Our origin story
The Center fosters meaningful connections between independent and university-affiliated biographers across a range of disciplines. Through fellowships, public events, and scholarly programming, it encourages collaboration and exchange among those engaged in the serious study and creative practice of life writing.
By promoting critical conversations about the art and craft of biography – both historically and in contemporary contexts – the Leon Levy Center helps shape the evolving landscape of biographical literature and scholarship today.
Established in 2007 through a generous gift from the Leon Levy Foundation, the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center serves as a vibrant hub for writers, scholars, students, teachers, and readers of biography. It provides a dynamic space where ideas flourish and where the many dimensions of biographical work are actively explored and supported.
The Leon Levy Foundation advances the humanist values of understanding, appreciation, and preservation through grantmaking guided by the deep and diverse interests of Leon Levy and Shelby White. The Foundation supports organizations, primarily in New York City, that enhance cultural life, expand knowledge, and encourage exceptional achievement across a broad range of fields.
Nancy Milford, the biographer of both Zelda Fitzgerald and Edna St. would often lament to Leon, that biography was a stepchild, not history and not English, Nancy firmly believed that biography should be its own discipline. Leon agreed. When Leon died in 2003, the Leon Levy Foundation established the Biography Center at CUNY. It has become exactly the institution they both envisioned.
