Highlighting auto/biographical practices in western and eastern, old and new or future parts of Europe, the essays in this volume discuss the construction of individual, cultural and political identities within a changing landscape from the late eighteenth century until the present. This publication contains a selection of reworked papers presented at the international conference ‘Life Writing in Europe’ (2009) that was the starting point for the network IABA Europe (http://www.iaba-europe.eu)