Share this: April 2020 | Volume 15 | Number 2 BIO during the Pandemic Writing in the Time of Corona, By Linda Leavell Part 1 Working at home in their PJs may not be as unusual for biographers as for others affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet many of us are suffering its effects Frantically rescheduling upended in unprecedented ways, from canceled research trips to canceled book tours. Please research trips? Worrying about rest assured that BIO is thriving, and its efforts to support your work, including the pub date of a forthcoming timely delivery of The Biographer’s Craft each month, continue uninterrupted. book? Trying to adapt to virtual The BIO Board of Directors has been practicing social distancing almost since book tours? Struggling to stay its inception. Since we are spread out over the country, we meet monthly by sane, and productive, while conference call. At our March meeting, we canceled the annual May conference being surrounded by family and planned to film the BIO Award winner, Dame Hermione Lee, giving her members who are usually away keynote address for distribution to our members. Lockdown restrictions in the UK, however, have thwarted those plans, at least temporarily. all day? If you’re not working, Everyone who registered for the conference will receive a refund. The full or fretting, how do you pass the amount you paid will be credited to the card you used to register. BIO will pay the time? Welcome to writing in the processing charge out of its coffers. The registration software company is time of corona. If it’s any processing many refunds besides BIO’s, so I ask for your continued patience. BIO comfort, you’re not alone and is, as always, happy to accept donations, if you are in a position to give some or all perhaps reading how others are of your refund to BIO. coping—or not—may provide At its April meeting, the Board will consider alternative methods of delivering solace, too. Send us your Hermione Lee’s address to you and will also consider various ways we can bring experiences about and tips for the BIO membership together digitally with new programs. In fact, even before surviving these trying times. the pandemic we had identified the enhancement of BIO’s online communications We’ll run the submissions we as a key goal. receive next month—and If you have not already done so, please join our Facebook group, a forum in perhaps in the months to come. which you can promote your work, learn about the latest biography-related news, and get quick answers to questions about all aspects of researching, writing, and promoting biographies. If you want a more personalized consultation (for a discounted fee), BIO’s coaching program is up and running; you will be paired Writing in the with an experienced biographer who can advise you about your project. And Time of Corona, remember that BIO’s member directory provides contact information for nearly 500 fellow biographers. For general inspiration, check out the podcast and video Part 2 libraries on BIO’s website. Most of BIO’s activities are proceeding without interruption. The June Estella Chung, chief curator of Biographer’s Craft will announce the winners of the Plutarch Award, the Hazel the Wisconsin Historical Society, Rowley Prize, and the Ina and Robert Caro Fellowships. Nominations are now is inviting BIO members to take being accepted for the 2021 Plutarch Award; BIO members are invited to nominate part in a special project related eligible 2020 books, including their own. You should have already received a to COVID-19. With “Collecting ballot to elect a new vice president and new Board members for two-year terms History As It Happens,” the beginning in May. society is seeking journal entries If you have ideas for how BIO might best serve its members, kindly send me from people across the country an email. And please accept my personal wishes for your safety and that of your documenting their experiences loved ones in these uncertain times. during these trying times. You can find more about the project Linda Leavell is the president of BIO and a charter member. Her biography of the American poet here. Marianne Moore won the 2014 Plutarch Award. BIO Announces Finalists for Are You in a Writers’ Group? 2020 Plutarch Award A BIO member wrote seeking information about writers’ BIO’s Plutarch Award Committee has chosen five finalists for the 2020 Plutarch groups geared toward Award for the best biography of 2019. In alphabetical order by author they are: biographers, especially in New York City. TBC knows that BIO members belong to groups in Boston and Washington, D.C. Are there others out there? If you’re in a writers’ group or know of one, send us information about it. And we’d love to run an article on how to start and run a group, for members interested in forming a group where they live. Volunteers to contribute to that Sidney Blumenthal Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Charles King piece are welcome! All The Powers of Sisters and Rebels: Gods of the Upper Air: Earth: The Political Life A Struggle for the Soul of How a Circle of of Abraham Lincoln, America Renegade 1856-1860 (W. W. Norton) Anthropologists From the Editor (Simon & Schuster) Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the The disappointment was deep Twentieth Century (Doubleday) and wide when BIO’s Board of Directors announced that it was cancelling the 11th Annual BIO Conference, scheduled for May 15–17. But given all that’s happened in the United States and around the world since that word came down, the decision was inevitable. BIO president Linda Leavell has updates on the conference and more in this issue. Despite the social distancing and self-isolating going on, BIO members have been staying virtually connected through BIO’s Facebook page. If you haven’t George Packer Sonia Purnell joined it, here’s the link. I know Our Man: A Woman of No social media is not everyone’s cup Richard Holbrooke and the Importance: End of the American The Untold Story of the of tea, but a crisis like this proves Century American Spy Who Helped it does have worth in helping us (Knopf) Win World War II feel part of a community. And, of (Viking) course, cat videos. In this month’s Member News “It’s been a remarkable year for biography,” said Caroline Fraser, Plutarch Award and Notes, we’ve posted some of Committee Chair. The above finalists have emerged from an exceptional long list the thoughts members have that “reflects biographers’ wide-ranging interests and talents, showcasing the best already shared on such topics as how COVID-19 has affected the of the genre’s originality, diversity, deep scholarship, and excellent writing.” release dates of their books, the The 2020 Plutarch Award winner will be announced on May 16, 2020. The idea of holding virtual book Plutarch is the only international literary award for biography judged exclusively signings, and more. And taking a by biographers. suggestion made by former BIO In addition to Fraser, the members of the 2020 Plutarch Jury are Peniel E. president Cathy Curtis, we’re Joseph, Hans Renders, John Richetti, and Susan Ware. soliciting short pieces from members about their experience with coping with the crisis, which we’ll run next month (and Mayborn/BIO Fellow Looks at perhaps for as long as we’re all cooped up). See the top box above this letter for more details. Two Subjects, Two Cultures This issue is a little thinner than I originally planned—no conference preview, no review of Working on a dual biography of a the Dorothy O. Helly Works-in- relative who crossed paths with the Progress Lecture and another Chiricahua Apache chief Geronimo, author’s talk. I don’t know when Morgan Voeltz has faced several our correspondents will once challenges. She has also come to a again be out in the field covering conclusion that is probably familiar to biography-related events, and the in-depth coverage we normally many biographers: “Neither of these have of the conference is of characters is entirely a hero,” she said, course off the table. So, if you “and neither is entirely a villain.” have an idea for an article you’d Voeltz spoke about her experience like to contribute in the coming working on the biography (her first), months, send your pitches. Please at a talk on February 20, at the keep in mind that we’re looking for pieces that address the craft, Women’s International Study Center with information all biographers (WISC) in Santa Fe. The event might benefit from. culminated her two-week stay in New Morgan Voeltz previously wrote about her One follow up to an item in great-grandfather, Henry Lawton, in The Mexico as the Mayborn/BIO last month’s issue: We noted that Journal of Arizona History. Biography Fellow. The fellowship was BIO member Eric K. Washington initiated by BIO co-founder James was a 2020 Brendan Gill Prize finalist for his Boss of the Grips: McGrath Morris nine years go. (The The Life of James H. Williams and fellowship is being restructured for next year; you can read about that in the the Red Caps of Grand Central companion piece to this article.) Terminal. We didn’t know at the While all the Mayborn/BIO fellows have benefitted from the chance to put time that Eric was the only aside daily demands and devote time to researching and writing (and to receive biographer to win that honor.