Authoring a Life illustrates how language often plays an important part in many a victim's struggle to survive the debilitating effects of father-daughter incest. For example, reading may serve as therapy, enabling a survivor to confront rather than repress painful memories, and writing may help a survivor to recover a sense of authoring both her texts and her life. The book argues that, despite the current backlash against survivor stories, language arts teachers must develop effective pedagogies for teaching father-daughter incest narratives.