Our Stories Matter explains and exemplifies the methodology of Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) writing for marginalized, underrepresented, and previously "disappeared" students at all levels of higher education. Presently no book looks at the whys and hows of scholarly personal narrative writing that focuses on this particular audience of underrepresented students. SPN writing has its origins in early slave narratives; 1960s feminist liberation stories; religio-spiritual autobiographies; existential, postmodern, and postcritical theory; and memoir/autobiographies of victimization and victory. Our Stories Matter attempts to fill a huge vacuum in the literature on the art and craft of personal narrative writing for undergraduates and graduates, because it appeals to a hugely expanding, previously underrepresented audience. It also provides faculty with a substantive pedagogical rationale and a writer's guide for teaching this kind of scholarly research - not just to underrepresented students but to all students who are ready to tell their stories in their own original, creative ways.

It is time for academics to embrace the fact that nothing is more appealing to readers - especially to our students - than personal stories with meaning-making implications that can touch all lives. No matter the age or stage in life, the personal or collective identity, everyone deals with meaning-making issues that challenge them - and others - throughout their lifetimes. And everyone we know finds that when encouraged to write their stories in the academy, they find meaning, wholeness, and healing. How Stories Heal illustrates the value of personal narrative writing. Referring to this type of writing as the "turn to the subjective I" or to "me-search research", this is a book about Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) writing, actually written in an SPN style. This book will satisfy a huge need in higher education and scholarship, particularly for students who are writing undergraduate and graduate theses and doctoral dissertations; and also for junior and senior faculty who are looking to construct alternative forms of scholarship for publication.