A memoir is a narrative of personal experience focused on a particular period, theme, or relationship rather than on an entire life. It is autobiographical yet selective.

Unlike a comprehensive autobiography, a memoir may cover only a few years, a single relationship, or a defining struggle. The writer shapes the material for thematic coherence and emotional truth, often using the techniques of fiction—scene, dialogue, reflection—while remaining bound to actual events. Memory’s fallibility is sometimes acknowledged within the text itself. The boom in contemporary memoir has expanded the range of voices and subjects considered worth recording.

Memoir sits between private recollection and public literature. Readers expect both candor and craft. Ethical questions arise about the portrayal of living people and the balance between personal revelation and discretion. At its best, memoir turns individual experience into a shared exploration of how lives are lived and understood.

A shaped account of part of a life, written by the person who lived it, is a memoir.