In this masterclass with award-winning writer and journalist Lance Richardson, you’ll explore the three tenets on which biographies are usually based: archival research, interviews and travel.
You’ll receive practical advice on how to organise raw material and how to structure a piece of work, including how to use tools like Evernote and Scrivener.
Lance will also tackle the crucial but often overlooked aspect of endurance and how to keep multi-year projects in perspective so that you can finish the project you are working on.
You will learn:
How to effectively utilise libraries and other archival resources
How to approach interview subjects, what to ask, and how to build trust
The value of physically visiting the locations you are writing about
Tools for organising mountains of research into a system that works for you
Strategies for structuring a biography to keep a reader engaged
This masterclass is presented in partnership with the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship.
About the tutor:
Lance Richardson is the author of True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen, which will be published internationally in 2025. His first book, House of Nutter: The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and recognised as one of the notable books of 2018 by The Sunday Times, Esquire and the American Library Association. He is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, the Leon Levy Center for Biography and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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