How To Write An Author Bio That Isn't Boring AF
Make it interesting, funny, weird, whatever — but make it sound like YOU
Okay, look, so no one really likes writing an author bio. Partly because it feels agonisingly weird to write about yourself, and partly because most bios are generally pretty meh.
Either you have very little to put in terms of fancy and illustrious places you’ve been published — or if you do, your bio ends up looking like a nonsensical list of random words: “so-and-so’s stories have appeared in Nutwanger Monthly, The Grapefruit Review, and Binoncular Friday.”
And yeah, sure, there’s some basic info that’s useful to put in a bio (more on that in a minute), but after a while they all start to look like LinkedIn posts…
That is, until you come across a bio that says something genuinely interesting about the writer, or makes you laugh, or adds an extra layer to the whole reading experience. Those bios are the ones you remember — and might even prompt you to go find out more about the author. (Which is what a bio is really for.)
So, since this month’s Forever Workshop is all about How to Make Your Writing Funny, I thought we could also try making our author bios a bit more entertaining, too.
Follow the steps below to build your brand new bio, then share yours in the comments for feedback from your fellow friendly neighbourhood Community Corner writers!
Let’s go:
The Main Ingredients of an Author Bio:
Before we mess about with our bios, let’s first pin down what info we definitely need to include:
STEP 1:
Your name (or pen name)
Where people can find more of your work, or get in touch with you online (website, socials)
Easy so far. Just a few points to remember here:
Author bios are always in third person 🙄 eg: Your Name is a poet from the Sargasso Sea.
Keep the contact info simple (keep everything simple if you can — word count is a commodity here)
And that’s kinda it — arguably the bare minimum you need to put in any bio.
The rest is fair game to play with…
But since we usually only have between 50-100 words, we might as well make it memorable!
So let’s think about what else we can add to it.
A Little About YOU:
The purpose of an author bio is to show the person behind the piece, so it’s nice to include a few little tidbits of info to help your readers get to know you.
And here’s where we can incorporate something fascinating, funny, engaging, or unexpected to elevate your bio into a self-contained work of art.
If you want to start subtle, some ‘traditional’ bio ingredients might include:
Where you live / where you’re from / who you live with
(potentially interesting, depending on the location and how cute your pets are)Your day job / area of expertise / hobbies
(also strong potential for something unusual or intriguing here, so long as it doesn’t sound like a resume)What kinda stuff you write / what you like to read / or where you are in your creative journey
(specifics are always better than broad strokes here — but I cannot tell you how many bios I’ve read that start with “Author Name has been writing since they could hold a pen…” sorry)Where you’ve been published / contests you’ve placed in / any books or collections you’re promoting
(very cool, obviously, and bios can offer a valuable opportunity for marketing your work, but keep it minimal and up-to-date, eg: “Author Name has most recently been published in X and Y” instead of a comprehensive list of 20+ lit mags)
So far, so generic, but you can totally tweak any of these to make them feel more personal, eg:
Some crazy fact about your hometown.
What kind of music your cat likes listening to.
The celebrity you served when you worked as barista.
Your collection of 18th century spoons.
The fact you can scuba dive.
Or a fun submissions stat, like how many times a particular poem was rejected before winning “The Big Awesome Prize”!
Here are a couple of examples that reinvent these basic ingredients really well:
Elevate the ‘where you live’ element with specific (or random) things you do there:
nat raum is the poet laureate of the void; their corporeal form lives in Baltimore. They’re the author of the abyss is staring back, random access memory, camera indomita, and many others. Find them reading, sleeping, smoking dank kush, or astral projecting in their local Target.
— Two Poems in Bullshit Lit
Note: Yes, you can absolutely make this shit up. You’re a writer, after all.
Layer up the ‘facts about you’ in unexpected, specific and extended ways:
Sam Milligan writes short fiction when he isn't brooding about Philly sports, playing pickup basketball, baking cookies, or teaching people one of those midwest card games that everyone's Great Uncle seems to know. He lives in Washington, DC. He has two cats. He's getting worse at parallel parking. He is @sawmilligan on Twitter.
— Donate Today! in HAD
Note: If in doubt, that little rhetorical trick of listing three things in a row (Washington, cats, parallel parking) always adds a nice sense of rhythm, too.
Now, your turn.
STEP 2:
Try adding one or two (or all) of the ‘about you’ elements above — but with a personalised twist.
Brainstorm as many things as you can for each one and don’t be afraid to get silly. The point here is to represent your genuine self, not some lofty literary version of yourself. And most of us are pretty silly, deep down.
Bio-ing Outside the Box
If you’re already bored with the basics, we can go one step further and break the fourth wall entirely.
One of my favourite ways to write a bio these days is to tailor it to the piece I’m submitting — either by referencing an element of the narrative, or adding in something that connects me to the subject matter.
For example, this was my bio to accompany a story about going on a date with an astronaut:
Jo writes flash disguised as poetry, poetry disguised as flash, and sometimes things that are even longer than a page. She has most recently been published by The Oxford Prize, Stylist, The Forge, and won the Molotov Cocktail Flash City competition. She feels very strongly about Shakespeare and puns. She has never been to the moon.
Or this one by Gavin Miller, on a similar self-referential vibe:
Gavin Miller is a writer currently residing in Boston, MA. His work appears or is forthcoming in JAKE, Sand Hills Literary Magazine, and sneaker wave magazine. Gavin doesn't have a mistress or wife. he doesn't even have an iPad. Pathetic.
— Advice for When the Mistress Tells the Wife in Maudlin House
I think this is one of the easiest ways to make a bio feel unique and related to the piece you’re publishing, and it means you get to change things up every time you submit!
And once you break away from the traditional format, there are a whole load of other ways you can muck about with your bio.
Check out the unorthodox examples below (and have a go at emulating them):
Keep it short and tongue-in-cheek:
Award-winning writer, non-award-winning comedian.
— Rachel Marsh on Medium
(What are you NOT? And what’s funny about that?)
Show the realness of being a messy lil’ writer:
Hilary is originally from Brooklyn, NY, and currently lives in Minneapolis, MN. They enjoy writing in intermittent and slightly panicked bouts and making weird recipes sourced from Instagram reels.
— EVERYONE I HAVE EVER KISSED THINKS ABOUT ME ALL OF THE TIME AND IS IN LOVE WITH ME in Taco Bell Quarterly
(Add in a detail about your writing process/routine/angst)
Subvert the status game:
Wendi Aarons has contributed to McSweeney’s since 2006, so she probably should get a plaque for god’s sake. She’s a writer who writes a lot of things, but mostly she writes notes left on cars parked by assholes. Her middle-grade novel “Ginger Mancino, Kid Comedian” and her middle-age essay collection “I’m Wearing Tunics Now” are both out in 2022.
—Wendi Aarons in McSweeney’s
(We’re all just people going around making up words — let’s not take the whole thing so seriously.)
Play ‘two truths and a lie’ (or incorporate some other icebreaker game):
Tim Livingston (they/them) is a poet and proud Pennsylvanian, living in Philadelphia with their cat, Mamma Mia!, and seven tattoos. Two truths and a lie: they can blow bubbles with their tongue, they haven't had a haircut since the pandemic, they have been nominated for a Pushcart prize.
— Three Poems in Bullshit Lit
(A good reminder that your bio doesn’t actually have to refer to anything remotely connected to your writing — it’s about the glorious weirdness uniqueness of you.)
Or just go meta on the whole ridiculous exercise:
Jo is an award-winning writer, novelist, poet and scriptwriter who feels deeply uncomfortable writing about herself in the third person.
(True facts.)
There are SO many ways to make our bios more interesting.
Browse your favourite lit mags and find more examples.
Look at your submission with an objective eye and ask: “What does this piece say about me?”
Write a list of ten weird things about your life and see what sounds funniest.
Make it subtle. Make it ridiculous. Experiment!
STEP 3:
Throw in a curveball and try something different. There are no rules. Just make it sound like YOU.
Whatever approach you go with, crafting an interesting bio is vastly more entertaining than struggling over a boilerplate version, so have fun with it!
WORKSHOP YOUR *NEW* AUTHOR BIO:
Share your bio experiments in the comments for feedback — or ask for help if you need more ideas.
Then spread the Community Corner love by giving your thoughts on other people’s bios.
And maybe we’ll see some of these bios in print soon… :)
P.S. One final ‘handle with care’ caveat:
Of course, one of the major risks of trying to be funny on the internet is that it comes off the wrong way. Or, worst case scenario, it comes across really badly.
So, a few areas to be cautious of:
Self-deprecation — I mean, generally, I’d advise not to do this when you’re trying to represent creative work you’ve been toiling over for years, but as you can see from some of the examples above, sometimes it can be personable, charming and funny to show the flawed humanity behind your words. Just don’t go too far. There’s a fine line between #relatable and #yikes.
Topical references — it’s tempting to add in a reference to The Latest Big News or some hilarious meme or make a political statement in your bio — just be aware that this will become dated very quickly.
‘Edgy’ jokes — look, sometimes it’s hard to gauge tone in text, so it’s worth checking any particularly risky funnies with a second (or third) pair of eyes to make sure you’re not going too far over the line into actually offensive.
Cognitive dissonance — remember: your bio should represent you and your writing, so if you’re publishing something serious, tragic, or sensitive, it might not be appropriate to pair it with a hilarious, madcap bio… Read the room, y’know?
That’s all for now. Good luck with your bios. And if you need more advice on the whole shebang, let me direct you to Benjamin Davis’ insanely comprehensive guide to submissions:
Kim works for the Chicago Cubs, where she is a Professional Parking Lot Babysitter. Her hobbies include making a mess in her stamp sized kitchen, stabbing fabric with small, sharp, pointy objects and playing Fetch with her Feline Overlords. She writes fiction, CNF and sometimes spills her guts in memoir sorts of pieces.
Astrid Egger, is fascinated by Where’s Waldo? a red sock in a blue section of her drawer, and what both can teach her about patterns. She engages in a daily character study of her two tabby tail swatting cats who refuse to outgrow their kitten bed. These two interests find their expression in her stories some of which are published in small magazines.