Personal nonfiction is a type of personal writing that involves describing an event or experience in the writer’s life. Personal nonfiction can take many forms, including essays, memoirs, and biographies. Some people have even been known to write about their dreams! In this blog post we will go over what personal nonfiction is and how it has evolved throughout history. In Ancient Greece there was a genre called “autobiography” which involved telling the story of one’s own life for entertainment purposes (not necessarily as a true account) while Romans would compose autobiographical poetry on topics such as love affairs or journeys along with tales from mythology and legend. This was not considered to be much different than anything else they wrote except that it was in the first person. Personal nonfiction as we know it today did not exist until the 19th century when there was a need for more information about everyday life and individual experiences at this time. The term “non-fictional prose” came into use to distinguish between fiction and what they now called personal essays or autobiographies, which were written with an intention of presenting factual truth. In 1892 one writer described these writings as being on topics that are “dramatic in their nature” but also include “the most commonplaces of daily existence.” In 1936 Virginia Woolf wrote A Room Of One’s Own describing her views on feminism and literature while in 1946 she published another essay entitled Three Guineas where
