Biographers International Organization

Sara offers her advice to anyone writing their first book: get a therapist and take a walk. Kate cut a story she loved — about two sisters fighting over politics in 1880 — because it didn’t belong. Kevin is in a race he didn’t sign up for, and Katie Rose is asked if she’s ever thought about quitting. She says no. She wants this book to exist; that’s enough. Part five of our podcast miniseries, produced by Jenny Skoog, explores the quiet, unglamorous work of writing biography — and what it actually feels like. “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream” follows four authors navigating the challenges of writing biography. Over eight months in 2025, BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog spoke with comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.

In this fourth episode of our six-part miniseries, Sara finds out that President Lincoln presided over the largest mass execution on American soil, and she wants to know why nobody taught her that. Kevin has a death certificate that answers a question other scholars keep pretending is a mystery. Katie Rose reads congressional testimony from a hundred years ago that could have been written this morning. And Kate has to reckon with the fact that one of her subjects was a racist. The ideas. The arguments. The stuff that keeps them up at night, and BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog explores these dilemmas with the four authors. “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream” follows four authors navigating the challenges of writing biography. Over eight months in 2025, BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog spoke with comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.

The third episode of our six-part miniseries goes behind the scenes of biography’s business realities — the contracts, proposals, and market pressures authors navigate to get their books published. “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream” follows four authors navigating the challenges of writing biography. Over eight months in 2025, BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog spoke with comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.

In the second episode of our special six-part miniseries, the authors share updates on their research and writing. “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream” follows four authors navigating the challenges of writing biography. Over eight months in 2025, BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog spoke with comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.

This time, we present the first episode in a special six-part miniseries that follows four authors on their biographical path. We spent the last eight months of 2025 with comedian Sara Benincasa who is tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin is publishing a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters that nobody taught her how to promote; historian Kevin McGruder has been carrying around his subject, Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher, for decades; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt is finishing a book proposal about five influential women while pregnant with her third child. BIO member Jenny Skoog sat down with each of these writers to ask the obvious question: who gets to write biography?

When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy is the latest book by veteran journalist and author David Margolick. Published by Schocken in November 2025, this book examines the life of one of America’s most enigmatic and influential comedians. Margolick reported on legal affairs for The New York Times, and he was then a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. His many books include Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and A World on the Brink, Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns, and Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock. Fellow biographer and BIO member Lisa Napoli interviewed David Margolick.

Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West (Knopf, 2025) is the latest book by this award-winning author and editor of nineteen books on the American Civil War and the American West. A retired Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State, Cozzens also served as a captain in the U. S. Army. His previous book, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West, received the 2017 Gilder Lehrman Prize for the best military history work in the English language. In December 2024, The Economist selected it as one of the seven greatest military history books ever written. In 2002, Cozzens received the American Foreign Service Association’s highest award, given annually to one Foreign Service Officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent. Fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell interviewed Peter Cozzens.

This author’s The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram: The Man Who Stared Down World War II in the Name of Love was published by Viking/Penguin Random House this month. Whitmire is a respected historian and African American Studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research has won awards and funding from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Programs, and the American Library Association, and she has been invited to residences at Yaddo, Ucross, Hedgebrook, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Fellow biographer and BIO member Eric K. Washington interviewed Ethelene Whitmire.

Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South (Vanderbilt University, March 2024) is the tenth anniversary edition of this author’s award-winning, New York Times bestselling biography. Maraniss has authored nonfiction sports and social justice books for adults, teens, and children, and his books have received numerous honors, including the Lillian Smith Book Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Special Recognition Honor. He has been named to the American Library Association’s Rainbow Book List, the RISE Feminist Book List, and Esquire’s 100 Best Baseball Books Ever Written. Maraniss directs special projects at the Vanderbilt University athletic department and manages the university’s Sports & Society Initiative. BIO member and BIO podcast producer Jenny Skoog interviewed Andrew Maraniss.

Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audrey Moore, published by Pantheon in November 2025, is this latest book by this internationally known and award-winning writer, cultural analyst, and associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Farmer’s first book, Remaking Black Power, was shortlisted for numerous prizes, and she has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the Whiting Foundation. Farmer’s insights have appeared in multiple venues, including Harper’s Bazaar, NPR, The Washington Post, and Teen Vogue. Fellow biographer and BIO member Tamara Payne interviewed Ashley D. Farmer.

This author and scholar’s latest book, Biography of a Dangerous Idea: A New History of Race from Louis XIV to Thomas Jefferson, will be published in February 2026 by Other Press. Curran, a distinguished humanities professor at Wesleyan University, has written or edited six books, including Who’s Black and Why: A Hidden Chapter in the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race. It was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and it won the Association of American Publishers Prose Award. Curran’s journalistic writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Guardian, Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Paris Review, Il Pais, Folha de S. Paola and the Wall Street Journal. BIO member and BIO podcast producer Jenny Skoog interviewed Andrew Curran.  

Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford and Pride (Harper, November 2025) and Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, October 2025) are the latest books by these veteran authors. Carla Kaplan is an award-winning Northeastern University professor who has published seven previous books, including Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters and Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance, both New York Times Notable Books.   Amanda Vaill has authored three previous biographies, Hotel Florida, Somewhere, and the best-selling Everybody Was So Young – a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She also co-authored, contributed to, or edited several books in the field of arts and culture. Vaill is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, and her journalism and criticism have appeared in many publications. In December 2025, Kaplan’s Troublemaker and Vail’s Pride and Pleasure biographies were longlisted for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Awards. In this special episode, Kaplan and Vaill interview each other about their research and writing journeys.  

Mark Twain, published in May 2025 by Penguin Press, is this celebrated, multiple award-winning biographer’s latest book. Chernow is the recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal, and his first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award. Chernow’s Washington: A Life won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and Alexander Hamilton—the inspiration for the Broadway musical—won the George Washington Book Prize. Ron Chernow, a former president of PEN America, has twice been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and is one of only three living biographers to have won the Gold Medal for Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell interviewed him.   Listen to part one of the interview here.

Mark Twain, published in May 2025 by Penguin Press, is this celebrated, multiple award-winning biographer’s latest book. Chernow is the recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal, and his first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award. Chernow’s Washington: A Life won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and Alexander Hamilton—the inspiration for the Broadway musical—won the George Washington Book Prize. Ron Chernow has twice been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and is one of only three living biographers to have won the Gold Medal for Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This past president of PEN America was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell.

Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, A Writer’s Life, is the latest book by this scholar and author, published in November 2025 by Blackstone Publishing. Goddard is an associate professor of literary studies at Utah Valley University, and the Mellon Foundation and a Bordin-Gillette Fellowship from the University of Michigan have funded his work. BIO member and BIO Podcast Producer Jenny Skoog interviewed Goddard.   Note: BIO, the Biographers International Organization’s podcast series, will return on January 9, 2026, with a special episode featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow, whose fascinating books include examinations of Alexander Hamilton, Ulysses S. Grant, George Washington, and his latest biography of Mark Twain.

The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfield, Visionary of Weimar Berlin, is this journalist and author’s latest book. It was published by W. W. Norton & Company in May 2025. Brook’s writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, and The Nation. One of his previous books, A History of Future Cities, was longlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize and selected as one of the ten favorite books of the year by the Washington Post. To support his research and writing efforts, Brook has received several fellowships, including the Library of Congress’s Kluge Fellowship and BIO’s Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship. Daniel Brook was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Simon Read.

This journalist’s biography, A German Jew’s Triumph: Fritz Oppenheimer and the Denazification of Germany, was published by McFarland in April 2025. Handler’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and a host of other national publications. A former editor-in-chief of multiple USA Today Network magazines, she currently writes for the USA Today Network in northern New Jersey, and her features have appeared in The Record newspaper, online at Northjersey.com, and in Gannett-owned newspapers nationwide. The foreword in A German Jew’s Triumph was written by her historian husband, Harry H. Handler. Cindy and Harry Handler were interviewed by BIO member and BIO podcast producer Jenny Skoog.

House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr., is the latest book by this political scientist and the inaugural Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy at Brown University. House of Diggs was published by the University of North Carolina Press in September of this year. An award-winning author, Orr’s publications include Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore and The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics, and the Challenge of Urban Education. He was awarded BIO’s Francis “Frank” Rollin Fellowship to support his work on Congressman Diggs. Marion Orr was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Eric K. Washington.

John Williams: A Composer’s Life, published by Oxford University Press in September 2025, is the first biography by this arts journalist. Greiving, a longtime fan of Williams’ celebrated film scores, has contributed stories to NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. He has written program notes for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Albert Hall, and liner notes for more than one hundred soundtrack albums. He also contributes to the Visual History Program for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and teaches film music history at the University of Southern California. Tim Greiving was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Brian Jay Jones.

Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, published by Scribner in October 2025, is the latest book by London-based author Francesca Wade. Additionally, Wade is the author of Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars, and her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, Paris Review, Granta, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, the Leon Levy Center for Biography, and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Wade was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Natalie Dykstra.

Photo by James MacMillan Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television, published by Simon and Schuster in June 2025, is the latest book by this veteran journalist and author. Purdum also authored Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution and An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties, and the Battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a career spanning more than forty years, Purdum has written extensively about politics and culture, beginning at The New York Times, where he spent twenty-three years, covering politics from city hall to the White House, and later serving as diplomatic correspondent and Los Angeles bureau chief. He has also been a staff writer at Vanity Fair, Politico, and The Atlantic. Todd S. Purdum was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member John (Jack) A. Farrell.

Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship, the latest book by author Dana A. Williams about Toni Morrison’s significant tenure as an editor at Random House, was published by Amistad in June 2025. Williams is Professor of African American literature and Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. She also authored In the Light of Likeness—Transformed: The Literary Art of Leon Forrest. Williams has edited several books, and her writing has been published in prestigious journals, including PMLA, CLA Journal, African American Review, Early American Literature, American Literary History, and the Langston Hughes Review. Williams was the former president of the College Language Association and the Modern Languages Association, and she currently co-directs the Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice, a Mellon Foundation-funded collaboration between Howard and Georgetown universities. Dana A. Williams was interviewed by fellow Howard University professor, biographer, and BIO member Sonja D. Williams (no relation).

Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician is James M. Bradley’s current book. It was published in December 2024 by Oxford University Press. Bradley co-edits the Martin Van Buren Papers, based at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and he serves as an adjunct instructor in the public history program at the State University of New York at Albany. Bradley also served as the senior project editor of the Encyclopedia of New York City, published by Yale University Press. Fellow biographer and BIO member Simon Read interviewed Bradley.

This historian and author’s latest book, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, was published by Oxford University Press in September 2024. Her other books include the award-winning The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, and the co-edited Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture. Chervinsky currently serves as Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, and she was a historian at the White House Historical Association. She regularly writes for publications like the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, USA Today, CNN.com, Washington Monthly, and the Washington Post, and is a frequent presidential commentator on national TV and radio. Lindsay M. Chervinsky was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member John (Jack) A. Farrell in the Washington Presidential Library.

High and Rising: A Book About De La Soul, published by Dey Street Books in November 2024, is the latest offering by this critically acclaimed author and university professor. Moore’s work explores the intersections of music, race, and culture, and he is the author of The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America. Moore has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, and Rolling Stone, and has penned liner notes and biographies for leading artists across all genres. He also curates and moderates live conversations at major international festivals and has taught courses in music history and cultural criticism, mentoring the next generation of storytellers. Marcus J. Moore was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Kevin McGruder.

This author’s latest book, Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, examines the life of Robert Crumb, one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. Scribner published Crumb in April 2025, and its author is the Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints at The Whitney Museum of American Art. Nadel’s previous books include It’s Life as I See It: Black Cartoonists in Chicago, 1940–1980; Peter Saul: Professional Artist Correspondence, 1945–1976, and Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries, 1900–1969. He is also the founder of PictureBox, a publishing company that produced over 100 books, objects, and magazines from 2000 to 2014, including the Grammy Award–winning design for Wilco’s 2004 album A Ghost Is Born. Dan Nadel was interviewed by fellow biography and BIO member Brian Jay Jones.

Mayor of the Tenderloin: Del Seymour’s Journey from Living on the Streets to Fighting Homelessness, is this former broadcast journalist and author’s latest book. It was published by Beacon Press in September 2025, and her previous books include Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich – a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year” and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice; Hey, Waitress! The USA from the Other Side of the Tray, and Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans. Alison Owings was interviewed by BIO member and BIO podcast producer Jenny Skoog.

This author’s latest book, Collisions: A Physicist’s Journey From Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs, was published by W. W. Norton & Company in June 2025. It explores the life and times of Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Luis W. Alvarez. Nevala-Lee also authored Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller, listed by Esquire as one of the fifty best biographies of all time, and the Hugo Award finalist, Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Alec Nevala-Lee was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Sonja Williams.

Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me is the award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, and author Mimi Pond’s latest book. Published by Drawn & Quarterly this month, Do Admit is Ponds’ graphic biography of the six famous Mitford sisters of England. Pond’s earlier graphic novel, Over Easy, a fictionalized account of her 1970s waitressing career, was on the New York Times bestseller list and won a PEN Center Award for Graphic Literature, Outstanding Body of Work. Mimi Pond was interviewed by BIO member and Podcast producer Jenny Skoog.

Baldwin: A Love Story, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in August 2025, is author Boggs’s examination of writer James Baldwin — the first major biography of this influential, controversial, and compelling author in three decades. Boggs also rediscovered and co-edited the out-of-print children’s book, Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood, Baldwin’s collaboration with French artist Yoran Cazac. Boggs is the recipient of several writing grants, residencies (Yaddo and MacDowell), and fellowships, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Beinecke Library and Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, and the Schomburg Center Scholars-in-Residence Program. Nicholas Boggs was interviewed by BIO member Karolyn van Putten.

This independent scholar and award-winning author’s latest book, Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death: Gilded-Age Journalist Zoe Anderson Norris, was published this month by Fordham University Press. It explores the life of reformer and journalist Zoe Anderson Norris, who used her pen prolifically during the late 1800s and early 1900s to advocate for justice for some of New York City’s poorest immigrants. In addition, the 19th-century impressionist painter Mary Rogers Williams was the subject of Kahn’s book, Forever Seeing New Beauties. Eve M. Kahn was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Sonja Williams. (Author photo by Katherine Lanza.)

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. Bundles, a Forbes Magazine’s 50 Over 50 Impact honoree, also authored On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, a New York Times Notable Book and bestseller about her great-great-grandmother, an early 20th-century hair care industry entrepreneur and philanthropist. On Her Own Ground inspired Self Made, the fictional four-part 2020 Netflix series starring Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer. Bundles is the founder of the Madam Walker Family Archives, the largest private collection of Walker photographs, memorabilia, and ephemera. Bundles’ essays and articles have appeared in national and international newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, and books. A’Lelia Bundles was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Eric K. Washington.

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. Leepson’s Ballad of the Green Beret: The Life and Wars of Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler was the first biography of the former Green Beret sergeant who wrote and sang “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” the No. 1 hit song of 1966. A former staff writer for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C., Leepson has written for many publications as a full-time freelancer, including the Washington Post, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Smithsonian, Military History, Civil War Times, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. He currently serves as Senior Writer, Arts Editor, and columnist for The VVA Veteran, a magazine published by Vietnam Veterans of America. Marc Leepson was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member John A. (Jack) Farrell.