As you can probably tell, things look a little different this month! The Biographer’s Craft has grown so much over the years that BIO has decided to divide it into two publications. So you will now receive our new The Insider at the top of the month, with timely news, notes, events, and short items of interest to members, followed at the end of the month by BIO’s beloved magazine, The Biographer’s Craft, which will now focus exclusively on the feature articles and interviews that you’ve grown accustomed to.

The content in both newsletters will be archived and remain available on BIO’s website as before, easily found (we hope!) and searchable in the Member’s Area. We hope you enjoy the new format. We have also switched to a new email platform. Please forgive any technical glitches as we make the transition and grow into these new publications.

Coming up: In this month’s magazine (arriving in your inbox later this month), you’ll find recaps of all panels from the 2021 BIO Conference, the Member Interview, the usual “Amanuensis” feature, and more.

Looking ahead, next month’s magazine will be our annual biography-on-film issue. And we are once again seeking contributions for our Writers at Work feature. Send along a picture or two of your work space, along with a caption.

For 2022, BIO and the Leon Levy Center for Biography will once again present an in-person conference, to be held May 13–15, at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. Watch for more details early next year.

New for 2022!
For the first time, BIO members are invited to propose panels for the 2022 BIO Conference. Follow this link for more information.

The United Kingdom’s Royal Literary Fund Fellowships gives professional writers £15,000 in return for spending two days a week helping university students develop their writing skills. Application packets for 2022 will be available in late November 2021. Details here.

SFFILM, a San Francisco-based organization, gives grants of $20,000 to up to three full-length documentaries in post-production through its Documentary Film Fund. The deadline to apply is July 15, 2021. Details here.

Given the proliferation of author events that can be easily accessed online, and which are often archived after the event, The Insider lists upcoming member events so other members can take part live and provided links to past events that have been recorded. Previously, those archived videos would have been featured in “Member News and Notes.” Look for this special section for as long as the pandemic disrupts the presentation of in-person author events.

UPCOMING

July 15: Lisa Napoli discusses her Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of The Founding Mothers of NPR at an event hosted by Flyleaf Books of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Details here.

ARCHIVED

Marilyn Greenwald and Yun Li discussed their newly released book, Eunice Hunton Carter: A Lifelong Fight for Social Justice, at a virtual event at the Mob Museum, Las Vegas, as part of its series called Writing the Mob.

Anya Jabour gave a talk titled “‘A Kentucky Portia’: Sophonisba Breckinridge, First Woman Lawyer in the Bluegrass State” for the Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky.

Ruth Franklin was one of the panelists for the discussion “Philip Roth After Blake Bailey,” sponsored by Jewish Currents.

Steve Paul discussed the subject of his next biography, author Evan S. Connell, at an event hosted by the Mid-Continent Public Library of Greater Kansas City.

Susan Rubenstein DeMasi, author of Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force of New Deal Writers, took part in a discussion called “Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America,” sponsored by the U.S. National Archives.

Kai Bird took part in two events to talk about his The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter. At the first, he was in conversation with Douglas Brinkley, at an event hosted by Books & Books in Miami and the Miami Book Fair. The second was hosted by the Leon Levy Center for Biography.

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!

The  books pictured here are just some of the new biographies hitting bookstore shelves this month. To see the full list, go HERE.

This month’s paperback releases include These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson by BIO member Martha Ackmann. To see the full list, go HERE.

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