ABSTRACT
Beyond reading and writing narratives for self-satisfaction and self-improvement, writers also want narratives to have impact beyond ourselves and a few of our colleagues, family members, and friends. Writing groups, such as that at Duke, tend to work best when there is a both a common genre and common theme tying the individual works together. Addressing real-world issues and problems brings with it the often fragile and conflicted politics of writing and performing narratives wrought of personal experience. For Joan Scott, one criterion for evaluating narratives of experience—and perhaps the most persuasive—is how that experience is historicized, contextualized, and questioned. As the Lisa Tillman/Keith Berry debate points out, to attain that worthy goal without sacrificing the conversational and dialogic qualities of narrative ethnography will be challenging. Using the criteria for a good story, critique the opening narrative about author experiences finding a publisher for Casing a Promised Land.
