2026 BIO Conference

Biographers International Organization (BIO) and the Leon Levy Center for Biography are pleased to present their 2026 Conference at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, Thursday and Friday, May 28 and 29, 2026.

See the BIO website for descriptions, bios of panelists and speakers, and recommended hotels. Below is the Conference schedule. During ticket checkout, in-person attendees must choose which particular panels to attend during the four panel time-slots on Friday.

Online attendees will see all events held in the Auditorium at the Graduate Center, including award presentations and one panel for each session. (Only the Auditorium events will be streamed.)

Optional pre-conference roundtable discussion groups will be online the week before the conference, open only to in-person registrants, Limited to ten participants each. Meet other biographers with similar interests before attending the conference. There will be a list of choices when you purchase your tickets; sign up as soon as possible but no later than May 15. Please do not sign up unless you plan to participate.

Thursday, for in-person registrants, there will be a choice of free optional tours. Choose tours when you register for tickets. Capacity is limited.

Please note that refunds are available only until May 1.

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 session, email a one-page description of your project with a specific question or two to president@biographersinternational.org

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2026

Tours are limited to those who sign-up in advance. Register for free, optional tours when you purchase your conference ticket.

10 AM–11:30 AM: New York Public Library welcome reception and archive introductions (limited to 40; advance signup required)

10 AM - 11:30 AM: Century Association archives (limit 20)

10:30 AM - 12 PM: NYPL Library for the Performing Arts (limit 20)

11 AM - 12:30 PM: New York Historical (limit 15)

12 PM Conference Registration opens, CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Ave, Concourse Level)

1 PM - 2:30 PM: NYPL Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (limit 15)

2 PM - 3:15 PM: Morgan Library Special Collections (limit 15)

1 PM - 3:00 PM: Workshop: How to Write Effective Book Proposals, led by Susan Leon (additional fee; select workshop ticket during checkout). Graduate Center, Room C201-202.

3:30 PM–5:00 PM MEMBER READINGS and AWARDS PRESENTATION, Auditorium

3-Minute Readings by BIO members with biographies published June 1, 2025 - June 1, 2026. The reader list is complete and sign-ups are no longer available.

Award Presentations: the Biblio Award, the Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowships, the Clio Fellowship, the Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowships, the Hazel Rowley Prize, the Chip Bishop Fellowship, and the Ray A. Shepard Service Award.

5:30 PM–7:30 PM WELCOME RECEPTION

The Century Association, 7 W. 43rd St. (near Fifth Avenue), Midtown Manhattan, a short walk from the Graduate Center

FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2026

All events at the CUNY Graduate Center

8:00–8:40 AM REGISTRATION and BREAKFAST, Concourse Foyer and Lobby

8:40 AM–9:00 AM WELCOME, Auditorium

Steve Paul (BIO President) and Kai Bird (Executive Director, Leon Levy Center for Biography)

9:00 AM–10:00 AM JAMES ATLAS PLENARY, Auditorium

Ron Chernow and Brenda Wineapple in Conversation, moderated by Brian Kerrigan

10:15 AM–11:15 AM PANELS (Panel Session 1)

In the Right Hands: Biographers as Collectors (Basics): A'Lelia Bundles (Joy Goddess), moderator; Eve M. Kahn (Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death), Richard Kopley (Edgar Allan Poe: A Life), Jared Stearns (Pure: The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers). Room C201-202.

Radical Biography for Teens (Craft): Angela Carstensen (The Readers' Advisory Guide to Teen Literature), moderator; Deborah Heiligman (Loudmouth: Emma Goldman vs. America (A Love Story)); Ray Anthony Shepard (A Lyrical Biography of Race In America from Ona Judge to Barack Obama). Room C204.

What Do Editors Want? (Business): Bill Goldstein (Larry Kramer), moderator; Thomas Gebremedhin (Doubleday), John A. Glusman (W.W. Norton), Jenna Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Auditorium.

Life Writing and Difference: On Race and Biography (Issues): Emily Bernard (Black Is the Body) on Carl Van Vechten. Room C205.

11:30 AM–12:30 PM PANELS (Panel Session 2)

Using Genealogical Tools to Research Your Biographical Subject (Basics): Bernice Lerner (All the Horrors of War), moderator; Nick Reynolds (Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy); Sue Rubenstein DeMasi (Henry Alsberg); Cindy Schweich Handler (A German Jew's Triumph). Room C204.

Dancing About Architecture: Writing Biographies of Musicians (Craft): Tim Greiving (John Williams: A Composer's Life), moderator; Will Hermes (Lou Reed: Queen of New York), John T. Reddick (Harlem's Black and Jewish Music Culture, 1890-1930), Steven C. Smith (Hitchcock & Hermann). Room C205.

Beyond the Launch: Audience Outreach for the Long Term (Business): Diana Parsell (Eliza Scidmore), moderator; Heath Lee (The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon), Marc Leepson (The Unlikely War Hero), Pamela D. Toler (The Dragon from Chicago), Marlene Trestman (Most Fortunate Unfortunates). Auditorium.

Troublemakers (Issues): Kate Clifford Larson, moderator; Ashley Farmer (Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore), Caleb Gayle (Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State), Carla Kaplan (Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford), Randal Maurice Jelks (My America: Langston Hughes on Democracy). Room C201-202.

12:30 PM– 1:30 PM LUNCH, Concourse Lobby

1:30 PM -- 2:30 PM AWARDS PRESENTATION, Auditorium

BIO Award presentation and Keynote Address by T.J. Stiles, presentation of the Plutarch Award.

2:45–3:45 PM PANELS (Panel Session 3)

The Agent’s View (Basics): Sara Fitzgerald (The Silenced Muse), moderator; Amelia Atlas (CAA), Tanya McKinnon (Tanya McKinnon Literary), Ritz Rosenkranz (Ritz Rosenkranz Literary Agency). Room C201-202.

Experimenting with Biographical Form (Craft): Janice P. Nimura (The Doctors Blackwell) moderator; Nina Ellis (Lucia Berlin), Howard Fishman (To Anyone Who Ever Asks), Deborah Lutz (The Bronte Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects), Francesca Wade (Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife). Auditorium.

University Presses Make the Grade (Business): Diane Kiesel (When Charlie Met Joan), moderator; Eric Brandt (University of Virginia Press), Elizabeth Sherburn Demers (Michigan State University Press), Carl Rollyson (A Life in Biography). Room C204.

The Sixties, Revisited (Issues): Jude Webre, moderator; Susannah Cahalan (The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary), Ru Marshall (American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda), Tamara Payne (The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X), Sam Tanenhaus (Buckley: The Life and the Revolution that Changed America). Room C205.

4:00–5:00 PM PANELS (Panel Session 4)

Attention Must Be Paid: Writing about Forgotten Lives (Basics): April F. Masten (Diamond and Juba: The Raucous World of 19th-Century Challenge Dancing), moderator; Richard Carlin (Morris Levy), Vincent DiGirolamo (John Swinton), Eric K. Washington (Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal), Auditorium.

Queering Biography (Craft): Julie Kliegman (Finding Renee Richards), moderator; Cynthia Carr (Candy Darling), Brad Gooch (Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring), Evelyn C. White (Alice Walker: A Life). Room C204.

Life-Writing for Hire (Business): Lisa Napoli, moderator. Kate Buford (Biography by Design LLC), Madeleine Morel (literary agent). Room C205.

How 1776 Speaks to Us Today (Issues): Steve Paul (BIO President), moderator; Stacy Schiff (The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams), Amanda Vaill (Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution), Ted Widmer (The Living Declaration: A Biography of America's Founding Text). Room C201-202.

5:00–7:00 PM CLOSING RECEPTION, Concourse Lobby