Biographers International Organization

Jennifer Homans’s Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century(Random House) is the winner of BIO’s 2023 Plutarch Award for the Best Biography of 2022. The Plutarch is the only international prize of its kind. Named after the famous Greek writer, the Plutarch is awarded to the best biography of the year by a committee of five distinguished biographers, and this prestigious prize comes with a $2,000 honorarium. “For the Plutarch judges, Jennifer Homans’s… Read More »

Biographers International Organization (BIO) is thrilled to announce a gift of $1 million, to be given in increments of $200,000 over five years starting June 1, 2023, from famed biographer Kitty Kelley. BIO’s president Linda Leavell formally accepted the gift on May 20, 2023, during BIO’s annual Conference at the Leon Levy Center for Biography. BIO’s Long-range Planning Committee will oversee the gift and make recommendations for its application to the Board of Directors. This… Read More »

The 2023 BIO Conference is now underway at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. You can view the digital conference program here. The following events and sessions will be live-streamed for virtual attendees: Friday, May 19, 2023 4:00pm – 4:45pm: Member Readings: BIO members read excerpts from their recent biographies. 4:45pm – 5:30pm: Presentations of the Biblio Award, Robert & Ina Caro Research / Travel Fellowships, the Chip Bishop Fellowship, the Frances “Frank”… Read More »

The 2023 Hazel Rowley Prize honoring the best book proposal by a first-time biographer has been awarded to Alec Pollak, who is at work on a biography of the American writer Joanna Russ. This year’s Rowley Prize Committee was comprised of Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina (chair), Carl Rollyson, and Paula Whitacre. Of this year’s award, Gerzina said, “Our committee unanimously selected Alec Pollak’s proposal for a biography of Joanna Russ, which was very well-written and compelling,… Read More »

The 2023 Robert and Ina Caro Travel Fellowship Committee, consisting of Carla Kaplan (chair), Marc Leepson, and Ashley Farmer, have decided the recipients of the travel fellowships for this year. BIO members with a work in progress are eligible to receive funding for research trips to archives or to important settings in their subjects’ lives. This fellowship is a reflection of BIO’s ongoing commitment to support authors in writing beautifully contextualized and tenaciously researched biographies.… Read More »

The best biography of 2022 to be announced on May 20, 2023 during the 13th Annual BIO Conference New York, NY – A distinguished panel of judges from the Biographers International Organization (BIO) is proud to announce their five finalists  for the 2023  Plutarch Award, the only international literary award for biography judged exclusively by biographers. These biographies showcase a diversity of subjects, intrepid scholarship, and an admirable illumination of both cultural and political achievement… Read More »

Brandon R. Byrd and Lizzie Skurnick are the winners of the 2023 Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship for biographical works-in-progress that make a significant contribution to our understanding of the Black experience. Byrd and Skurnick are the first double recipients of this prize since best-selling biographer Kitty Kelley, a longtime BIO Board member, earmarked a major gift of $50,000 to the Rollin Fellowship in 2022. Byrd has won for his biography-in-progress Pap: The Life and Legacies … Read More »

Kitty Kelley is the preeminent unauthorized biographer of our time and is the winner of the 2023 BIO Award. The BIO Award is presented annually to an individual for contributions to advancing the art and craft of biography. To celebrate Kelley and learn about her process, we are hosting An Evening with Kitty Kelley via Zoom on Tuesday, March 28, from 7 to 8 pm Eastern Daylight Time. Register here. Kelley is the… Read More »