Biographers International Organization

A pleasure to talk with fellow biographers this afternoon at the #BioLab2026, sponsored by @biographersintl.bsky.social. What's the goal of writing a biography? And how do you get there?

"Watch what they do, not what they say." - @susanpagedc.bsky.social on her subjects #BioLab2026 👀

Susan Page's #1 Biography Tip: "The fundamental goal for me of writing a book is to tell people something they didn’t know, or explain something they didn’t understand." 👌 #BioLab2026 @susanpagedc.bsky.social

The last forum of the day, “Barbara Bush, Nancy Pelosi & Barbara Walters walk into a bar…: The Badass Women of the Silent Generation” by Susan Page, is starting now! Don’t miss it! #BioLab2026 📝 @susanpagedc.bsky.social

“You get the fragments of the archive, don’t let the fragments get you.” 🔥 - Dr. Ashley D. Farmer @drashleydfarmer.bsky.social #BioLab2026

“An ethical practice of life-writing asks us to attend carefully to what archives can say and what it refuses to say, and how we choose to make the narrative in between.” - @drashleydfarmer.bsky.social for #BioLab2026 ‼️

@drashleydfarmer.bsky.social on realism vs. imagination in biography-writing: "It’s balancing the responsibility to our historical subject with the imaginative labor required to make a life fully legible, not just to us, but to our readership." 👏 #BioLab2026

Dr. Ashley D. Farmer’s #BioLab2026 forum, “From Fragments to Story: Biographical Writing Without a Paper Trail,” starts now! 📜 @drashleydfarmer.bsky.social

"Who is allowed to write these biographies of the creatives? It’s you." - @brianjayjones.com #BiographyLab2026 🙌

@brianjayjones.com on choosing what to write about: "What was your ‘holy crap’ moment when you were in those archives?" #BiographyLab2026 😮

"I find that when it comes to creatives, it is really nearly impossible to separate the life and the work." - Brian Jay Jones, #BiographyLab2026 🎬

Brian Jay Jones on writing about the creative process: "Watching a project proceed from early draft onto final execution is really amazing, and it’s one of those things I think readers really like to be taken along on." 📖 #BiographyLab2026

Tune in to #BiographyLab2026 now to hear Brian Jay Jones’s forum on “Writing Creatively about Creatives”! 🎨 @brianjayjones.com

“I hoped my four narrators would cast a light on one another." - David Denby on writing a group biography 💡

David Denby's biography advice: "Think of the reader’s needs as well as your own needs. Which means you must think of yourself as a writer first, before thinking of yourself as a biographer." 🔥

Happening now! Tune in to hear David Denby, author of ‘Eminent Jews,’ deliver the #BiographyLab2026 keynote address: “Four Books in One: On Crafting an Unusual Group Biography”! 📝

The fourth annual Biography Lab is finally here! The day will kick off with David Denby’s keynote, “Four Books in One: On Crafting an Unusual Group Biography,” at 9:30 a.m. EST. See you there! #BiographyLab2026 🎉

Biography Lab 2026 BIO hosts Biography Lab 2026, its online forum on craft, with a keynote by David Denby and workshops led by Brian Jay Jones, Ashley D. Farmer, and Susan Page.

Online event 💻 January 24 at 12:45pm EST:

Join me and others for BIOGRAPHY LAB 2026, an annual forum put on by @biographersintl.bsky.social about the craft and controversy of biography. My session will be moderated by the great Tamara Payne.

Get your tickets: events.humanitix.com/biography-la...

So excited to announce the Clio Fellowship for Archival Research! Applications are due March 1st, 2026 📣 More info here: biographersinternational.org/news/new-bio...

So excited about this upcoming event in collaboration with NYPL! 📖 Register here: www.showclix.com/event/writin...

Tonight! See you there :)

New event! Join us 10/7 at NY Society Library to celebrate Kate Medina's Editorial Excellence Award! Sign up here: events.humanitix.com/bio-editoria...

Kate Medina wins BIO’s Editorial Excellence Award! www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/an-... @biographersintl.bsky.social #booksky

Deadline Mar 1: The Hazel Rowley Prize will award $5,000 and agent review to a first-time biographer. Submit proposal, writing sample, and resume. Fee: $25.
https://biographersinternational.org/award/hazel-rowley-prize/#about
via @biographersintl.bsky.social

Friday Podcast: BIO Member Alison Owings (NYT Notable Book author) discusses her new biography with Jenny Skoog. A story of transformation from homelessness to advocacy. This interview explores writing about resilience and social justice.

Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Winner Announced — Inaugural Kitty Kelley Dissertation Fellowship

Valerie Waterhouse has been named the recipient of the inaugural $25,000 Kitty Kelley Dissertation Fellowship for her research on Malachi Whitaker (1895–1976), a British working-class writer known for her short stories and memoir.

ARCHIVIST INTERVIEW — Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

The “Hidden Archive” series continues in The Biographer’s Craft and recently Elizabeth Schott interviewed Sheridan Sayles, the archivist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City.

#lifewriting

Podcast #223 – A’Lelia Bundles

JOY GODDESS: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance is the latest book by this award-winning journalist and author. Published by Scribner this June, it is the first major biography of Bundles’ great-grandmother.

#biography #biographer #lifewriting #writinglife

FROM THE JUNE INSIDER -

Is biography the “impossible genre?” Critic Parul Sehgal of NYT Magazine thinks it is and writes about biographies in glowing, reverent terms. Let us know your thoughts in the comments after finding the full article in your inbox inside the June issue of the BIO Insider!

Podcast #222 – Marc Leepson

This journalist, historian, and Vietnam War veteran is the author of eleven books. His most recent book, THE UNLIKELY WAR HERO: A Vietnam War POW’s Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton, was published by Stackpole Press in December 2024.

#biographer