Plutarch Award 2013

April 23rd, 2013

Announcing the First-Ever Prize for Best Biography of the Year as Selected by Biographers; List of Nominees Revealed New York, NY—For the first time ever, biographers will determine the best biography of the year when they bestow the Plutarch Award at a gala ceremony in New York City on May 18. Named after the famous Ancient Greek biographer, the prize aims to be the genre’s equivalent of the Oscar, in that the winner will be… Read More »

New Radio Show Featuring Biographers Premieres

April 22nd, 2013

A discussion of gender and whether biographers can write about subjects of a different gender were part of a lively discussion between members of BIO on new monthly radio program devoted to biography. The program, called “Collected Words,” is produced by Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It premièred on April 3 on KVSF. BIO president James McGrath Morris served as host to inaugural guests Carl Rollyson, who just published a biography of… Read More »

Panel Offers Encouraging News on Biography Market

April 22nd, 2013

By Dona Munker, TBC New York correspondent The overall market for biographies remains steady, according to three trade publishing veterans who spoke at a recent meeting of the New York University Biography Seminar, organized by BIO member Gayle Feldman. The February 20 panel comprised Jonathan Galassi, a former editor and current president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Eric Simonoff, head of the literary division of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment; and biographer James Atlas, who was… Read More »

Spring Biographical Offerings

February 6th, 2013

While the fall remains the favorite season for publishers to bring out their heavy hitters, there is no lack of substantial and important biographies on the spring list of 2013. Here are some titles, among many, likely to garner considerable attention. Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage by Jeffrey Frank will be published by Simon & Schuster this month and was touted in a recent issue of the New Yorker. In… Read More »

Great Lives Series Kicks Off

February 6th, 2013

The 10th anniversary season of the Chappell Great Lives Lecture Series began last month, with Philip Freeman speaking about Julius Caesar. The lectures, which are free and typically draw several hundred people, are sponsored by the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In the months to come, the lectures will look at the lives of such diverse figures as Brigham Young, Rasputin, Marian Anderson, Michelangelo, and Walter Cronkite. Lecturers will include BIO member Carl… Read More »

Researcher to the Stars Offers Tips

February 5th, 2013

Here is the complete interview with researcher and writer Michael Hill from the February issue of The Biographer’s Craft. TBC: You’ve just been hired for a new biographical project, or are beginning one of your own.  Briefly, what are your first steps in beginning research? Hill: First, find out what manuscript collections are in existence and are they currently open to researchers. Where are they located and how extensive are they—i.e., do… Read More »

Spring Books – 2013

February 5th, 2013

  JANUARY Johnson and Boswell: A Biography of Friendship by John B. Radner (Yale University Press) The Watchful Clothier: The Life of an Eighteenth-Century Protestant Capitalist by Matthew Kadane (Yale University Press) Ravel by Roger Nichols (Yale University Press) George II: King and Elector by Andrew C. Thompson (Yale University Press) Hawthorne’s Habitations: A Literary Life by Robert Milder (Oxford University Press) The Pinecone: The Story of Sarah Losh, Forgotten Romantic Heroine—Antiquarian, Architect, and Visionary… Read More »

Compleat Biographer Conference Program Set;
Registration to Open Soon

December 27th, 2012

The 2013 Compleat Biographer conference, scheduled for May 17 through May 19 in New York City, will include 20 panels, three or four on-site research workshops, and four master classes, according to program committee chair Brian Jay Jones. “The program committee has put together an outstanding lineup of subjects for the conference,” said BIO vice president Jones. “There will be not-to-missed panels for all biographers, seasoned professionals as well as those just starting.” The preliminary… Read More »