The fourteen essays that comprise The Subject Is Story offer varied and exciting invitations to students to become more aware of story - in literature, in folktales, in gossip, in their own writing and reading. The essayists encourage classroom authors and their teachers to investigate how story and storytelling function in their lives. They consider the persistence and adaptability of story as well as the way story acts as a tool for discovery and recovery, connecting individuals to their communities. They show how story is persuasive, speculative, and reflective, allowing writers and their readers to travel culturally and intellectually.

Used as a writing classroom text, The Subject Is Story encourages students to consider who they are, where they've been, where they may be going, and how story supports them as writers, community members, and participants in the larger world. Written for and to students, these pedagogical essays are intended to<ul><li>generate discussion</li><li>forge a strong classroom community</li><li>offer provocative enticements to write</li><li>provide prompts and advice on storytelling practices</li><li>encourage both teachers and students to share their stories</li><li>use this sharing to shape essays that investigate the subject</li><li>move college writers beyond the classroom to make their own stories manifest through words.</li></ul>