News
Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones Featured in Major Exhibition at PAFA
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If you missed seeing Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones works in shared glory with many of her fellow women artist friends, have no fear! The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum published a beautiful hardcover book of its magnificent exhibit, Women in Motion: 150 Years of Women's Artistic Networks at PAFA, curated by Anna O. Marley.
Alongside works by Cecilia Beaux, Mary Cassatt, Violet Oakley, and Alice Kent Stoddard (whose portrait of ESJ is included), you'll have a chance to see In Rittenhouse Square and The Market. If you are interested, the book is still available in the museum store.
New Novel: THE MAGIC OF DEAD THINGS
How far will biographers go in the name of obsession?
"I cannot help making fables and bitter fairy tales out of my life." Elinor Wylie
In the style of Possession for the 21st century, The Magic of Dead Things inhabits the dynamic world of three contemporary biographers who are gradually seduced by their dazzling subject and her circle while failing to see parallels between her dramas and their own chaotic lives until circumstances intervene.
In New York, Boston, and Baltimore, three writers are unknowingly researching the same person, Elinor Wylie, the 20th century scandal-prone poet known for her beauty and free spirit. Drawn together by a series of coincidences, the biographers find their spiraling problems harder to ignore as they each search for answers, blurring the line between past and present, author and subject. With warmth and humor, the novel explores why obsession remains a highly prized trait for the biographer and why it also can be an occupational hazard.
READ PROLOGUE HERE: For more material, please see contact link for Barbara.
Author's Note: All biographical research regarding the life of Elinor Wylie and her circle is factual.
The biographers, however, are fiction.
Biographers International Organization News
Annual Conference Held June 5-6, 2025
at The National Press Club in Washington, DC
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Recently elected to a second two-year term of the BIO's Board of Directors, I was excited to attend the June conference in DC. and see some other members in person rather than over Zoom! Thanks to retiring board member Kitty Kelley for hosting a fabulous cocktail party at her Georgetown home to kick off the event. At the day-long conference the next day, a highlight for me was hearing filmmaker Dawn Porter who was this year's recipient of the BIO Award. I also enjoyed talks by Peter Baker, Susan Glasser, Major Garrett, Jack Farrell, and Brian Jay Jones. The 2026 conference is planned for New York City for the weekend of May 28-29.
If you're interested in learning more or joining BIO, find out more here.
Fun with BIO friends! (above) Below: With Michael Gately, Eric Washington, and Kitty Kelley
