The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship
The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship supports biographers developing book-length accounts of African American lives that deepen understanding of the Black experience and race relations in American history.
Funder: Biographers International Organization
Due Dates: February 1, 2027 (Annual application deadline)
Funding Amounts: $5,000 each for two recipients, plus one year of BIO membership, conference registration, and publicity
Summary: Supports book-length biographies in progress about African American figures whose stories deepen understanding of the Black experience.
Key Information: Open worldwide to biographers writing in English; the work must remain out of production through the annual BIO Conference.
Description
The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship, administered by Biographers International Organization (BIO), supports biographies in progress that make a significant contribution to understanding the Black experience. Named for Frances Anne Rollin Whipper, one of the first known African American biographers, it addresses the historic scarcity and suppression of Black lives and voices in published biography while encouraging diversity in the field.
The fellowship’s scope encompasses people of African descent whose lives were centered in, or shaped by, North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, from before 1619 to the present. It supports stories of inhabitancy, dispersion, immigration, and emigration, including Black lives marginalized by gender, gender orientation, sexuality, or disability. Its goal is to foster deeper insight into the complexity of race relations at the foundation of American history.
