Biographers International Organization

Ramin Ganeshram and Kevin McGruder are the winners of the 2024 Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship for biographical works-in-progress that make a significant contribution to our understanding of the Black experience.    Ramin Ganeshram won for her biographical project Stirring Liberty: How George Washington’s Enslaved Chef Transformed American Cuisine and Secretly Cooked His Way to Freedom, a biography of Hercules Posey. Fortuitously after the fact, her proposed book was sold to Simon & Schuster’s 37 Ink… Read More »

A distinguished panel of judges from the Biographers International Organization (BIO) is proud to announce the five books that have been short-listed for the 2024 Plutarch Award, the only international literary award for biography judged exclusively by biographers. These five biographies uphold the high standard set by earlier Plutarch winners for the quality of research, the literary merit of the writing, and the originality and significance of the project. You will find this year’s five… Read More »

Kai Bird has been awarded the 2024 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. Bird is the award-winning author of  seven books, five of which have been biographies. Since 2017, as Executive Director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, he has worked tirelessly to advance the… Read More »

Kitty Kelley and Debby Applegate Invite You to Celebrate Kai Bird & Oppenheimer Saturday, March 2, 2024 4-7pm At the Home of Debby Applegate and Bruce Tulgan Hamden, CT 06517 A 10-minute taxi/Uber ride from New Haven’s Union Station  (from Manhattan, take Metro-North to Union Station) Street parking available Tickets: $125/one ticket or $200/two tickets Join us, one week before the Oscars, for an unforgettable benefit evening in honor of biographer and BIO board member… Read More »

Registration for the 2024 BIO Conference is now open. Co-sponsored with the Leon Levy Center for Biography, the two-day event will take place both in person and online May 16-17, 2024, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Please note: unlike previous years, the conference will take place on a Thursday and Friday; in addition, one of several optional tours will be offered on Saturday morning, May 18. Attending in… Read More »

The longlist for the 2024 Plutarch Award has been determined, and you are the first to know. The committee for this year’s prize is composed of Carol Sklenicka (chair), Patricia Albers, Vanda Krefft, William Souder, and Ethelene Whitmire. Sklenicka said of their work, “The 2024 Plutarch Award Committee received some 200 books by first-time and experienced biographers, issued by small and large publishers, on subjects who made their lives in worlds as vastly different as… Read More »

BIO is now accepting applications for its three fellowship programs.   The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship awards $5,000 each 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… Read More »

On January 20, 2024, join award-winning biographers James McGrath Morris, Janice P. Nimura, and Ray A. Shepard for an online forum on the craft of biography. And don’t miss Kai Bird’s plenary session entitled “My Wild Ride as a Biographer.” Free for BIO members and students. $60 General Admission. Register now! Schedule: Kai Bird, “My Wild Ride as a Biographer” (The prerecorded address can be viewed any time after 8:00 a.m.) 10:30 – noon:  Janice… Read More »