Post-its and Google Tasks are my preferred methods of keeping track of my to-dos. Writing reminders on Post-its is more helpful than typing them into a smartphone. However, if I’m not careful, there will be Post-its everywhere. Condensing tasks into my smartphone is often more efficient, but as soon as they’ve been added to my to-do list, they seem to vanish from memory.

I mention all of this because as I was compiling the “In Stores Now” list for April, I noticed it was jam-packed with new biographies—more than 80—but only three were penned by active BIO members. Several inactive members have books coming out this month. I don’t want to exclude anyone from the lists or Member News and Notes section, so I thought this would be a good time to remind you to check your BIO membership. Is it current? It’s possible it expired, and you didn’t realize it. 

BIO members also get discounted admission to the annual conference, which is happening in less than two months!

Yours truly,
Jared

Dawn Porter, American Documentary Filmmaker, Wins 2025 BIO Award

Photo: Kevin Scanlon

Dawn Porter has been awarded the 2025 BIO Award, an honor bestowed annually by the Biographers International Organization, to a distinguished colleague who has made significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. 

Porter is an acclaimed American documentary filmmaker and founder of Trilogy Films. She is known for her storytelling on social justice, history, and cultural icons. Her celebrated documentaries, including Trapped, John Lewis: Good Trouble, and The Lady Bird Diaries, air on platforms such as HBO, Netflix, CNN, and PBS. Her recent work, Luther: Never Too Much, highlights the life and legacy of Luther Vandross. 

Porter will deliver the keynote address at the 2025 BIO Conference on Friday, June 6, in Washington, D.C. Read more. 

Click image to enlarge. Photos courtesy of Eric K. Washington.

The joys and challenges of producing biographies of Black subjects were the focus of Telling the Stories of Black Lives through Biography, a significant national conference that was held on March 21 and 22, 2025, in Montgomery, Alabama, and presented by BIO in collaboration with Troy University-Montgomery.

By all accounts, the first conference in nearly 40 years focusing on Black biography was a rousing success. The event was the brainchild of biographer and longtime BIO board member Ray Anthony Shepard, author most recently of the award-winning A Long Time Coming: A Lyrical Biography of Race in America from Ona Judge to Barack Obama (Penguin Random House, 2023). The conference keynote speaker was A’Lelia Bundles, author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker (Scribner, 2001), whose new book, Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, will be published on June 10, 2025, by Scribner. David Greenberg, author of John Lewis: A Life (Simon & Schuster, 2024), was also a featured speaker.

Panels covered issues such as researching and writing about lesser-known figures, the general challenges of writing Black biography, how writing about women’s lives is revolutionizing biography, and the craft of biography. Panelists included noted writers and scholars Rachel Swarns, Kevin McGruder, Hannah Durkin, Tanisha Ford, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, BIO board members Eric K. Washington, Tamara Payne, and Carla Kaplan, and others.

Videos will soon be posted in the members section of the BIO website. In the meantime, watch the sensational keynote address by A’Lelia Bundles here.

Register for the 2025 BIO Conference

The 2025 BIO Conference will be held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, June 5, and Friday, June 6. Optional workshops and off-site tours at Howard University, the National Archives, and the Library of Congress are also available. Workshops and tours have limited space, so sign up early to guarantee your spot. Register here via Eventbrite. 

This year, topic-specific roundtables—traditionally held during lunch on the second day—will occur virtually approximately one week before the conference. Full program details are available here. 

Visit the “Lodging” tab on the conference page of the BIO website for more information on discounted room blocks (if available) and a list of recommended hotels.

BIO Member Wins Marfield Prize

BIO member Natalie Dykstra received the 2024 Marfield Prize for outstanding writing about the arts for her book Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner (Mariner Books, 2024). The Marfield Prize or the National Award for Arts Writing is given annually by the Arts Club of Washington to the author of a nonfiction book about the visual, literary, media, or performing arts. Read more. 

Call for Submissions: Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize

The Massachusetts Historical Society invites submissions for its annual Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize for the best book representing the history of Massachusetts published in 2024. Books on any topic related to Massachusetts history are welcome. The prize includes an award to the author of $1,500 and publicity for the author and publisher. The deadline is May 12. Learn more.

Valerie Harris

Valerie Harris is working on a proposal for the first full-length biography of African American artist Laura Wheeler Waring.

Sara Benincasa

Writer and comedian Sara Benincasa is working on her first biography about our nation’s 16th President. It’s called ABRAHAM F***ING LINCOLN. (No, seriously.)

Lawrence McDonnell

Lawrence McDonnell, Assistant Professor at Iowa State University, is working on not one but two biographies: Chasing Dave: the Unbelievable Lives of an American Scoundrel, about Dr. David Hines, America’s first imposter-celebrity and con man, and Dark Bargain: Love, Murder, and Vengeance in the Old South, which McDonnell describes as “Faulkner meets Fargo.” The latter is co-authored with Kathleen Hilliard.

See what these members have been up to—releasing new titles, giving interviews, writing articles—by going here. And be sure to send us your news!

BIO members Nigel Cameron, Wayne Soini, and Gayle F. Wald had new books released in April. To see the full list of April releases, go here.

BIO members Susan Page and Susan Ronald had new books released in paperback in April. To see the full list of paperbacks released in April, click here.