Biographers International Organization

Gayatri Patnaik will receive BIO’s 2020 Editorial Excellence Award on Monday evening, November 9, at an online event featuring three of her authors: Imani Perry, Marcus Rediker, and Jeanne Theoharis, along with literary agent Tanya McKinnon. Patnaik is Associate Director and Editorial Director of Beacon Press, where for 18 years she has edited and published many books on race, ethnicity, and immigration. A native of India who emigrated with her family to the United States… Read More »

If  you missed this live Zoom workshop, you can watch the video here. Three accomplished biographers who have worked with other BIO members to help bring their biographies to life answer questions about research and writing. Panelists: Kate Buford, Carl Rollyson, and Carol Sklenicka Moderator: Anne Boyd Rioux… Read More »

By Eric K. Washington, with Sarah Kilborne, Anne Boyd Rioux, and Sonja Williams BIO is pleased to announce the new Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship for African American Biography. The Rollin Fellowship will award $2,000 to an author 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. The deadline for applications is February 1, 2021. The Rollin Fellowship is… Read More »

By Eric K. Washington One could say Carole Ione, also known professionally as IONE—a playwright, poet, diarist, and frequent co-creator with her longtime spouse, the late composer Pauline Oliveros —has grown accustomed to long waits. As chair of BIO’s Black Lives Matter Committee, I recently had the privilege of informing Ione that Frances Anne Rollin Whipper (1845–1901) would be the namesake of a new $2,000 fellowship next spring, to be offered for a biography-in-progress of… Read More »

COVID-19 has upset publishers’ schedules for releasing new books, which might explain the large number of notable biographies coming out in the last few months of 2020 (some were postponed from spring releases). Traditional cradle-to-grave works, group biographies, and books about “hidden figures” are among the books generating interest among media outlets, before their fall and winter publication. We’re highlighting here just some of the books likely to garner critical and popular attention, because of… Read More »

On June 9, Brandon Butler and Peter Jaszi took part in a virtual workshop for BIO on fair use for biographers. Here, Butler and Jaszi answer two follow-up questions on the topic. You can see a recording of the workshop here, and read BIO’s Statement on Best Practices regarding fair use here.  Q: Taking into account fair use doctrine, when do we—and when don’t we—have to pay licensing fees in order to use… Read More »

Six BIO members shared their views on race and biography for the July issue of The Biographer’s Craft: Black Lives/Young Readers by Ray Anthony Shepard Archival Interventions: Reconstructing Life on the Margins of History by Pamela Newkirk Biography Matters by Patricia Bell-Scott Before There Was Karen, There Was Miss Anne by Carla Kaplan The Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph Biography Has Mattered to Black Lives by Eric K. Washington  … Read More »