Biographers International Organization

Reza Aslan seems to have found the perfect formula for rocketing a biography to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list: Take a well-known subject, present a view of him not everyone will agree with, then have Fox News interview you, focusing almost exclusively on your Muslim beliefs and why a Muslim would write about Jesus Christ. Most likely, that’s not a recipe for success that Aslan or anyone else will be… Read More »

The fall season of 2013 (August through February) has the most impressive lineup of biographies in years. Sucking up a lot of publicity oxygen will be Wilson by A. Scott Berg, the author of Max Perkins: Editor of Genius and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charles Lindberg, being published by Putnam in September. Also in the same month, Ballantine will bring out Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones, vice president of BIO. Salinger by… Read More »

By Betsy Connor Bowen You’ve written a book, it’s getting published. You’re fired up. Everything’s coming up roses. You’ve earned your chops. Not so fast. It’s a new world for book publishing, and it’s often the writer who hires the publicist, not the publisher. Whereas over time a publisher would build up a storehouse of knowledge about the professionalism and integrity of various publicists, face it: you know nothing. Watch out. Shop around. It takes… Read More »

 If your forthcoming book is not listed below, drop us a line.   August The Winter Sun Shines In: A Life of Masaoka Shiki by Donald Keene (Columbia University Press) Mathew Brady: Portraits of a Nation by Robert Wilson (Bloomsbury) These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie by Christopher Andersen (Gallery Books) Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music by Neil Powell (Henry Holt and Co.) King Faisal of Saudi Arabia: Personality, … Read More »

With the publishing of her Bolivar: An American Liberator, BIO member Marie Arana has won glowing reviews and been featured in many media outlets. Born in Peru, Arana is the former editor-in chief of the Washington Post’s Book World and is currently a writer-at-large for that paper, as well as a biographer and novelist. TBC asked Arana about her new book and some of the challenges a biographer might face when dealing with … Read More »

Royal Family Denounces Film of Princess Grace Grace of Monaco, with Nicole Kidman playing the title role, is expected to receive Oscar considerations when it’s released this December. But as the Sydney Morning Herald reported in May, it’s already been panned by Monaco’s royal family. Grace’s three children said the film “does not constitute a biographical work but portrays only a part of her life and has been pointlessly glamorized and contains important historical… Read More »

In a year in which he was passed over by the Pulitzer Prize Committee, Robert Caro won the Plutarch Award for the best biography of 2102 for The Passage of Power, published by Knopf. Named after the ancient Greek biographer, the prize was launched this year with major support from the Chappell Great Lives Program at the University of Mary Washington. It is intended to be our genre’s equivalent of the Oscar in that… Read More »

With the non-stop buzz of midtown Manhattan as a backdrop, more than 200 biographers from eight countries attended the fourth annual Compleat Biographer Conference on May 18 at the Roosevelt Hotel. The day featured 19 panels, and attendees were treated to a keynote speech by Ron Chernow, winner of the 2013 BIO Award. Chernow received his award after the conference luncheon from Will Swift, author of the forthcoming Pat and Dick: The Nixons, An Intimate … Read More »