Writing Lives

For those of you whose writing interests connect with biography and/or oral history, I've found a few announcements that may be useful.

1) The UCLA Alumni Association is looking for three oral historians/senior writers. Job involves conducting interviews with faculty, staff, alumni, and others for use in an upcoming UCLA history book. Very research-intensive. Also involves taping/transcribing interview sessions and compiling post-interview summary reports.

2) The Oral History Association has announced a grant of up to $3,000 "to undertake oral history research in situations of crisis research in the United States and internationally. These funds may be applied to travel, per diem, or transcription costs for research in places and situations in which a longer application time schedule may be problematic. Such crisis situations include but are not limited to wars, natural disasters, political and/or economic/ethnic repression, or other currently emerging events of crisis proportions." There's no fee to apply. Applications must be submitted by June 1, 2006. More information is available here.

3) Freelancers near Beverly Hills, California, may want to check out this job opportunity ($15-$40/hour) with NewsBios.com. Job involves "reporting and writing profiles of influential journalists for online biographical service."

4) And finally, if you just want to sit back and listen to some experts on the subject of "writing lives" (and you'll be in Cambridge, Massachusetts next Friday), consider attending Writing 20th Century Lives: Biography as History, a conference scheduled for 2PM at Harvard's Humanities Center on April 28. Panelists include historians Linda Gordon (New York University), Alice Kessler Harris (Columbia University), and Lizabeth Cohen (Harvard University), with Nancy Cott (Harvard University) moderating.