Kylie Cardell is Associate Professor in English Literary Studies at Flinders University. She is a founding director of the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA) Asia-Pacific, co-director of the Life Narrative Lab, and is Essays Editor for the journal Life Writing. Kylie teaches and researches contemporary life writing. Her work has focused on the intersection of life narrative, form and identity and explores in particular the significance of genre in contemporary culture and the politics of autobiographical expression.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Who Gets to be Personal in the Essay?1. Popular, Personal, Political: Charmian Clift’s Mid-Century Essays as the Emergence of an Australian Essay Tradition2. 'This Story The Way I See Fit': Chelsea Watego, Mykaela Saunders and the Personal Essay in First Nations Life Writing3. The Insta Essay: Clementine Ford, Feminist Activism and Essays as Social Media4. The Personal Essay as Ecological Crisis: Sophie Cunningham’s City of Trees5. Essay as Paratext: Writing about Trauma Memoir in the Essay6. The #MeToo Essay: Public Intellectual, Anthology, ComicsConclusion: Essays of a KindWorks CitedIndex

Are essays the next big thing for the study of Australian literature and life writing? Kylie Cardell says yes, absolutely, and after reading this book, I agree. Cardell makes an eloquent and persuasive case for taking the personal essay as a contemporary form seriously, as an important act of witness.