Kitty Kelley gifts BIO $1 million.
Already one of America’s foremost biographers, Kitty Kelley is now among its premier supporters of the genre, too. Biographers International Organization announced yesterday that Kelley is granting it $1 million, to be given in $200,000 increments over five years.
“We are immensely grateful for Kitty’s life-changing investment in BIO,” says the organization’s incoming president, Steve Paul. “It not only affirms our growing presence on the literary landscape, but it challenges us to become even more useful and responsive to our current and future members.”
Kelley, the author of seven number-one New York Times bestselling biographies, including Nancy Reagan, Jackie Oh!, Oprah: A Biography, and The Royals, says that she’s making the generous donation because “reading and writing biographies have enriched my life, and so I hope my endowment will enable BIO to continue sharing the gifts of life stories.”
It surely will, and for that, readers — and aspiring writers — should be grateful.
[Editor’s note: Kelley, who is also a member of the Independent’s board of directors, received the 2023 BIO Award in March. Learn more here.]
