Biography

Literature

T.J. Stiles Wins the 2026 BIO Award: On the Long, Necessary Work of Biography

T.J. Stiles, author of prize-winning biographies of Jesse James, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Custer, receives the 2026 BIO Award for lifetime achievement. Sigrid Nørgaard on the art of reconstructing a life, and why it takes years.

Reviews

Five Lives Worth Reading: The 2026 Plutarch Award Shortlist and What Biography Can Still Do

The 2026 Plutarch Award shortlist — five biographies covering James Baldwin, Gertrude Stein, Charlotte Brontë, Kwame Nkrumah, and a nineteenth-century Native American leader — makes a quiet argument for the form's continuing ambition. Winner announced May 28.