Biographers International Organization

This week we interview Winston James, author of Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik, published by Columbia University Press in July 2022. A Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, James also authored, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century America, winner of the Gordon K. Lewis Memorial Award for Caribbean Scholarship from the Caribbean Studies Association. His three other books examined pioneering Pan-Africanist writer John Brown Russwurm, the poetry of Claude McKay, and Britain’s Caribbean diaspora. Winston James was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Kitty Kelley.

This week we interview Mark Clague, author of O Say Can You Hear: A Cultural Biography of The Star-Spangled Banner, published by W.W. Norton & Company in June 2022. Clague serves as Professor of Musicology, Arts Leadership, and American Culture at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where he also serves as an associate dean. His other anthem-related publications include the recording Poets & Patriots: A Tuneful History of The Star-Spangled Banner and the Star-Spangled Songbook. Clague’s research has sparked collaborations with the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Los Angeles Grammy Museum, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, and a Library of Congress recital with baritone Thomas Hampson. Mark Clague was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Sonja Williams.

This week we interview Allison Gilbert, an award-winning journalist and co-author (with writer Julia Scheeres) of Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman. Published by Seal Press in September 2022, this biography of William Randolph Hearst’s highest-paid woman writer has been called “broadminded, sharp-witted, fast-paced, and funny” by Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Debby Applegate. Gilbert has authored three books on grief and loss: Passed and Present, Always Too Soon, and Parentless Parents. Allison Gilbert was interviewed by BIO member Jenny Skoog. 

This week we interview Soyica Diggs Colbert, the Idol Family Professor of African American Studies and Performing Arts at Georgetown University. Her book, Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, published by Yale University Press in April 2021, was described in the New York Times as a captivating portrait of writer Lorraine Hansberry’s life, art, and political activism. Diggs Colbert’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Public Books, Metrograph, and American Theatre, and she has been featured on media outlets like NPR, USA Today, and CNN. Soyica Diggs Colbert was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Kevin McGruder.  

This week we interview E. Stanly Godbold, author of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: Power and Human Rights, 1975–2020. This dual biography of President Carter and his wife Rosalynn was published by Oxford University Press in September 2022. The first volume of Godbold’s extensive examination of the Carters, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: The Georgia Years, 1924–1974, was also published by Oxford University Press. Godbold is Professor Emeritus of History at Mississippi State University, and he served as a consultant and commentator for the PBS American Experience documentary about Jimmy Carter. E. Stanly Godbold was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Lisa Napoli.  

This week we interview Bernice Lerner, a senior scholar at Boston University’s Center for Character and Social Responsibility. Her latest book is a dual biography of a high-ranking British military doctor during World War II, and Lerner’s mother, Rachel Genuth, a poor Jewish teenager from the Hungarian provinces and Holocaust survivor. The book, All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, a British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in April 2020. Lerner also authored The Triumph of Wounded Souls: Seven Holocaust Survivors’ Lives. Bernice Lerner was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Kitty Kelley.

This week we interview Li Shan Chan, a Singaporean writer, mental health advocate, and doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who was awarded the Biography Prize by Honolulu’s Center for Biographical Research. Her latest book, Searching for Lee Wen: A Life in 135 Parts, about a unique Singaporean Chinese artist, was published by Epigram Books in May 2022. Her previous books include Yellow Man and her memoir, A Philosopher’s Madness. Chan’s writings have appeared in The Straits Times and Grey Projects, and she served as director of the Writing Center at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh, where she also held a Writing Residency Fellowship. Li Shan Chan was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Lisa Napoli. 

This week we interview Marko Perko, a veteran writer and the co-author (with psychiatrist Stephen M. Stahl) of Tesla: His Tremendous and Troubled Life. This biography of Nikola Tesla—the Serbian American engineer who helped to create our modern world with his wide-ranging inventions, discoveries, and patents, including alternating current (AC)—was published by Prometheus Books in May 2022. Perko has written for and edited numerous publications, and he has worked as a columnist, speechwriter, composer, musician, lecturer, and playwright. He is a member of the Authors Guild, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Broadcast Music, Inc., the Organization of American Historians, the British Library, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Marko Perko was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Sonja Williams.  

This week we interview Etta Madden, author of Engaging Italy: American Women’s Utopian Visions and International Networks. Published by the State University of New York Press in April 2022, this book focuses on three little known Americans—Caroline Crane Marsh, Anne Hampton Brewster, and Emily Bliss Gould—whose lives intersected in an evolving Italy during the mid-19th century. Madden is the author of three additional books that explore American writers, utopian literature, and intentional communities. A professor of English at Missouri State University, she is also the recipient of a Fulbright Award and two Mellon Fellowships. Etta Madden was interviewed by BIO member Jennifer Skoog.  

This week we interview Justin Tinsley, a senior sports and culture reporter for ESPN’s “The Undefeated.” He has written commentaries and feature stories about people as varied as Marvin Gaye, Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Serena Williams, Cardi B, and Kendrick Lamar. Tinsley is also a regular presence on ESPN’s daily sports talk show, “Around the Horn.” And, he is the host of the “30 for 30” podcast, “The King of Crenshaw,” which explores the legacy of the late rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle. Justin Tinsley’s first biography, It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him, was published by Abrams Press in May 2022. He was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Kevin McGruder.