The Graduate Center
The City University of New York

Welcome to the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center. Established by a gift from the Leon Levy Foundation, the Leon Levy Center for Biography aims to identify, support and present excellence and innovation in biography.

Envisioned as a hub for writers, scholars, students and readers of the genre, the Leon Levy Center for Biography seeks to build connections between independent and university-affiliated biographers working in print, film, visual arts and new media across academic disciplines. Through public programs, an annual conference and lecture we endeavor to raise the profile of biography within the academy and cultivate lively interdisciplinary discussion about biography in our time.



Featured Incoming Fellow - Wendy Lesser

Wendy Lesser
Biography Fellow 2009-2010
Wendy Lesser is the founding editor of The Threepenny Review and is the author of eight books, including one novel, The Pagoda in the Garden, and seven works of nonfiction, the most recent of which is Room for Doubt. Besides writing for Threepenny about dance, music, theater, and other cultural subjects, she occasionally reviews books for Bookforum, The New York Times Book Review, and other publications.
More about our fellows »

Featured Incoming Fellow - Mary Lisa Gavenas

Mary Lisa Gavenas
Biography Fellow 2009-2010
Mary Lisa Gavenas was a columnist at ELLE and served as senior editor at Glamour, In Style, and Mirabella; she writes for the academic and popular press. Following publication of Color Stories: Behind the Scenes in America's Billion-Dollar Beauty Industry, she became a consultant on the beauty industry.
More about our fellows »

Featured Incoming Fellow - John Matteson

John Matteson
Biography Fellow 2009-2010
John Matteson is an Associate Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. His scholarship in 19th-century American literature includes articles published in Leviathan, Streams of William James, and The New England Quarterly. His first book, Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father, was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Biography.
More about our fellows »

Featured Incoming Fellow - Vanda Krefft

Vanda Krefft
Biography Fellow 2009-2010
Vanda Krefft's articles on the entertainment industry and social issues have been published in magazines and newspapers, including ELLE, Redbook, Woman's Day, and the Los Angeles Times. She is currently at work on her first book, a biography of Twentieth Century Fox founder William Fox, to be published by HarperCollins.
More about our fellows »