2026 Plutarch Award Shortlist Announced

April 16th, 2026

A panel of judges from BIO has narrowed down the 10 nominees for the 14th annual Plutarch Award to five. The titles, listed below, include feedback from the awards committee:

• Nicholas Boggs, Baldwin: A Love Story (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) — “Nicholas Boggs delivers fresh insights on the life of a beloved American literary and political hero with this moving and beautifully-composed biography that reveals how novel perspectives can generate new ways of looking at a life.”
• Howard W. French, The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide (Liveright) — “In his complex, engrossing biography of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first independent prime minister, Howard French situates Africa’s decolonization within the context of international Pan-Africanism and the U.S. civil rights movements.”
• Max Perry Mueller, Wakara’s America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West (Basic Books) — “In startlingly innovative fashion, insisting that Native American history and biography deserve an entirely new approach, Max Perry Mueller limns the Native chief Wakara, an elusive but central figure in the shaping of the American Southwest.”
• Francesca Wade, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife (Scribner) — “Francesca Wade combines an examination of Gertrude Stein’s life and work with an engrossing account of the struggle over her posthumous reputation, which began with her partner, Alice B. Toklas, and after many decades, eventually included Wade herself.”
• Graham Watson, The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: A New Life (Pegasus Books) — “In this riveting biography, Graham Watson interrogates how Charlotte Brontë’s story came to be written, shedding new light on not only the Victorian writer but the construction and nature of biography itself.”

Of the 10 books longlisted, BIO President Steve Paul said, “This is such an impressive list of books, which speaks to the robust state of the craft of biography. We are always grateful for the time and effort our judges put into highlighting the great work of biography.”

The Plutarch Award is the only international literary award for biography judged exclusively by biographers. The winner will be announced during the 2026 BIO Conference, occurring May 28 and 29 at CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. View past Plutarch winners here.

Samantha Ege and Heath Brown Win 2026 Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowships

April 13th, 2026

Samantha Ege and Heath Brown are the recipients of the 2026 Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship, awarded for biographical works-in-progress that significantly advance our understanding of the Black experience. Both writers impressed the selection committee with their vividly rendered portraits of very different subjects, each engaging and accessible to a broad general audience.

Ege won for her project, Fabulous Is the Word: The Life and Legend of Nora Douglas Holt, a biography of the Harlem Renaissance-era nonpareil who was a pioneering musicologist, composer, critic, and, as she put it, “sensual socialite.”

Brown won for his project, The Pilot of Jonestown, a biography of Norman Ijames, a Black aviator who was fatefully connected to the 1978 cult massacre at Jonestown, Guyana, a tragedy that is still seared in modern memory.

Samantha Ege is a music historian and concert pianist renowned for her work on 20th-century Black women in classical music. Her 2024 New York Times article on Nora Holt, “The Curious Case of ‘Naughty Little Nora,’ a Jazz Age Shape Shifter,” was celebrated for introducing readers to this important yet forgotten figure. Her book South Side Impresarios was widely praised, and her scholarship extends to major publications, broadcasts, and performances. As a concert pianist, she has performed internationally, championing composers such as Holt, Florence Price, and Margaret Bonds. Named a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 2025, Ege has built an influential career on her path to reshaping musical history.

Heath Brown is a professor of public policy at the City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He earned an undergraduate degree in history from Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, and his master’s and PhD from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. His several books on politics and history include his most recent on the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris presidential transition: Roadblocked: Joe Biden’s Rocky Transition to the White House (University Press of Kansas, 2024). Previously, he studied radical religious movements like the Tea Party and conservative homeschooling. He’s also written for Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and Washington Monthly magazines, as well as appeared on CNN and MSNBC.

The 2026 Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship marks our sixth year. When we hatched out the award’s parameters and guidelines in 2020, we felt certain that countless untold biographies were waiting out there to deepen our understanding of Black experience across the Americas — and the response proved it. Yearly, a wide range of writers have answered the call. That momentum continues to grow. The CUNY Graduate Center’s Leon Levy Center for Biography just introduced the David Levering Lewis Fellowship on the African Diaspora. Funded by the esteemed biographer’s $1 million gift, which is to be matched by the Leon Levy Foundation. As a past Leon Levy Biography Fellow, I’m excited to see the Rollin Fellowship and the Lewis Fellowship working with kindred aims to champion and expand the field of Black biography.

— Eric K. Washington, Chair, The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship

BIO’s Rollin Fellowship, named for Frances (“Frank”) Anne Rollin Whipper, one of America’s first recorded African American biographers, seeks to help remediate the disproportionate reflection of Black lives and voices in published biography and to encourage diversity in the field. BIO launched the Rollin Fellowship in 2020 and first presented an award of $2,000 to a single winner in May 2021 and again in 2022. As of May 2023, with a generous donation from Kitty Kelley, BIO increased the award to $5,000 each for two winners. The fellowship also awards the recipients a year’s membership in BIO, registration to the annual BIO Conference, and publicity through BIO’s marketing channels. This year’s Rollin Prize Committee consisted of Eric K. Washington (chair), Tamara Payne, and Emily Bernard.

T.J. Stiles Honored with the 2026 BIO Award

April 6th, 2026

T.J. Stiles, noted author of bestselling books about historical American figures, has been chosen to receive the 2026 BIO Award from Biographers International Organization (BIO). Established in 2010, the annual award honors an individual who has advanced the art and craft of biography. The award will be presented on May 29, 2026, at BIO’s annual conference in New York City.

“The BIO Awards Committee is excited to present this award to T.J. Stiles,” said Kathleen Stone, chair of the committee. “As an author, he is dedicated to exploring history through the stories of individual lives. His innovative choice of subjects covers a wide range, from General George Custer to Jesse James to Cornelius Vanderbilt, thereby enlarging our understanding of our history. ”

T.J. has previously received many honors for his work. Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History, the Spur Award for Best Western Biography, and the William H. Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt was honored with the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2009 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War received the 2003 Ambassador Book Award.

Stiles is a member of BIO’s Advisory Council. A past Guggenheim Fellow, NEH Public Scholar, and Gilder Lehrman Fellow in American History at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, he also practices and teaches traditional karate with the Japan Karate Association. A native of rural Minnesota, he now lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and two children. He is currently working on a biography of Theodore Roosevelt.

The BIO Award recognizes a colleague who has made distinguished contributions to the art and craft of biography. Previous honorees are, in alphabetical order, Kai Bird, Taylor Branch, Robert Caro, Ron Chernow, Richard Holmes, Kitty Kelley, Hermione Lee, David Levering Lewis, Megan Marshall, Candice Millard, James McGrath Morris, Dawn Porter, Arnold Rampersad, Stacy Schiff, Jean Strouse, and Claire Tomalin.

Stiles will deliver the keynote address at the 2026 BIO Conference on Friday, May 29, at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.

2026 Plutarch Award Longlist Announced

March 17th, 2026

A panel of judges from BIO has selected 10 nominees for the 14th annual Plutarch Award, the only international literary award for biography judged exclusively by biographers.

“The Plutarch Award Committee is delighted to offer our selections for the ten best biographies published in 2025. We read close to two hundred books covering the most diverse set of imaginable subjects…and were impressed with a great many, which made our task a gratifying challenge,” says Mary Dearborn, Chair of the Awards Committee. “We found that those we valued most highly were both compellingly written…and outstandingly researched in terms of depth, quality, and in many cases, originality of approach. After our year of reading biographically, we’re extremely excited about the books we chose, ample evidence that the genre of biography is alive and thriving in the literary world.”

BIO President Steve Paul added, “This is such an impressive list of books, which speaks to the robust state of the craft of biography. We are always grateful for the time and effort our judges put into highlighting the great work of biography.”

The titles, listed below, include feedback from the awards committee:

• Nicholas Boggs, Baldwin: A Love Story (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) — “Nicholas Boggs delivers fresh insights on the life of a beloved American literary and political hero with this moving and beautifully-composed biography that reveals how novel perspectives can generate new ways of looking at a life.”
• Daniel Brook, The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Visionary of Weimar Berlin (W. W. Norton & Company) — “In this remarkable biography, Daniel Brook resurrects a forgotten genius whose revolutionary ideas about sex and gender made him a target of Nazi ire and an inspiration to generations of innovative thinkers.”
• Kate Culkin, Emerson’s Daughters: Ellen Tucker Emerson, Edith Emerson Forbes, and Their Family Legacy (University of Massachusetts Press) — “Kate Culkin’s examination of the personalities, experiences, and work of Ellen and Edith Emerson provides an important contribution to Transcendentalist history and a wittily corrective portrait of a famous father and the daughters upon whom he relied.”
• Ruth Franklin, The Many Lives of Anne Frank (Yale University Press) — “Ruth Franklin introduces you to an Anne Frank you never knew; in gorgeous prose, she reinvigorates Anne’s world and reveals her surprising afterstory.”
• Howard W. French, The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide (Liveright) — “In his complex, engrossing biography of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first independent prime minister, Howard French situates Africa’s decolonization within the context of international Pan-Africanism and the U.S. civil rights movements.”
• Max Perry Mueller, Wakara’s America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West (Basic Books) — “In startlingly innovative fashion, insisting that Native American history and biography deserve an entirely new approach, Max Perry Mueller limns the Native chief Wakara, an elusive but central figure in the shaping of the American Southwest.”
• Sue Prideaux, Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin (W. W. Norton & Company) — “With virtuosic spirit of place, pivoting from 19th century Paris to exotic Tahiti, Sue Prideaux sheds new light upon the iconoclastic autodidact Paul Gauguin, interweaving the omnivorous, indomitable life of her so-called WILD THING artist with his resplendently uninhibited paintings.”
• Amanda Vaill, Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) — “In Pride and Pleasure, a seamless epic of our Founding Era, Amanda Vaill spins the ambitious, cunning lives of the Schuyler sisters, Amanda and Eliza—wife of Alexander Hamilton—as they play out against the complex politics of the American Revolution; the result is a dual biography redolent of romance and intrigue.”
• Francesca Wade, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife (Scribner) — “Francesca Wade combines an examination of Gertrude Stein’s life and work with an engrossing account of the struggle over her posthumous reputation, which began with her partner, Alice B. Toklas, and after many decades, eventually included Wade herself.”
• Graham Watson, The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: A New Life (Pegasus Books) — “In this riveting biography, Graham Watson interrogates how Charlotte Brontë’s story came to be written, shedding new light on not only the Victorian writer but the construction and nature of biography itself.”

The winner will be announced during the 2026 BIO Conference, occurring May 28 and 29 at CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. View past Plutarch winners here.

Carla Hayden to Receive 2026 Biblio Award from BIO

March 10th, 2026

Carla Hayden, a senior fellow at the Mellon Foundation and former Librarian of Congress, will receive Biographers International Organization’s 2026 Biblio Award, honoring a notable archivist. Since 2012, (BIO) has presented the Biblio Award annually to recognize a librarian or archivist who has made an exceptional contribution to the craft of biography. This year, it will be presented at BIO’s annual conference in New York City on May 28, 2026.

At the Mellon Foundation, Dr. Hayden is pursuing scholarship, writing, and research projects. She also serves as a strategic partner and counsel to the Foundation on ways to support and advance libraries, archives, and other organizations in the public knowledge ecosystem.

Previously, she was the 14th Librarian of Congress, the first woman and first African American to lead the national library. She served in that position from 2016 to 2025, where her goal was to make the Library and its unparalleled collections more accessible to the public. She was fired by President Trump in May 2025. She introduced new audiences to many of the Library’s treasures – from Frederick Douglass’s papers, to the contents of President Abraham Lincoln’s pockets on the night of his assassination, to James Madison’s crystal flute made famous by Lizzo.

Before she served as Librarian, Dr. Hayden was the CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library, assistant professor of library and information science at the University of Pittsburgh, and library services coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. She began her career with the Chicago Public Library. 

Among her numerous civic and professional memberships and awards, Dr. Hayden is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

“By presenting this award to Dr. Carla Hayden, BIO expresses its appreciation of her work as a librarian, and reaffirms its commitment, which it shares with her, of bringing life stories and history to the public,” said Kathleen Stone, chair of BIO’s Awards Committee.  

Apply for BIO 2026 Fellowships and Prizes

October 19th, 2025

Biographers International Organization (BIO) invites applications for its 2026 fellowships and prizes, which support and celebrate the craft of biography at every stage—from dissertation research to debut works and beyond. These awards recognize exceptional promise, fund essential research, and amplify diverse voices shaping the future of biographical writing.

The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship
Deadline: February 1, 2026

The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship awards $5,000 each to two authors working on a biographical project about an African American figure or figures whose story deepens our understanding of the Black experience. Recipients also receive a year’s membership in BIO, registration to the annual BIO Conference, and publicity through BIO’s marketing channels.

The fellowship seeks to address the historic underrepresentation and suppression of Black lives and voices in published biographies. It reflects BIO’s commitment not only to supporting working biographers but also to advancing diversity in the field.

The Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship
Deadline: February 1, 2026

Established in honor of Robert and Ina Caro, this annual fellowship supports biographers with a work in progress who need funding for research trips to archives or key locations in their subjects’ lives. It reflects BIO’s dedication to helping authors produce deeply researched, context-rich biographies.

Kitty Kelley Dissertation Fellowship in Biography
Deadline: February 15, 2026

This fellowship awards $25,000 to a doctoral student writing a dissertation in English that focuses on the life of one or more individuals. The work must be biographical rather than autobiographical or fictionalized, though it need not cover an entire life.

Endowed by Kitty Kelley—a founding BIO member and author of seven bestselling biographies—the fellowship honors her lifelong advocacy for biography and biographers.

The Hazel Rowley Prize
Deadline: March 1, 2026

The Hazel Rowley Prize recognizes a first-time biographer with a $5,000 award, a professional reading by an established literary agent, a year’s BIO membership (including conference registration), and publicity through BIO’s platforms. The prize helps advance BIO’s mission to nurture emerging talent and expand the reach of biographical writing.

Hazel Rowley (1951–2011) was an award-winning biographer and devoted BIO supporter whose acclaimed works on Richard Wright, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt reflect her passion for the art and craft of biography.

The Clio Fellowship for Archival Research
Deadline: March 1, 2026

The Clio Fellowship awards $5,000 to one or more biographers conducting archival research for a book-length biography. Named for Clio, the Greek muse of history and memory, the fellowship is endowed by Linda Leavell, a biographer, Plutarch Award winner, and past BIO president.

The Chip Bishop Fellowship
Deadline: April 1, 2026

Established by BIO co-founder James McGrath Morris, the Chip Bishop Fellowship provides up to $2,000 in travel and related expenses—including childcare—to help aspiring biographers attend the annual BIO Conference. Registration fees are waived or refunded.

The fellowship honors Chip Bishop, who credited attending the BIO Conference with the publication of his first biography. It is open to both members and non-members working toward their first book.

If you have any questions about the fellowships, please contact BIO’s Executive Director, Michael Gately.

New BIO Fellowship Supports Archival Research for Biographers

October 17th, 2025

Clio, Muse of History by Johannes Moreelse, c. 1634

A new fellowship supporting archival research by biographers is now open for applications. The Clio Fellowship for Archival Research, established by Biographers International Organization (BIO), awards $5,000 to one or more biographers to help fund travel to collections essential to their book projects.

Biographers depend on access to letters, manuscripts, and personal papers—primary sources often housed in libraries and archives around the world. Named for Clio, the Greek muse of history and memory whose name means “to make famous,” the fellowship underscores BIO’s commitment to advancing the art and craft of biography by easing the financial challenges of archival research.

The fellowship is endowed by Linda Leavell, former BIO president, long-time advocate for biographers, and author of Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), which won both the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography and BIO’s Plutarch Award.

Open to all BIO members writing in English and working on a book-length biography, the Clio Fellowship supports travel to archives relevant to a writer’s project. A publishing contract is not required, and the fellowship may fund one or more recipients each year. Biography is defined broadly as the narrative of an individual’s life—or the story of a group of lives—and innovative approaches are welcome at the committee’s discretion. Memoirs and autobiographies are not eligible.

Applications are now being accepted, with a deadline of March 1, 2026. To learn more or apply, visit the Clio Fellowship page. Questions may be directed to the awards administrator.

Kate Medina Receives BIO’s 2025 Editorial Excellence Award

September 15th, 2025

Biographers International Organization (BIO) is pleased to announce that Kate Medina is the 2025 recipient of the Editorial Excellence Award. Established in 2014, this annual award honors an editor for outstanding work in the service of biography and literature. Medina will be presented with the award Tuesday, October 7, at the New York Society Library in New York. Register HERE to attend, 6pm – 7:30pm at 53 E. 79th Street. The event is free but seating is limited and registration is required. Scheduled speakers will be Jonathan Darman, Andrea Elliott, Jon Meacham, and Evan Thomas.

“The BIO Awards Committee is honored to present this year’s Editorial Excellence Award to Kate Medina, who recently retired from her position as Executive Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Executive Editorial Director at Random House,” says Committee Chair Heather Clark. “There, she edited Isabel Wilkerson, Jon Meacham, Gloria Steinem, Sandra Day O’Connor, Katherine Boo, Tom Brokaw, E. L. Doctorow, Emma Cline, Anna Quindlen, and Tracy Kidder, among many others.” Biographer Jon Meacham adds, “Henry James might well have had Kate in mind when he wrote that we should all strive to be someone on whom nothing is lost.”

According to Publishers Weekly, “Medina began her career in publishing at Doubleday, where she worked on the manuscript of Peter Benchley’s debut novel, Jaws, and acquired and edited Tennessee Williams’s Memoirs.” In 1985, Medina joined Random House, where she rose to become Executive Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Executive Editorial Director.  Among the other authors she has worked with are John Dickerson, Jane Fonda, Tressie McMillan Cottom, David Finkel, Margaret MacMillan, Sally Bedell Smith, and Brenda Wineapple.

Authors Jonathan Darman, Andrea Elliott, Jon Meacham, and Evan Thomas will join Kate Medina in a discussion of Life Choices: The Art of Choosing the Subject for a Book: Writers, Editors, and the Biographical Journey.

Jonathan Darman is a journalist and historian who writes about American politics and the presidency. His books include Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis that Made a President and Landslide: Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan at the Dawn of a New America, which tells the story of a thousand transformative days in the 1960s through the eyes of two iconic American presidents. As a former national political correspondent for Newsweek, Jonathan covered the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Mitt Romney. He wrote extensively about other significant figures in national politics and the media.

Andrea Elliott is a two-time Pulitzer-winning journalist, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, and the author of Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction and was chosen by President Barack Obama as a favorite book of the year. Elliott is also the recipient of a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, a George Polk Award, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, Columbia University’s Medal for Excellence, and other honors. She is the first woman to win individual Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism and Arts & Letters.

Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer. The author of the New York Times bestsellers Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power; American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House; Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship; Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush; and His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope, he holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair in the American Presidency at Vanderbilt University and is a fellow of the Society of American Historians.

Evan Thomas is the author of eleven books, including the New York Times bestsellers First: Sandra Day O’Connor, John Paul Jones, Sea of Thunder, and Being Nixon. His latest book, Road to Surrender, is an account of the dramatic final days of World War II, when Japan was reeling but would not accept defeat.  Thomas was a writer, correspondent, and editor for thirty-three years at Time and Newsweek, including ten years as Washington bureau chief at Newsweek.   He has appeared on numerous TV shows, including Meet the Press, CBS Morning News, Morning Joe, and The Colbert Report.  Thomas has taught writing and journalism at Harvard and Princeton, where, from 2007 to 2014, he was the Ferris Professor of Journalism.

BIO’s Editorial Excellence Award has been presented since 2014. Past recipients are Michael Korda, Bob Bender, Tim Duggan, Robert Gottlieb, Gerald Howard, Gayatri Patnaik, Jonathan Segal, Ileene Smith, Nan A. Talese, and Robert Weil.

For further information regarding the Editorial Excellence Award and to schedule an interview with the Awards Committee Chair, Heather Clark, please contact BIO President, Steve Paul at president@biographersinternational.org.