First-time Biographers, Apply Now for the Rowley Prize

October 8th, 2018

BIO is accepting applications for the Hazel Rowley Prize. The prize rewards a first-time biographer with: funding (the $2,000 award); a careful reading from an established agent; one year’s membership in BIO (along with registration to the annual Biographers International Organization 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 To advance its mission and extend its reach to talented… Read More »

Apply Now for the Caro Fellowship

October 8th, 2018

BIO is accepting applications for the Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship. BIO members with a work in progress can apply to receive funding for research trips to archives or to important settings in their subject’s lives. The fellowship is restricted to supporting works of biography and not works of history, autobiography, or memoir. The application deadline is February 1, 2019. In the spring of 2019, BIO will award either one $5,000 or two… Read More »

Murdoch Biography Revisits Player’s Demise

September 25th, 2018

A new biography of one of New Zealand’s best-known rugby players has been published. Murdoch: The All Black Who Never Returned, by Ron Palenski, New Zealand’s best sportswriter, outlines and reviews one of the most controversial episodes in New Zealand sport. Keith Murdoch was on the All Blacks (New Zealand’s national rugby team) in the early 1970s. After one victory in Wales, Murdoch got into a brawl with a hotel security guard. Over the… Read More »

Tim Duggan to Receive BIO’s Editorial Excellence Award

September 19th, 2018

Biographers International Organization will present its fifth annual Editorial Excellence Award to Tim Duggan, editor and publisher of Tim Duggan Books, an imprint of Crown at Penguin Random House. Please join us on Wednesday, November 7, at 6:30 p.m., for wine, hors d’oeuvres, and a celebration of Tim Duggan’s work on behalf of his authors, with a discussion of the pleasures and challenges of editing, and of the state of the art of serious biography… Read More »

Fall 2018 Preview

September 4th, 2018

We’re highlighting here  some of the books due out this fall and winter that are likely to garner critical and popular acclaim, because of their subject, their author, or both. The titles already getting buzz are drawn from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal, and Amazon, among others. BIO members with upcoming releases are noted in bold type. Please note: We do our best to learn about new books, and… Read More »

Alison Owings Wins Mayborn Fellowship

August 11th, 2018

Alison Owings won the Biography Fellowship awarded annually by the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, held at the University of North Texas. The fellowship is co-sponsored by BIO and BIO co-founder James McGrath Morris. With her fellowship, Owings receives a two- to three-week residency in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and mentoring from Morris during her stay. In addition, she will receive complimentary admission to the 2019 BIO Conference and a $500 stipend. During her stay in… Read More »

Lives on Film Remain Popular Topics for Both Biopics and Documentaries

August 4th, 2018

As we noted in last year’s round up of biographical films, the demand for content from both cable networks and streaming services has increased the opportunities for filmmakers who tell life stories in their work. At the same time, Hollywood still seeks out captivating biopics, with big stars and big budgets. Once again, we offer a look—not meant to be comprehensive—of recent and future productions that tell biographies through film. Recent and Current Releases The… Read More »

Andrew D. Scrimgeour Wins 2018 Hazel Rowley Prize

July 22nd, 2018

Andrew D. Scrimgeour of Cary, North Carolina, has received the 2018 Hazel Rowley Prize of Biographers International Organization (BIO) for best book proposal from a first-time biographer. Scrimgeour’s proposal for 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—was selected by distinguished biographers Stacy Schiff and James Atlas. Scrimgeour’s proposed biography would chart Funk’s career, which revolutionized the study… Read More »