The Hazel Rowley Prize

$5,000 Prize for Best Proposal from a First-time Biographer

The Hazel Rowley Prize rewards a first-time biographer with: funding (the $5,000 award); a careful reading from an established agent; a year’s membership in BIO (along with registration to the annual Biographers International [BIO] conference); and publicity for the author and project through the BIO website, The Biographer’s Craft newsletter, etc. The prize is a way for BIO—an organization of biographers, agents, editors, and biography devotees—to advance its mission and extend its reach to talented new practitioners.

Hazel Rowley (1951-2011)

The prize is given in memory of Hazel Rowley, born in London, educated in England and Australia, and a long-time resident of the United States. A BIO enthusiast from its inception, Rowley understood the need for biographers to help and support one another. Before her untimely death, she had written four distinguished books: Christina Stead: A BiographyRichard Wright: The Life and Times; Tȇte-à-Tȇte: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre,; and Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. Her award-winning and critically acclaimed biographies have been translated into twelve languages. Rowley was a passionate advocate for the art and craft of biography, a writer of exacting standards, and a generous friend to fellow biographers.

The prize is given annually at the BIO Conference.

The Hazel Rowley Prize was given for the first time in 2014 to Holly Van Leuven for her proposal for a biography of actor Ray Bolger. She subsequently sold the book to Oxford University Press. In 2016, Robert Marshall won the prize for his proposal for a biography of New Age author Carlos Castañeda. The 2017 prizewinner was Diana Parsell for her proposal for a biography of Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, who had an idea to plant Japanese cherry trees in Washington, D.C., and made it happen. The 2018 winner of the award, Andrew D. Scrimgeour, is working on a book entitled The Man Who Tried to Save Jesus: Robert W. Funk and The Jesus Seminar—about one of the most controversial figures in modern biblical scholarship. Barbara Fisher won in 2019 for her proposal for a biography of the influential cultural critic Lionel Trilling. The 2020 prize went to Jay Prosser for his proposal for Empire’s Loving Strangers: Journeys Through an Asian-Jewish Camphorwood Chest, a biography that explores one Jewish family’s experiences and connections across empires and centuries.