Biography Lab 2026

Biographers International Organization (BIO) announces Biography Lab 2026, its fourth annual online forum, Saturday, January 24, 2026 via Zoom. BIO invites participants at all levels of interest and experience in the craft of biography to join this all-day, virtual event led by prominent biographers and publishing professionals. Free for BIO members, General Admission $60 (includes one year BIO membership.)

David Denby, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of the recent group biography Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer (Henry Holt & Company, 2025), will be the Keynote speaker, on "Four Books in One: On Crafting an Unusual Group Biography." (9:30am --10:15am Eastern - New York).

Forum #1 (10:30am -- 11:45am) features Brian Jay Jones, a past President and Board member of BIO, and New York Times best-selling biographer of Jim Henson, George Lucas, and Dr. Seuss, on "Writing Creatively about Creatives," moderated by Simon Read, a former newspaper reporter who is the author of ten works of narrative non-fiction. Dutton will publish Brian Jay Jones's The Capitol: The Surprising Biography of an American Building in 2026.

Forum #2 (12:30pm -- 1:45pm) features Dr. Ashley D. Farmer, a professor in the Departments of History and African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas, Austin, and the author most recently of Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore (Pantheon, 2025), on "From Fragments to Story: Biographical Writing Without a Paper Trail," moderated by Tamara Payne, a BIO Board member and Pulitzer Prize winning co-author of The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X.

Forum #3 (2pm -- 3:15pm) features Susan Page, BIO Board member, Washington Bureau chief of USA Today, and New York Times best-selling author of The Matriarch, Madam Speaker, and The Rulebreaker, on "Barbara Bush, Nancy Pelosi & Barbara Walters walk into a bar...: The Badass Women of the Silent Generation," moderated by Sara Fitzgerald, a BIO Board member, past editor at The Washington Post, and author of fiction and nonfiction including two biographies. HarperCollins will publish Susan Page's next biography, The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History, in April 2026.

Biography Lab 2026 will conclude with a Social Hour (3:30pm -- 4:30pm), giving participants a chance to talk informally with each other and make connections with fellow BIO members.