John Vaillant received the 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction on November 17, for Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (U.S. edition: Knopf, June 2023; U.K. edition: Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton, August 2023). Learn more here.

The Biographers’ Club has announced a shortlist of six titles for the 2023 Tony Lothian Prize for the best uncommissioned proposal by a first-time biographer. The club notes this is twice the number of works shortlisted last year. Two BIO members are among the finalists: Stephanie Genty for her work in progress, Bitter Strength: The Life and Work of Marilyn French, Feminist, and Matthew Zipf for his work in progress, Renata Adler: At the Radical Middle. Learn more here.

BIO is now accepting applications for its three fellowship programs.  

• The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship awards $5,000 to two authors working on a biographical work about an African American figure (or figures), whose story provides a significant contribution to our understanding of the Black experience. This fellowship also provides the recipients with a year’s membership in BIO, registration to the annual BIO Conference, and publicity through BIO’s marketing channels. The fellowship is open to all biographers anywhere in the world who are writing in English, who are working on a biography of an African American figure (or figures), and who are at any stage in the writing of a book-length biography. Applications are due February 1, 2024. More information about the fellowship is available here. 
• The Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship is open to BIO members with a work in progress who wish to receive funding for research trips to archives or to important settings in their subjects’ lives. The deadline for applications is February 1, 2024. Learn more here. 
• The Hazel Rowley Prize rewards a first-time biographer with: funding ($5,000 award); a careful reading from an established agent; a year’s membership in BIO (including registration to the annual BIO Conference); and publicity through BIO’s marketing channels. The prize is open to all first-time biographers anywhere in the world who are writing in English; working on a biography that has not been commissioned, contracted, or self-published; and have never published a book-length biography, autobiography, history, or work of narrative nonfiction. The deadline for applications is March 1, 2024. Click here for more information. 

The Leon Levy Center for Biography offers four resident fellowships and one Sloan Fellowship for a biography on a figure from science or technology. Awards include writing space at the CUNY Graduate Center, full access to research facilities, research assistance, and a stipend of $72,000. The period of the residencies is September through May of each year. Fellows devote their time to their projects and participate in monthly seminars and in the public events of the Leon Levy Center for Biography—including the annual lecture and annual conference—and they are encouraged to join in the dynamic intellectual community of the Graduate Center. The deadline to apply is January 4, 2024. Learn more here. 

Applications are now being accepted for the Steinbeck Fellows Program at San José State University. The fellowship offers emerging writers of any age and background the opportunity to pursue a significant writing project during their fellowship tenure. The emphasis of the program is on helping writers who have had some success but have not published extensively, and whose promising work would be aided by the financial support and sponsorship of the Center For Steinbeck Studies and the university’s creative writing program. The fellowship includes a stipend of $15,000. The creative writing fellowship does not require that there be any direct connection between your work and Steinbeck’s. Relocation is not required. The deadline to apply is January 5, 2024. Learn more here. 

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is accepting applications for its Nieman Fellowships through January 31, 2024. Participants in this program, who must be U.S. citizens, will spend two semesters at Harvard, where they have the opportunity to attend classes and learn from some of the university’s distinguished faculty members. Up to 24 journalists working in print, broadcast, digital, and audiovisual media are awarded fellowships annually, with each fellowship including a $85,000 stipend. Learn more here.

Applications are open for the 2024 National Biography Award given by the National Library of New South Wales, Australia. Authors are eligible for the prize if their book was published between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023, and if the biography’s subject is Australian or has made a significant contribution to Australia. A total of $42,000 (AUD) will be awarded to eight recipients. The deadline to enter is February 5, 2024. Learn more here.

Scientists have honed in on the skeletons of 16 survivors of the plague, found in Cambridge, England, to complete osteobiographies—or “bone biographies” as they are now being called in the media. The studies used radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis to investigate the diets, injuries, habits, and activities of “townsfolk, scholars, friars and merchants,” according to CNN. While it seems unlikely that BIO members will pursue archaeological credentialing, this instance does highlight two convergent trends: researchers’ interest in the lives of under-documented sources and the growing reaches of technology enabling those researchers to access data previously unavailable. Read more here.

Hot off the success of the film Oppenheimer—the adaptation of Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s biography American Prometheus and directed by Christopher Nolan—is another blockbuster biopic based on a biography. Well-known director Darren Aronofsky is reportedly directing a film based on Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk (Simon & Schuster, September 2023). Variety announced that Hollywood studio A24 won the adaptation rights to the book, after a bidding war among various studios and producers. The emergence of additional adapted biopics may lead to a resurgence of the subgenre and a lucrative opportunity for biographers. Read more here.

“Oh, the beautifully bitter long haul of writing a book!” Jami Attenberg exclaimed in a recent edition of her “Craft Talk” newsletter. She continued, “Pacing yourself, respecting yourself, creating your boundaries. Determining your resources. Finding your wells within yourself. Knowing that what you’re doing is not just for now but for the rest of your life, if you choose it. The long haul of it all.” Read the post here.

Kitty Kelley writes, “ Dear BIO members, I’m trying to assemble a master list of book conferences and annual literary festivals and events throughout the U.S., and would appreciate receiving any and all information you might have about those in your area and those you’ve attended. Please send info to president@biographersinternational.org and, once compiled, we’ll share the list with all.”

by Patricia A. Billingsley
sold to the University of New Mexico Press
by Roseanne Wells at Lucinda Literary

by C. W. Goodyear
sold to Simon & Schuster
by Dystel, Goderich & Bourret

by John Summers
sold to Scribner
by Chris Calhoun at Chris Calhoun Agency

More titles HERE

Neil Baldwin
Patricia A. Billingsley
Jonathan Eig
Beverly Gage
Stephanie Genty
David Greenberg
Didi Hoffman
Danell Jones
Bernice Lerner
Justin Martin
Kevin McGruder
Patricia Meisol
Eugene L. Meyer

Lisa Napoli
Peter Oltchick
Betsy Prioleau
Jennifer Skoog
Rachel L. Swarns
Judith Tick
Marlene Trestman
Eric K. Washington
Paula Tarnapol Whitacre
Sonja Williams
Christine Wolf
Matthew Zipf

Whatever state your biography’s in—vague idea, proposal, well underway—BIO’s experienced biographers can help. BIO offers a one-hour coaching session via phone or email for the member discounted rate of $60. (Coaches may charge more for subsequent hours.) Learn more about the program here.

Are you a student, or do you know one who is interested in biography? BIO now has a special student membership rate. Visit the BIO website to find out more.