This week we feature an archived presentation from the City University of New York’s Leon Levy Center for Biography. In October 2013, distinguished historian and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Levering Lewis delivered the sixth annual Leon Levy Biography Lecture. Levering Lewis is the author of critically acclaimed biographies of W.E.B. DuBois and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. … Read More »

This week we feature an archived interview from the City University of New York’s Leon Levy Center for Biography. Author Silvana Paternostro was interviewed by editor Cristobal Pena about her book, Solitude & Company: The Life of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Told with Help From His Friends, Family, Fans, Arguers, Pranksters, Drunks and a Few Respectable Souls. Published by Seven Stories Press in 2019, Paternostro’s biography explores the life and relationships of Garcia Marquez, author… Read More »

This week we feature an interview with veteran journalist Jonathan Alter. Alter’s fourth presidential biography, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life, was published by Simon & Schuster in October 2020. It’s the first full-length biography of the oldest living president in American history. Alter is a long-time contributor and political analyst for NBC and MSNBC, and recently he was interviewed by fellow biographer David Greenberg via Zoom.… Read More »

This week we feature an archived “live” presentation from the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Leon Levy Center for Biography. On September 25, 2019, historian David Nasaw, an award-winning author of biographies about Joseph P. Kennedy, William Randolph Hearst, and Andrew Carnegie, delivered the Levy Center’s 12th Annual Lecture. Nasaw’s engaging presentation was titled My Three Moguls. … Read More »

This week we feature an archival interview from the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Leon Levy Center for Biography. Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Jeffrey C. Stewart and David Levering Lewis discussed Stewart’s biography, The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, published by Oxford University Press in December 2017. This interview was recorded on September 21, 2018.  … Read More »

This week we feature an archival interview from the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Leon Levy Center for Biography. Hermione Lee, distinguished British biographer, former president of Oxford University’s Wolfson College, and winner of the 2020 BIO Award, was interviewed by fellow award-winning author Gary Giddins. Lee’s books include biographies of writers Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Penelope Fitzgerald, and Virginia Woolf. This interview was recorded in front of a Levy Center audience on… Read More »

This week we feature an archival interview from the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Leon Levy Center for Biography. Distinguished author and Yale University professor David Blight was interviewed by author and CUNY history professor James Oakes. Blight’s Pultizer Prize-winning book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, was published by Simon and Schuster in 2018. This interview was recorded in front of a Levy Center audience on April 15, 2019. … Read More »

In this week’s episode, we feature an archival interview from the City University of New York’s Leon Levy Center for Biography. Author Bridgett M. Davis was interviewed by author and Columbia University professor Farah Jasmine Griffin about Davis’s book, The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers. This interview was recorded in front of a live Levy Center audience on February 15, 2019. … Read More »

In this week’s episode, we interview Peniel E. Joseph, distinguished University of Texas at Austin history professor and of author of The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. (Basic Books, 2020) – a biography that explores the lives and philosophies of two iconic African American leaders. This interview was recorded via an online Zoom session in July 2020.… Read More »

In this week’s episode, we interview David O. Stewart, a versatile novelist and biographer who has examined the political lives of President Andrew Johnson, Aaron Burr, and James Madison. He is currently working on a biography of President George Washington. This interview was recorded in December 2019 in Washington, D.C.… Read More »