Biographers International Organization

Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, published by Random House in June 2025, is the latest book by this best-selling and award-winning author of books on American politics and the media. Tanenhaus is the former editor-in-chief of The New York Times Book Review, and he has lectured at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Cornell as well as at the George W. Bush White House and th...

Diamond and Juba: The Raucous World of 19th-Century Challenge Dancing is this author’s dual biography of Irish American John Diamond and African American William Henry Lane (nicknamed Juba). Published by the University of Illinois Press in December 2025, this biography explores the lives of these two men who were internationally famous in the 1800s as rival champions in the art and sport of challe...

Photo: David Shopper Edgar Allan Poe: A Life is the latest book by this distinguished Penn State DuBois professor emeritus and author. Published in March 2025 by the University of Virginia Press, it won the Patrick F. Quinn Award for outstanding monograph, offered by the Poe Society, and was nominated for a 2025 Edgar Award offered by the Mystery Writers of America. Kopley also wrote The Thread of...

The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Time and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary is the latest book by this New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and public speaker. It was published by Viking in April 2025. Cahalan’s first book, Brain on Fire, sold over a million copies, was translated into more than twenty languages, and was made into a Netflix movie. Her second boo...

This celebrated author received the Biographers International Organization’s 2026 BIO Award—an annual and prestigious recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. Stiles’ Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History, the Spur Award for Best Western Biography, and the William H. Seward Award...

This celebrated author received the Biographers International Organization’s 2026 BIO Award – an annual and prestigious recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. Stiles’ Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History, the Spur Award for Best Western Biography, and the William H. Seward Awa...

Photo by Shelley Thomas Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World is the latest book by this author and professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College in New York City. Johnson’s biography of Church, a highly regarded 19th-century painter and landscape artist, was published by Scribner in May 2026. Johnson also authored America...

Photo by Natalie Keyssar Andy Beta is an award-winning arts and music writer. His newest book, Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane , was published in March by Da Capo. His writing on rock, jazz, experimental, and electronic music has appeared in The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal , Pitchfork , Rolling Stone , The Washington Post , Los Angeles Times , Texas Mo...

Photo by Mark A. Vieir Hitchcock & Herrmann: The Friendship & Film Scores That Changed Cinema was written by award-winning author Steven C. Smith. He is a four-time Emmy-nominated documentary producer of over 200 documentaries about film and music. Smith has collaborated with filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Stephen Sondheim, John Williams, Julie Andrews, and Sid...

Concerto for Cootie: The Life and Times of Cootie Williams, published by the University of Mississippi Press in October 2025, is this author’s exploration of the legendary trumpeter and longtime member of the Duke Ellington big band. A curator and host of the Duke Ellington-themed podcast Ellington Reflections, Bowie also has presented papers on Williams and Kenny Burrell for conferences held by t...

Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay, published by Viking in April 2026, is this author’s latest book, which grew out of a fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography. It’s a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and the book was praised by The Wall Street Journal, Texas Monthly, Lit Hub, and other outlets for its lively cultural history of midcentury America, making Kirkus’s list...

Photo by Heidi Ross American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, published by Random House in February 2026, is the latest book by this Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and historian. Meacham has authored New York Times bestsellers, including And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle; Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power; American Lion: Andrew...

Photo by Heidi Ross American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, published by Random House in February 2026, is the latest book by this Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and historian. Meacham has authored New York Times bestsellers, including And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle; Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power; American Lion: Andrew...

Photo by Rupert Whiteley This author’s Twice Born: Finding My Father in the Margins of Biography was published by Catapult Press in October 2025. Kaplan has authored novels and story collections, including The Edge of Marriage, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in literary journals and anthologies, including The Best American Short St...

Baseball’s Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore is this author’s latest book, published by Bloomsbury Academic in April 2026. Henig has also penned the well-received Watergate’s Forgotten Hero: Frank Wills, Night Watchman, as well as Alex Haley’s Roots: An Author’s Odyssey, and Baseball Under Siege: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and a Doctor’s Battle to Integrate Spring Training. His writings have appe...

Photo by Michael Lionstar Nothing Random: Bennett Cerf and the Publishing House He Built is the latest book by veteran journalist and author Gayle Feldman. Published by Random House in January 2026, this biography explores the life of a driven young man who vowed to become a great publisher – and did. Feldman has served as a senior staff editor for Publishers Weekly and a U.S. correspondent for Th...

In this final episode of our six-part miniseries, we’re in January 2026. Kate’s already researching her next book, and it turns out it connects everything she’s ever written. Kevin has one goal: to finish first. Katie Rose has a draft proposal, three kids under five, and no intention of stopping. And Sara has a message for anyone who’s ever thought about writing a book. BIO Podcast producer Jenny...

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, pro...

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 mor...

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, ta...

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...

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 hi...

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 ...

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 Ameri...

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 Associa...