Public Humanities and the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library co-sponsored a symposium on contemporary biography featuring a distinguished lineup of writers: Heather Clark on Red Comet, her 2021 biography of Sylvia Plath; Farah Jasmine Griffin on If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery, her 2001 biography of Billie Holiday; Robin D. G. Kelley on The Life and Times of an American Original, his 2017 biography of Thelonious Monk; Nathan Kernan on A Day Like Any Other, his 2025 biography of James Schuyler; Eileen Myles on a “Working Life”, their 2024 poetry collection; and Francesca Wade on An Afterlife, her 2025 biography of Gertrude Stein. Public Humanities Associate Director Karin Roffman introduced the symposium, with panel introductions by Eve Sneider, Langdon Hammer, and Melissa Barton.