resources that should prove valuable:

• Excellence in Nonfiction Award from the Young Adult Library Services of the American Library Association (YALSA). Presented in 2010 for the first time, this award recognizes distinction in nonfiction for YA readers. Winners may be located here: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/ booklistsawards/bookawards/ nonfiction/previous .
• The Sibert Award for Nonfiction from the Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC). First presented in 2001, this award is for distinction in nonfiction for children. However, since the age range for these books extends to age 14, there are plenty of good YA nonfiction titles from which to select. The list of winners, past and present, may be found here: http:// www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/ bookmedia/sibertmedal/sibert past/sibertmedalpast .
• One of the oldest awards for nonfiction, the Orbis Pictus Award from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has been awarded since
• The award includes one winning title, a handful of honor books, and a list of recommended titles as well. Current winners and links to winning titles from the past are located here: http://www.ncte.org/awards/ orbispictus .
• Children’s Book Council (CBC). Since 1972, the CBC and content area professional organizations have produced two lists: Notable Books in the Social Studies and Notable Outstanding Science Trade Books. You can link to past lists here for social studies: http://www.socialstudies.org/ notable. Links for science are here: http://www.cbcbooks .org/readinglists. php?page=outstandingscience .
• Reviewing journals such as VOYA, SLJ, Booklist, and The Horn Book review nonfiction regularly. Lists of those books receiving starred reviews are generally a good place to begin.

Become a nonfiction detective. If you are not already part of a PLN, begin to build one using Twitter, Tumblr, and blogs. See what books are getting the “buzz.” Right now, my favorite new piece of nonfiction is called Bad for You ( Pyle, 2013 ), a book that seamlessly blends nonfiction in the graphic novel format. Chapters discuss things that others believe are bad for teens, including play, comics, and video games. Members of my PLN are suggesting titles such as the Scientists in the Field series and the Discover More series. Individual titles include Temple Grandin ( Montgomery, 2012 ), Invincible Microbe ( Murphy & Blank, 2012 ), and Impossible Rescue ( Sandler, 2012 ). Look inside your classroom as well.

Lurk and watch. See what narrative nonfiction appeals to readers in your classroom. Are they reading memoirs? Why? Or why not? Do certain topics and subjects appeal across age and gender and other factors? What are they? If CCSS remain as the dictate for many states, we need to assess where our readers are in terms of reading nonfiction and plan how we will introduce them to other types of narrative nonfiction in a way that motivates them to read for more than just a test.

Finally, a Challenge for Us All

The emphasis on nonfiction or reading of informational texts should be one I welcome. But I do have some concerns. David Coleman, one of the key “architects” for the new Standards, points to the need for nonfiction so that students will be more prepared for college and career; thus the push for nonfiction within CCSS. He insists that readers gain “world knowledge” through nonfiction, a knowledge that is absent from fiction. The CCSS call for increasing emphasis on informational texts, about a 70–30 ratio in high school. This de-valuing and de-emphasis on fiction might also result in the loss of readers.

If we are not to be restricted to the rather confining nature of the CCSS Exemplar Texts, we need to challenge ourselves to read more and to read more widely. I generally begin with the award winners, if they are books I have not already read. Here are five of the most recent award recipients for you to browse (and even better, read). Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin (2012) , the winner of the Excellence in Nonfiction Award from YALSA, the Sibert Award from ALSC, and a Newbery Honor winner, is a powerful story that has, at its heart, spies and intrigue and political maneuverings. Given all the accolades, this might just be the perfect place to begin reading and discovering the wonderful world of narrative nonfiction available for today’s educators and students. We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March (2012) by Cynthia Levinson was also recognized with multiple awards. No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller (2012) by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson combines fact and story in a documentary novel format. Titanic: Voices from the Disaster (2012), written by Deborah Hopkinson , and Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 (2012), written by Phillip Hoose , received both the Sibert and the Excellence in Nonfiction Award this year. Challenge yourself and your colleagues to “mind the gap” and read more narrative nonfiction to share with your classes.

Teri S. Lesesne is a professor in the department of Library Science at Sam Houston State University in Texas. Former president of ALAN, Teri now serves as its Executive Director. She can be followed on Twitter (@ProfessorNana).

National Governors Association & Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts and literacy in history/ social studies, science, and technical subjects. Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org .

Nilsen, A. P., Blasingame, J., Nilsen, D., & Donelson, K. L. (2012). Literature for today’s young adults . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Norton, D. E. (2010). Through the eyes of a child . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Tunnell, M. O., Jacobs, J. S., Young, T. A., & Bryan, G. (2011). Children’s literature briefly (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Trade Book References

Ames, L. J. (1977). Draw 50 vehicles: Selections from Draw 50 boats, ships, trucks, and trains, and Draw 50 airplanes, aircraft, and spacecraft. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Bartoletti, S. C. (2005). Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s shadow . New York, NY: Scholastic Nonfiction.

Conrad, L., & Loehnen, E. (2012). Lauren Conrad beauty . New York, NY: Harper.

Fenderson, J. J. (2008). Seventeen’s guide to getting into college . New York, NY: Hearst Books.

Finkel, J. (2004). Greatest stars of the NBA: Shaquille O’Neal . Hamburg, Germany: Tokyopop.

Foye, M. (2011). Seventeen 500 Health & Fitness Tips: Eat Right, Work Out Smart, and Look Great! New York, NY: Hearst Books.

Frank, A., Frank, O., Pressler, M., & Massotty, S. (1995). The diary of a young girl: The definitive edition . New York, NY: Doubleday.

Glenday, C. (2009). Guinness world records 2010 . London, England: Guinness World Records.

Hoose, P. M. (2009). Claudette Colvin: Twice toward justice . New York, NY: Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Hoose, P. M. (2012). Moonbird: A year on the wind with the great survivor B95 . New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Hopkinson, D. (2012). Titanic: Voices from the disaster . New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

Jackson, L. B. (1997). I have lived a thousand years: Growing up in the Holocaust . New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Jacobson, S., & Colon, E. (2010). Anne Frank: The Anne Frank authorized graphic biography. New York, NY: Hill and Wang.

King, M. L. (2013). Letter from Birmingham jail [audio recording] (D. Graham, narrator). Solon, OH: Findaway World.

Kor, E. M., & Buccieri, L. (2009). Surviving the angel of death: The story of a Mengele twin in Auschwitz . Terre Haute, IN: Tanglewood.

Levine, E. (1993). Freedom’s children: Young civil rights activists tell their own stories . New York, NY: Putnam.

Levinson, C. (2012). We’ve got a job: The 1963 Birmingham children’s march . Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers.

Montgomery, S. (2012). Temple Grandin: How the girl who loved cows embraced autism and changed the world . New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

Murphy, J., & Blank, A. (2012). Invincible microbe: Tuberculosis and the neverending search for a cure . Boston, MA: Clarion Books.

Nelson, V. M. (2012). No crystal stair: A documentary novel of the life and work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem bookseller (R. G. Christie, Illus.). Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Lab.

Petry, A. (2007). Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the underground railroad . New York, NY: Amistad.

Pyle, K. (2013). Bad for you . New York, NY: Henry Holt.

Sandler, M. W. (2012). The impossible rescue: The true story of an amazing Arctic adventure . Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Sheinkin, S. (2012). Bomb: The race to build and steal the world’s most dangerous weapon . New York, NY: Roaring Brook Press.

2014 Call for CEL Award for Exemplary Leadership

Please nominate an exceptional leader who has had an impact on the profession through one or more of the following: 1) work that has focused on exceptional teaching and/or leadership practices (e.g., building an effective department, grade level, or building team; developing curricula or processes for practicing English language arts educators; or mentoring); 2) contributions to the profession through involvement at both the local and national levels; 3) publications that have had a major impact. This award is given annually to an NCTE member who is an outstanding English language arts educator and leader. Your award nominee submission must include a nomination letter, the nominee’s curriculum vita, and no more than three additional letters of support from various colleagues. Send by February 1, 2014 , to: Rebecca Sipe, 8140 Huron River Drive, Dexter, MI 48130. Or email submission to [email protected] (Subject: CEL Exemplary Leader).

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

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• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

A memoir is a form of creative nonfiction in which an author recounts experiences from his or her life. Memoirs usually take the form of a  narrative ,

The terms memoir and autobiography are commonly used interchangeably, and the distinction between these two genres is often blurred. In the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms , Murfin and Ray say that memoirs differ from autobiographies in "their degree of outward focus. While [memoirs] can be considered a form of autobiographical writing, their personalized accounts tend to focus more on what the writer has witnessed than on his or her own life, character, and developing self." In his own first volume of memoirs, Palimpsest (1995), Gore Vidal makes a different distinction. "A memoir," he says, "is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research , dates, facts double-checked. In a memoir it isn't the end of the world if your memory tricks you and your dates are off by a week or a month as long as you honestly try to tell the truth" ( Palimpsest: A Memoir , 1995).

"The one clear difference," says Ben Yagoda, "is that while 'autobiography' or 'memoirs' usually cover the full span of [a] life, 'memoir' has been used by books that cover the entirety or some portion of it" ( Memoir: A History,  2009). 

See Examples and Observations below. Also see:

• Autobiography
• Eudora Welty's Sketch of Miss Duling
• Family Sketches in Kate Simon's "Bronx Primitive"
• First-Person Point of View
• Harry Crews's Sketch of His Stepfather
• Hypotaxis in James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son"
• Letting Go by Phoebe Yates Pember
• Literary Nonfiction
• Pete Hamill on Stickball in New York

Etymology From the Latin, "memory"

Examples and Observations

• "[O]nce you begin to write the true story of your life in a form that anyone would possibly want to read, you start to make compromises with the truth." (Ben Yagoda, Memoir: A History . Riverhead, 2009)
• Zinsser on the Art and Craft of Memoir "A good memoir requires two elements—one of art, the other of craft. The first is integrity of intention. . . . Memoir is how we try to make sense of who we are, who we once were, and what values and heritage shaped us. If a writer seriously embarks on that quest, readers will be nourished by the journey, bringing along many associations with quests of their own. "The other element is carpentry. Good memoirs are a careful act of construction. We like to think that an interesting life will simply fall into place on the page. It won't. . . . Memoir writers must manufacture a text, imposing narrative order on a jumble of half-remembered events." (William Zinsser, "Introduction." Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir . Mariner, 1998)
• Rules for the Memoirist "Here are some basic rules of good behavior for the memoirist : - Say difficult things. Including difficult facts. - Be harder on yourself than you are on others. The Golden Rule isn't much use in memoir. Inevitably you will not portray others just as they would like to be portrayed. But you can at least remember that the game is rigged: only you are playing voluntarily. - Try to accept the fact that you are, in company with everybody else, in part a comic figure. - Stick to the facts." (Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd, Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction . Random House, 2013)
• Memoir and Memoirs "Like many people today, I confused 'the memoir' with 'memoirs.' It was easy to do back then, when the literary memoir was not basking in the popularity it currently enjoys. The term memoirs was used to describe something closer to autobiography than the essay -like literary memoir. These famous person memoirs rarely stuck to one theme or selected out one aspect of a life to explore in depth, as the memoir does. More often, 'memoirs' (always preceded by a possessive pronoun : 'my memoirs,' 'his memoirs') were a kind of scrapbook in which pieces of a life were pasted. Of course, the boundary between these genres was not—and still is not—as clearly delineated as I have made it sound." (Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art , 2nd ed. Eighth Mountain, 2002)
• Roger Ebert on the Stream of Writing "The British satirist Auberon Waugh once wrote a letter to the editor of the Daily Telegraph asking readers to supply information about his life between birth and the present, explaining that he was writing his memoirs and had no memories from those years. I find myself in the opposite position. I remember everything. All my life I've been visited by unexpected flashes of memory unrelated to anything taking place at the moment. . . . When I began writing this book, memories came flooding to the surface, not because of any conscious effort but simply in the stream of writing. I started in a direction and the memories were waiting there, sometimes of things I hadn't consciously thought about since. . . . In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and it is all just there . I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next note." (Roger Ebert, Life Itself: A Memoir . Grand Central Publishing, 2011)
• Fred Exley's "Note to the Reader" in A Fan's Notes : A Fictional Memoir "Though the events in this book bear similarity to those of that long malaise, my life, many of the characters and happenings are creations solely of the imagination. . . . In creating such characters, I have drawn freely from the imagination and adhered only loosely to the pattern of my past life. To this extent, and for this reason, I ask to be judged a writer of fantasy." (Fred Exley, A Fan's Notes: A Fictional Memoir . Harper & Row, 1968)
• The Lighter Side of Memoirs "All those writers who write about their childhood! Gentle God, if I wrote about mine you wouldn't sit in the same room with me." (Dorothy Parker)

Pronunciation: MEM-war

• How to Define Autobiography
• Point of View in Grammar and Composition
• What Is Literary Journalism?
• What You Should Know About Travel Writing
• 10 Contemporary Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs for Teens
• An Introduction to Literary Nonfiction
• 100 Major Works of Modern Creative Nonfiction
• What Are the Different Types and Characteristics of Essays?
• How to Find Trustworthy Sources
• A Look at the Roles Characters Play in Literature
• Creative Nonfiction
• literary present (verbs)
• What Is Academese?
• Definition and Examples of Vignettes in Prose
• Interior Monologues

The Most Popular Nonfiction Books of 2024 So Far, According to Goodreads

Always books. Never boring.

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Goodreads editors have crunched some more numbers to give us a list of 51 of the most popular nonfiction books of 2024 (so far). To do so, they looked at which titles their members had saved under the Read or Want to Read sections on the site, which boasts more than 150 million members.

They’ve organized the list into categories that may overlap a bit: Essays, History & Biography, Memoirs, Science, and General Nonfiction.

A sampling of Goodreads’ 51 most popular nonfiction books of 2024 is below:

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

History & Biography

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong by Katie Gee Salisbury

Science, Technology & Health 

Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation by Jen Gunter

Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher

General Nonfiction

Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson

To see the complete list, visit Goodreads.com.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in  Breaking in Books .

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By the Book

Letter by Letter, Steve Gleason Typed His Memoir With His Eyes

The former N.F.L. player has been living with A.L.S. for more than a decade. Sharing “the most lacerating and vulnerable times” in “A Life Impossible” was worth the physical and emotional toll, he says.

Credit... Rebecca Clarke

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Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

I have always loved to read, and I read nearly anywhere. Journalists used to get a kick out of the fact that in the midst of the chaotic joy of the [New Orleans] Saints locker room, I would lie on the floor reading books.

These days, while I’m not so good at flipping pages, I still tear through books. I listen on Audible, or read on Kindle, and for the books I’d like to pass on, I buy the book for the shelves in our house.

The ideal reading experience? For me, there is nothing more glorious than sitting outside under the shade of an oak tree with my wife, Michel, or our 12-year-old son, Rivers, listening on Audible or hearing them read the hard copy. (Rivers and I just finished the young readers adaptation of “The Boys in the Boat,” by Daniel James Brown.) Our 5-year-old daughter, Gray, is just learning to read, so I look forward to continuing this tradition in nature, my sanctuary, for many years.

What book do you turn to during hard times?

Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning.” There were a couple years, as I was losing the ability to move, talk and breathe, that I felt so lonely, ashamed and weary that I was ready to give up and die. His words helped me choose life.

What did it take to write a nearly 300-page book?

In a word … everything. I type with my eyes, letter by letter, so to write this, it took a physical toll to write for several hours each day for two years. It took patience and discipline. People often talk about “writer’s block,” but I think I experienced something of the opposite thousands of times over the past couple years. Ordinary writers may have a wonderful idea to get on the page, then they quickly write it down. But I type so slowly that the wonderful idea that was so vivid and clear eventually slipped into the fog as I trudged and typed.

It also took an emotional toll. To relive the most lacerating and vulnerable times of my life, then to share those experiences in a raw, truthful human way, rather than a heroic way, took an extraordinary amount of trust. It’s clear to me that sharing our shortcomings and weaknesses with each other is our greatest strength. Our salvation.

Why do you describe yourself as afraid to finish it?

There were multiple reasons. Unlike most authors, I’m not able to quickly scroll through a chapter to revise or edit. I have bragged on social media, “I get more done in one day than most people get done in 15 minutes!” So, during the end of the writing process, there was fear that I would lose the input I needed to tell our story fully and truthfully.

Michel and I took some enormous risks in openly and transparently sharing our journey as a couple enduring the dark traumas of life with A.L.S. When you read the searing experience that we have been through, you may feel kind of like you’re overhearing conversations that you shouldn’t be hearing. But these difficult, truthful and compassionate conversations were our redemption, and our healing. I also took some personal risks in sharing my fairly unconventional views on religion and spirituality.

I think the most frightening aspect may be that once published, my life story would become solid, static and fixed. That is so crazy to me, because, as a lifelong explorer, my perspectives, philosophical outlooks, and beliefs are dynamic and fluid.

Galleys for your book opened with a quote from Shakespeare, “Tears water our growth.” How did you come across it? Why that quote?

I know this will come as a shock, but not everything I read on the internet is true! While this quote was attributed to Shakespeare, we did a little digging and there is no record of him ever saying or writing this, even though it’s constantly attributed to him. Although, in “As You Like It,” he does write: “Sweet are the uses of adversity. …” [The quote is now attributed to Author Unknown.]

What kind of reader were you as a child? Do any childhood books and authors stick with you?

My mom was a language arts teacher, so she would read to me nearly every night and I was a voracious reader growing up. The book that stands out from my youth is “Ender’s Game,” a novel by Orson Scott Card. In sixth grade I found this book in the Bookmobile, a big yellow van that I remember with great nostalgia. I can’t say exactly why, but I also read it a couple years after I was diagnosed with A.L.S.

I sense that in both my adolescence and the crazy unknowns of life where I was losing the ability to move, talk and breathe, I resonated with two themes in “Ender’s Game” — feeling isolation, and working to discover my own identity.

I’m reminded of a profound truth in a quote from Ender: “In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him.” In embracing this paradox, I find strength and compassion in the midst of adversity.

What book has had the greatest impact on you?

Wow, this is an impossible question to answer, but I enjoy dancing with the impossible. It would be “21 Lessons for the 21st Century ,” by Yuval Noah Harari . I read this in early 2019, my ninth season with A.L.S. In “21 Lessons,” Harari explores the profound challenges facing humanity, including technological disruption, political polarization and existential risks. With such rapid change, life will become ever more chaotic.

Harari mentions multiple times that the realest thing in the world is suffering. He goes on to say that suffering is a product of patterns in our own minds, and offers a tool that has helped him alleviate suffering and be more resilient — meditation. I now train my mind in meditation for two to three hours a day. I didn’t realize it then, but as I started meditation, I was embarking on a practice of a lifetime.

What’s the last great book you read?

When I was diagnosed, one of the first questions I asked in a journal entry was, “Can I discover peace of mind, even if this disease destroys my body?” That inquiry has been a guiding light for me the past 13 years. “The Good Life: Lessons From the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness,” by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, has real-life stories I could relate to, providing insights which have helped illuminate the path for me to live longer, and be grateful and content.

The last book that made you cry?

“I Wish for You,” by David Wax and illustrated by Brett Blumenthal. During spring break, as our daughter nestled beside me in bed, our caregiver, Jenni, read from the book. It lists about a dozen of the most important character traits and values that I aspire to embody and instill in our kids. Witnessing Gray following along with her tiny finger, I was overwhelmed by the miraculousness of the moment. Despite being 10 years past my expiration date, here I was, sharing a cherished reading experience.

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What is health equity? How the idea grew – and why it matters

By Michael Merschel, American Heart Association News

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It's an idea as old as modern medicine and as new as the latest medical research. No matter how you look at health equity, the conversation involves contradictions.

But at its core are fundamental questions about illness and health, say experts who have watched the conversation move from the fringes of scholarly debate to the mainstream of 21st century health care.

The term can be abstract, but the facts are not. The richest 1% of Americans have a life expectancy that's at least 10 years higher than those in the poorest 1%. Where a person lives can predict their likelihood of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and more.

Health equity seeks to address that. "Health equity means that we achieve health that is as equal as possible, within the constraints of things we can fix," said Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the School of Public Health at Boston University.

Because explanations of health equity overlap with terms such as inequality and justice, metaphors come in handy.

Galea, who has been studying health equity issues for a quarter century, uses this one: If one person is taller than another, that's an inequality that can't be fixed. However, if medicine is being kept on a high shelf that only tall people can reach, the solution involves equity.

"Health equity is about fixing health gaps that are fixable," he said. "And often, health inequity reflects an injustice, in that we have not paid enough attention to what can be fixed."

Putting it in more concrete terms, Galea said there could be many reasons why one person has higher cholesterol levels than another. But "if your cholesterol is lower than mine because you have access to broccoli, and all I have access to is potato chips, the question becomes, 'Why is that?'"

In one often debated and viral illustration, equity is likened to people attempting to watch a baseball game over a fence; a short person will need a boost that a taller one doesn't.

But such "catchy and compelling brief definitions leave a lot of blanks to be filled in," said Dr. Paula Braveman, founding director of the Center for Health Equity at the University of California, San Francisco.

Braveman, a professor emeritus of family community medicine, has said that if you asked 100 experts for a definition of health equity, you might get 100 substantively different replies. And if you asked her for a definition at different times over the three decades she's been studying the topic, "you might get different answers from me."

These days, her preferred definition comes from a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report that she helped write: "Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care."

Such factors are called social determinants of health, another academic term that came of age alongside health equity.

It's also why discussions of health equity often include a history lesson. To cite just one example of how events from nearly a century ago can affect health today, in the 1930s, racist redlining by banks limited where Black Americans could live and whether they could get mortgages. To this day, the neighborhoods they were restricted to are disproportionately exposed to pollution, have less access to healthy food and have higher rates of major cardiovascular problems and heart failure.

Galea offers another metaphor about such problems. Think of a goldfish in a bowl, he said. "Say it exercises, swims around its bowl, eats healthy food, has a good goldfish doctor. But it won't be healthy at all unless you change its water."

The term "health equity" first shows up in medical research in 1966, and ideas around health equity were championed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during that decade.

But Galea said concepts about social justice and health go back at least to the mid-19th century, when German scientist Rudolph Virchow, a pioneer of microbiology, linked a typhus epidemic to social conditions and said the solution was not for more doctors or hospitals but for social changes such as higher wages and universal education.

That makes health equity an old idea, Galea said, but it's seen a resurgence in the past 25 years. "And I think the resurgence of interest has been influenced by a recognition that health should be distributed fairly and evenly."

Braveman first heard the term in the early 1990s, when she was doing work for the World Health Organization. In the U.S., she said, academic interest initially focused on racial gaps in health care. "There was quite an active movement focused on health disparities, and that crowd took up the health equity banner right away, because it was something positive" for people to work toward, she said.

Research interest soared in the 1990s and early 2000s, statistics show. Braveman said that was partly because "the seeds had been sown," and it was an idea whose time had come.

Global politics also helped. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early '90s, "one had to walk on eggshells to talk about these issues," Braveman said. It took the retreat of global communism for public health experts in the U.S. to feel at ease even using the term social justice.

"You really couldn't then," she said. "You could try to talk around it or hint at it using some very concrete illustrations, but you couldn't say 'social justice.'"

Over the next two decades, Braveman has written, the importance of health equity and the social forces that shape health moved "from obscurity and stigma to daylight and respectability."

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought equity issues into the public consciousness. Death rates from the coronavirus showed huge gaps along racial and ethnic lines, and the nation confronted how someone's job, home and even internet access could be matters of life and death.

"I do think COVID was catalytic," Galea said.

Now, he said, "there's a generation of public health scientists and practitioners who see health equity as being at the very heart of what they do."

Braveman is cautiously hopeful that generation will be able to build on the momentum they've developed. In decades to come, "I would hope that we would move probably slowly but steadily in the direction of greater health equity."

But, she said, progress won't happen without widespread understanding that "there's no health equity without equity." The public must be willing to act on matters of "poverty, child care, housing discrimination, quality education – all those social determinants of health."

That makes health equity a political matter. Which, to her, means that the future of health equity will be determined at the voting booth.

Galea agrees that health equity can't be divorced from politics. But that doesn't mean it has to be divisive, he said, "because I don't think that people of good conscience, regardless of partisan stripe, actually think that health gaps are a good thing, or conscionable."

He looks ahead with an optimism, informed by the past, that comes from embracing contradictions.

Over the past quarter century, he said, "I think there's been enormous recognition of the importance of health inequity." And while discrepancies between Black and white Americans are "unacceptably wide," there has been progress.

For example, between 2000 and 2019, the death rate from cardiovascular causes fell, and the gap between Black and white adults narrowed, according to a study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation in 2022. And federal data shows that in 1900, the life expectancy gap between Black and white Americans was more than 14 years. In 2021, that gap was down to 5.5 years.

So it can be simultaneously true that "the world is a terrible place, and the world needs to get much better – but the world is a much better place than it's ever been," Galea said. "Those three things are all true."

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