Biographers International Organization

By James McGrath Morris Had it not been for the civil rights movement, Taylor Branch would have become a surgeon and the movement would have been deprived of one of its most important chroniclers. For his work in producing a three-volume biographically based narrative history of the civil rights movement, Branch received the BIO Award on June 6 at the Biographers International Conference. He was the sixth writer to be so honored since the first… Read More »

Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee (Knopf) won the Plutarch Award for best biography of 2014, as selected by members of Biographers International Organization. The award was presented Saturday evening at the Sixth Annual BIO Conference in Washington, D.C. The three finalists were: The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandria by Helen Rappaport (St. Martin’s) The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 by Nigel Hamilton (Houghton Mifflin… Read More »

By Joseph A. Esposito The recent selection of his dual biography of Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Biography caught David I. Kertzer of Brown University by surprise. According to a statement released by the university, Kertzer said, “I had no idea the Pulitzer Prizes were about to be announced nor any hint they were considering The Pope and Mussolini, so this is quite a shock.” But the… Read More »

Bestselling biographer Kitty Kelley—a founding BIO member who serves on the board— will appear with biographers James McGrath Morris and Linda Lear at the conference in Washington, DC. Their panel, moderated by Abigail Santamaria, will address the question, Does gender matter in biography? Kitty talks to BIO Secretary and site co-chair Barbara Burkhardt about biography and gender—and her dedication to BIO. Barbara Burkhardt: What generated the idea for the panel “Does Gender Matter”? Kitty … Read More »

The following are the election statements and biographies submitted by candidates for the BIO Board of Directors, for seven seats with two year terms, running from 2015-2017. These statements are presented alphabetically, by candidate’s last name. Oline Eaton Oline Eaton is a first-time biographer in the final throes of writing a cultural study of the life of Jackie Onassis, a project she has been dreaming about since she was 12. She lives in London and… Read More »

Fellow biographers to choose winner for the “Oscar” of biographies–to be presented next month at national conference in Washington, D.C. Biographers International Organization (BIO) will name the best biography published in 2014 when they present the 2015 Plutarch Award during the Sixth Annual BIO Conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 6. Named after the famous Ancient Greek biographer, the Plutarch Award aims to be the genre’s equivalent of the… Read More »

David I. Kertzer is the winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his book The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe. We will have an interview with Kertzer, conducted by BIO member Joseph Esposito, in the May issue of The Biographer’s Craft.… Read More »

Too many of the compelling, varied and inspiring life stories of people of color have been invisible to a broader audience. Therefore, this BIO conference will feature the panel, “The Rewards and Challenges of Writing Lives of Color.” Moderated by Sonja Williams, author of a forthcoming biography Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom, this panel features authors Valerie Boyd, Alfred J. López and Donald Spivey. Williams spoke to Valerie Boyd about the complexities … Read More »