Biographers International Organization

By Biographers International OrganizationSociety & Culture Education Arts

Biographers International Organization episodes

October 18, 2024 Podcast #191 – Patti Hartigan
This week we interview Patti Hartigan, award-winning journalist and author of August Wilson: A Life. This biography, Hartigan’s first, about the legendary, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who powerfully and poetically chronicled African American life in the 20th century, was published in August 2023 by Simon & Schuster. Hartigan has had a long career at the Boston Globe where she served as arts reporter, drama critic, and cultural columnist. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times and American Theatre. Patti Hartigan was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Sonja Williams.

30 min
October 11, 2024 Podcast #190 – Fergus M. Bordewich
This week we interview veteran independent writer, historian, and journalist, Fergus M. Bordewich. His latest book, Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction, was published in October 2023 by Knopf. Bordewich has written eight previous nonfiction books, including the award-winning The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government, and America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise that Preserved the Union. Bordewich’s Bound for Canaan, about the Underground Railroad, was named one of the New York Public Library’s ten best books of 2005, and he edited a landmark photojournalistic account of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, in Beijing. Bordewich’s articles have appeared in many national magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, Smithsonian, and American Heritage. Fergus M. Bordewich was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell.

28 min
October 04, 2024 Podcast #189 – Katie Gee Salisbury
This week we interview Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong, a new biography of the first Asian American movie star. This biography was published by Dutton in March 2024. Gee Salisbury’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Believer, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship in 2021 and she gave the TED Talk, “As American as Chop Suey.” Gee Salisbury also writes the newsletter Half-Caste Woman. A fifth-generation Chinese American who hails from Southern California, she now lives in Brooklyn. Katie Gee Salisbury was interviewed by BIO member Jenny Skoog.

25 min
September 27, 2024 Podcast #188 – Kenneth Miller
This week we interview award-winning journalist and author Kenneth Miller about his first biography, Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep. It was published in October 2023 by Hachette Books. Miller is a contributing editor for Discover, and his work has appeared in Time, Life, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Aeon, and many other publications. Miller’s honors include the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism, the ASJA Outstanding Article Award for science writing, and the June Roth Memorial Award for medical writing. Kenneth Miller was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Sonja Williams.

31 min
September 20, 2024 Podcast #187 – Jessica Max Stein
This week we interview Jessica (Max) Stein, author of Funny Boy: The Richard Hunt Biography. This first-time biography of a highly regarded Muppet/Sesame Street performer was published in March 2024 by Rutgers University Press. Stein is New York-based writer who teaches writing and literature at the City University of New York. Biographers International Organization honored Stein’s Funny Boy book proposal as one of three finalists for its 2016 Hazel Rowley Prize. Stein’s writing has been cited in The New York Times, and she received an Amy Award for young writers from Poets and Writers magazine, and an Ippie Award for Best Editorial from the Independent Press Association. A reporter and former editor of The Indypendent, Stein has published work in over 100 magazines and journals, including a longtime column at The Bilerico Project. Jessica (Max) Stein was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Brian Jay Jones.

29 min
September 13, 2024 Podcast #186 – Matthew Kennedy
This week film historian Matthew Kennedy talks about his latest book, On Elizabeth Taylor: An Opinionated Guide, published by Oxford University Press in May 2024. Kennedy also authored Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s, and he has written biographies of actresses Marie Dressler and Joan Blondell, and of director/screenwriter Edmund Goulding. Kennedy has introduced film series at the Museum of Modern Art, UCLA Film & Television Archive, and Pacific Film Archive, and written for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Turner Classic Movies, and the National Film Registry. He is currently host and curator of the CinemaLit series at the Mechanics’ Institute Library in San Francisco. Matthew Kennedy was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Debby Applegate.

33 min
September 06, 2024 Podcast #185 – Rachel Kousser
This week we interview City University of New York (CUNY) professor and author Rachel Kousser. Her latest book, Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great, was published in July 2024 by Mariner Books. Kousser heads the Classics Department in CUNY’s Graduate Center and serves as a professor of ancient art and archaeology at Brooklyn College. One of her previous books, The Afterlives of Greek Sculpture: Interaction, Transformation, Destruction, received an Archaeological Institute of America Publication Subvention Award and was shortlisted for the Runciman Book Award for a book on Greek history or culture. Kousser has received fellowships from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Getty Research Institute, and the Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts. Rachel Kousser was interviewed by BIO member Jenny Skoog.

24 min
June 28, 2024 Podcast #184 – Will Hermes
This time we interview author Will Hermes, whose latest book, Lou Reed: The King of New York, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October 2023. Hermes is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a longtime contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered and The New York Times. He also is the author of Love Goes to Buildings on Fire, he writes for Pitchfork and other publications, and he co-edited SPIN: 20 Years of Alternative Music. Will Hermes was interviewed in New York City at BIO’s May 2024 annual conference by fellow biographer and BIO member Laurie Gwen Shapiro.
Image credit: Forrest Scholl

32 min
June 21, 2024 Podcast #183 – Amrita Chakrabarti Myers
This week we interview Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, an award-winning author and the Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor of history and gender studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. Her latest book, The Vice President’s Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in October 2023. Myers also is the author of Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston. Amrita Chakrabarti Myers was interviewed in New York City at BIO’s 2024 annual conference by BIO member Jenny Skoog.

29 min
June 14, 2024 Podcast #182 – Brad Gooch
This week we interview poet, novelist, and biographer Brad Gooch. His latest book, Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring, was published by Harper/HarperCollins in March 2024. Gooch’s previous ten books include Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor—a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a New York Times bestseller—and City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara. Brad Gooch is the recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim fellowships, and he was interviewed in New York City at BIO’s 2024 annual conference by BIO member Jenny Skoog.

29 min