2024 BIO Conference

Biographers International Organization (BIO) and the Leon Levy Center for Biography are pleased to present their 2024 Conference in person at the Graduate Center, CUNY, in New York City, Thursday and Friday, May 16-17, 2024, with an optional, off-site tour on Saturday morning, May 18.

See the BIO website for full descriptions of all events, including bios of panelists and speakers. Below is the Conference schedule. During ticket checkout, in-person attendees will choose which panels to attend during the four sessions on Friday.

Attendees joining online can stream all plenary events that take place in the Auditorium, including one panel for each time slot. (Which panels will be held in the Auditorium will be decided by May 1.)

During the lunch on Friday there will be optional roundtable discussions on different topics. There will be a list of choices when you purchase your tickets. This is only available for in-person attendees.

Thursday and Saturday, for additional fees, there will be a choice of several optional tours and a workshop as noted below. You may choose tours and the workshop as Add-Ons when you register for tickets here on Eventbrite.

Face-to-face coaching sessions are available to conference participants who seek advice from an experienced biographer. Each session lasts 45 minutes and costs $50, paid directly to the coach. To request a coaching session, email a one-page description of your project along with a specific question or two to [email protected]

Thursday, May 16, 2024

10:00am - 11:30am: Optional Tours, New York Public Library's special collections or The Grolier Club (additional fee; select "Add On" ticket)

1:00pm: Registration opens, Concourse Level, CUNY Graduate Center

1 :00pm - 2:30pm: Optional Tours, New York Public Library Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture or The Morgan Library special collections (additional fee; select "Add On" ticket))

2:00pm - 3:30pm: Optional Workshop, "How to Write a Winning Book Proposal," with Carl Rollyson, location TBD (additional fee; select "Add On" ticket)

4:00pm - 4:45pm: Member Readings, Auditorium

BIO members who have a new biography published between June 1, 2023 and June 1, 2024 are invited to participate in the Members' Reading. Please send the title of your book, the name of its publisher, and the month of publication to [email protected]

4 :45pm - 5:30pm: Award Presentations, Auditorium

Presentation of the Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowships, the Francis "Frank" Rollin Fellowships, and the Hazel Rowley Prize

5 :30pm - 7pm: Opening Reception, Concourse Level

Friday, May 17, 2024

8:00 - 8:40 am: Registration and Breakfast, Concourse Level

8 :40 - 9am: Welcome, Kai Bird (Leon Levy Center for Biography) and Steve Paul(Biographers International Organization), Auditorium.

9 :00am - 10:00am: James Atlas Plenary, Tamara Payne and Thulani Davis in conversation, Auditorium

10:15am - 11:15am: Panels Session I

Basics: "What Editors Want Today": Amanda Vaill (Jerome Robbins, by Himself), moderator; Tim Bent (Oxford University Press), Rakia Clark (Mariner Books/HarperCollins), Dawn Davis (37 Ink/Simon & Schuster), Charles Spicer (St. Martin's).

Craft: "Melding Science and Biography": Gabriella Kelly-Davies (Breaking Through the Pain Barrier), moderator; Patchen Barss (Roger Penrose), Kenneth Miller (Mapping the Darkness), Karen Torghele (Albert Sabin: A Fierce Joy).

Business: "From Book to Film: Selling Options, Scripting, Producing": Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina (Carrington: A Life), moderator; Kai Bird (American Prometheus), A'Lelia Bundles (On Her Own Ground), Richard Zacks (Island of Vice).

Issues: "Writing Asian and Asian American Biography": Susan Blumberg-Kason (Bernardine's Shanghai Salon), moderator; Karen Fang (Background Artist), Katie Gee Salisbury (Not Your China Doll), Sung-Yoon Lee (The Sister).

11:30am - 12:30pm: Panels Session II

Basics: "Mining Archives for Research Gold": Marc Leepson (Ballad of the Green Beret), moderator; Barrye Brown (Schomburg Center, NYPL), Nancy Kuhl (Beinecke Library, Yale), Abigail Malangone (JFK Presidential Library).

Craft: "Merging Biography and Memoir": Linda M. Grasso (Equal Under the Sky), moderator; Megan Marshall (Elizabeth Bishop), Marnie Mueller (The Showgirl and the Writer).

Business: "From Ink to Algorithms: What You Need to Know About Artificial Intelligence": Kate Clifford Larson (Walk With Me), moderator; Nigel Cameron (Will Robots Take Your Job?), Renée Cummings (Data Activist, Univ. Virginia), Iris Jamahl Dunkle (Riding Like the Wind), Holly Van Leuven (Ray Bolger: More than a Scarecrow).

Issues: "Leadership in Times of Peril in Democracy": Marion Orr (The House of Diggs), moderator; Fergus M. Bordewich (Klan War), Anastasia C. Curwood (Shirley Chisholm), John A. Farrell (Ted Kennedy), Samuel G. Freedman (Into the Bright Sunshine).

12:30pm - 2pm: Lunch, Roundtables. Concourse. (In-person attendees may choose one table topic when purchasing tickets.)

2pm - 3pm: Presentation of BIO Award and Keynote, Biblio Award, and BIO Award, Auditorium.

3:15pm - 4:15pm: Panels Session III

Basics: "Writing an Artist's Life": Holly George-Warren (Behind the Seams), moderator; Dan Charnas (Dilla Time), Brad Gooch (Radiant), Patti Hartigan (August Wilson).

Craft: "Writing Black Lives Today": Kevin McGruder (Philip Payton), moderator; Tanisha C. Ford (Our Secret Society), Doug Melville (Invisible Generals), Amrita Chakrabarti Meyers (The Vice President's Black Wife).

Business: "Making a Career as a Biographer": Beverly Gray (Seduced by Mrs. Robinson), moderator; Lisa Napoli (Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie), Simon Reed (Scotland Yard), Barbara Savage (Merze Tate).

Issues: "Intimacy and Boundaries": Ruth Franklin (Anne Frank), moderator; Bill Goldstein (Larry Kramer), Kitty Kelley (Oprah), Abigail Santamaria (I Am Meg).

4 :30pm - 5:30pm: Panels Session IV

Basics: "Alternative Approaches to Biography": Leslie Brody (Sometimes You Have to Lie), moderator; Janice Engel (Raise Hell), Ann McCutchan (The Life She Wished to Live), Mimi Pond (The Customer Is Always Wrong).

Craft: "Writing LGBTQ+ Lives": Nicholas Boggs (James Baldwin), moderator; Cynthia Carr (Candy Darling), Will Hermes (Lou Reed), Jessica Max Stein (Funny Boy).

Business: "Secrets of Research from Prize Winners": Laurie Gwen Shapiro (Amelia Earhart), moderator; Debby Applegate (Madam), Emily Nussbaum (Cue the Sun).

Issues: "Who Gets to Tell the Story?": Carla Kaplan (Jessica Mitford), moderator; Jonathan Eig (King), Lizzie Skurnick (The Special Students), Ilyon Woo (Master Slave Husband Wife).

5 :30pm - 7pm: Closing Reception, Concourse

Saturday, May 18

10am - 11:30am: Optional Tour, New York Public Library's special collections (additional fee; select "Add On" ticket)

Host or Publisher Biographers International Organization