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.

2025 BIO Conference Registration Now Open!

February 26th, 2025

Registration for the 2025 BIO Conference is now open. Co-sponsored with the Leon Levy Center for Biography, the two-day event will occur both in person and online June 5-6, 2025, at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Please note: topic-specific roundtables, which have traditionally been held during lunch the second day of the conference, will be held virtually one week before the conference.

Attending in person provides rich opportunities for socializing with fellow biographers and choosing from various panels. It comes at an affordable price of $295 before April 1 and $345 thereafter. For those who prefer streaming access only to selected panels and presentations, the cost is just $49 for members. Those needing financial assistance may also apply for a Chip Bishop Fellowship here.

Click here for more detailed program information. Click here to register for the conference via Eventbrite.

The conference will again feature panels, workshops, off-site tours, short readings of new books by members, presentations of the Biblio Award and fellowship winners, and the much-anticipated announcement of the Plutarch Award for the Best Biography of 2024.

BIO aims to provide a safe, welcoming environment for everyone. The Board of Directors asks all registrants to read the BIO Code of Conduct on the registration form and agree to abide by it. Please direct questions about registration to Michael Gately, BIO’s executive director.

2024 BIO Conference Registration Now Open!

February 12th, 2024

Registration for the 2024 BIO Conference is now open. Co-sponsored with the Leon Levy Center for Biography, the two-day event will take place both in person and online May 16-17, 2024, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Please note: unlike previous years, the conference will take place on a Thursday and Friday; in addition, one of several optional tours will be offered on Saturday morning, May 18.

Attending in person provides rich opportunities for socializing with fellow biographers as well as choosing from a variety of panels for a cost of $245 before April 1 and $295 thereafter. For streaming access only to selected panels and presentations, members pay $49. Those in need of financial assistance may apply for a Chip Bishop Fellowship here.

You can find detailed program information here, and registration here.

Led by co-chairs Kate Clifford Larson and Elizabeth Taylor, the BIO Conference Program Committee has created inspired opportunities for discussions and learning.

The James Atlas Plenary on Friday morning will feature a conversation between authors Tamara Payne and Thulani Davis, who have each explored the life of Malcolm X in their work and who together will discuss topical issues and creative angles in biography. Payne, a BIO board member, was a principal researcher and co-author, with her late father, Les Payne, of The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X, which won a National Book Award in 2020 and a Pulitzer Prize in 2021. Davis, author of seven books and a film script for a documentary about W.E.B. Dubois, wrote the libretto for X, The Life & Times of Malcolm X, an opera by Anthony Davis first performed by New York City Opera in 1986 and reprised by the Metropolitan Opera in November 2023.

The 2024 BIO Award winner, to be announced soon, will deliver the keynote address on Friday afternoon.

Panels on biography basics, craft, and publishing—along with sessions on science, artificial intelligence, race, and other subjects—will take place on Friday. Offerings range from “Leadership in Times of Peril in Democracy” to “Intimacy & Boundaries.” Attendees will hear from noted biographers including Kai Bird, Amanda Vaill, John A. Farrell, Samuel Freedman, Tanisha C. Ford, Ruth Franklin, and many more.

The conference will again feature roundtables on many subjects, short readings of new books by members, presentations of the Biblio Award and fellowship winners, and the much-anticipated announcement of the Plutarch Award for the Best Biography of 2023. Opportunities for one-on-one coaching will be offered as well as a workshop on proposal writing.

BIO aims to provide a safe, welcoming environment for everyone. The Board of Directors asks all registrants to read the BIO Code of Conduct, included on the registration form, and agree to abide by it.

Please direct questions about registration to Michael Gately, BIO’s executive director.

Apply for BIO 2024 Fellowships and Prizes

January 16th, 2024

Apply for BIO 2023 Fellowships and Prizes

January 17th, 2023

BIO encourages all members to review its four fellowships, now accepting applications for 2023. Please share information about the Rollin Fellowship, the Chip Bishop Fellowship, and the Rowley Prize, which are open to nonmembers, with your friends, colleagues, and networks.

Please note that the amounts have increased from $3,000 to $5,000 for both the Rollin Fellowship and Rowley Prize, and the number of recipients has increased from one to two for the Rollin Fellowship and from two to four for the Caro Fellowship. These increased benefits, which BIO will sustain for at least five years, are thanks to gifts from Kitty Kelley and other generous friends of BIO.

• The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship awards $5,000 each to two authors working on a biographical work about an African American figure (or figures), whose story provides a significant contribution to our understanding of the Black experience. Applications are due February 1, 2023. More information about the fellowship is available here.
• The Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship awards funding to as many as four authors working on biographical works for research trips to archives or to important settings in their subjects’ lives. The deadline for applications is February 1, 2023. Learn more here.
• The Chip Bishop Fellowship awards $1,000 to one recipient for for travel expenses, including transportation costs and child care, needed to attend the BIO Conference. The deadline for applications is April 1, 2023. Learn more here.
• The Hazel Rowley Prize awards $5,000 to a first-time biographer whose book proposal shows exceptional merit. The deadline for applications is March 1, 2023. Click here for more information.

BIO 2022 Conference Registration is Open!

February 17th, 2022

The 2022 BIO conference will take place online Friday through Sunday, May 13–15, 2022. Panels, social hours, and roundtables are live and take place in real time. Other events are prerecorded and may be watched at your convenience, as indicated. The panels will also be recorded and available to conference participants a week or two after the conference itself.

REGISTER HERE

Detailed session information is available here.

The cost of registration is $49 for BIO members, $99 for nonmembers. Those in need of financial assistance may apply for a Chip Bishop Fellowship here.

The conference will begin with the James Atlas Plenary, in which two experimental biographers address the theme of the conference: “Disrupting the Conventions of Biography.” Plenary speakers will be Craig Brown, author of 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret and 150 Glimpses of the Beatles; and George Packer, author of Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the America Century.

On Saturday the 2022 BIO Award winner, Megan Marshall, will deliver the keynote address. A long-time advocate for biography and biographers, Marshall is the author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism; Margaret Fuller: A New American Life; and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast. Her books have received multiple awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Margaret Fuller.

Panels on the basics of biography, its craft, its business aspects, and its recent disruptions are offered on all three days. Sixteen live Zoom panels will include Biography in the Age of #metoo; Biography in Different Forms; Biography in the Worst of Times; Biographies of Families and Family Members; Black Women’s Biography; and Bertelsmann and the Future of Publishing.

Also offered will be round tables on various subjects, short readings of new books by members, announcements of the Biblio award and fellowship winners, and the announcement of the Plutarch Award for the best biography of 2021, as judged by biographers. New this year will be two virtual social hours, one on Friday afternoon and the other on Sunday evening.

BIO members who have a new biography published between June 1, 2021 and June 1, 2022 are invited to participate in the conference reading. Self-published books are not eligible. Please send the title of your book, the name of its publisher, and the month of publication here.

Four Win Chip Bishop Fellowships

May 7th, 2021

Gabriella Marie Kelly-Davies, Paula Broussard, Trina Young, and Helen Bain are the winners of this year’s Chip Bishop Fellowships. Each will have the fee waived for the upcoming BIO Conference, held online May 14-16. Kelly-Davies is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Sydney. Broussard is a freelance writer from Los Angeles. Young, from Maryland, writes about popular music. Bain is a Ph.D. candidate at
King’s College, London.

The Chip Bishop Fellowship was established by BIO co-founder James McGrath Morris to honor former BIO member Chip Bishop Fellowship and to help biographers in need.

Need Help Paying the BIO Conference Fee? Apply for the Chip Bishop Fellowship

April 9th, 2021

Honoring the late Chip Bishop, a former BIO Board member, this fellowship for biographers-in-need covers the annual conference fee. For 2021 only, there will be 10 Chip Bishop Fellowships offered. Students and other aspiring biographers in financial need are encouraged to apply. (If a winner has already paid for the conference, the fee will be refunded.) To apply, please respond to the four questions listed under How to Apply. The deadline is May 1, 2021.