If you’re making creative things, sooner or later someone is going to ask you to write an artist bio. What’s an artist bio? It’s a short piece of writing that gives details about you and your creative work. Some bios are more formal and others are more casual – it depends how they will be used!
And if we’re getting really technical, you might also be asked for a separate artist statement. Sometimes people include artist statement info in artist bios and vice versa. It can get a bit muddled.
It’s a lot to figure out and your bio will change as you change and your creative journey unfolds. This info resource is about helping you write your very first bio. When writing your first bio don’t worry too much about the distinctions between artist bio and artist statement (but if you want to know more about the difference, here’s a simple explainer).
In many ways your bio is a kind of summary of your resume or CV – it’s giving people the gist of what you’ve done and where you might be headed next. I recommend having a longer version of your bio (200ish words) and a shorter version (50-100 words) saved and ready to use as a template. You can then tweak this template however you need – for example when submitting my writing to a competition versus my bio as a guest speaker. I will use the same basic info but re-order it slightly and take different bits out of my longer bio.
Some useful things to include in your bio:
- A first sentence that includes your name and what you do (writer, artist, producer etc).
- Your pronouns early on – people can’t tell from your name and photo and this avoids guessing, especially if you use pronouns that some people might find unfamiliar.
- It can be useful to include your location. You don’t need to get too specific but knowing that you are regional, or from a large city can be helpful and an interesting angle for media.
- Relevant education and professional development (including being self-taught).
- Any awards or other special acknowledgements.
- Your recent or significant projects/work.
- The kind of creative work you make – knowing that I’m a writer is different to knowing that I’m a fantasy writer or a poet.
You might not have some of these things (especially early in your career) and that’s okay. Think about what you can include and what’s interesting about you. In many cases your bio will be the first way people “meet” you. What do you want them to know?
Many of us hold multiple roles, adapt your bio to suit how it will used and to reflect the project/opportunity.
Here’s an example of an imaginary young person who doesn’t have any awards, and is just starting out:
Diarmuid Martyniuk (he/they) is an emerging writer and illustrator from regional South Australia. They are always dreaming up fantastical worlds and have recently become involved as a volunteer with Part of Things. Diarmuid finished high school last year and currently lives in Glossop with his dog Brennin. (47 words)
Here’s examples of my bio (for different uses):
Alysha Herrmann lives, loves, and creates from regional South Australia. She is an award winning independent creative producer, writer, performance-maker, and community organiser, and is the co-founder of Part of Things. Alysha writes about vulnerability, community, hope, grief, forgiveness and belonging. Her work spans creative non-fiction (memoir, essays), experimental digital writing, script writing (screen and theatre), other performance texts, short stories, long-form fiction, and poetry (written and spoken).
Alysha is currently in the early stages of a 20year collaborative fantasy-writing project in her home community (the Riverland region of SA) which was initiated through her 2021 Regional Arts Australia Fellowship. (100 words)
or
Alysha Herrmann lives, loves, and creates from regional South Australia. She is an award winning independent creative producer, writer, performance-maker, and community organiser, and is the co-founder of Part of Things. Alysha makes and produces installations, experiences, presentations, poetry, digital exchanges, performances, and other creative things in all kinds of strange places, including real-life loungerooms, train stations and backyards.
Alysha is best known for her work collaborating with young people and regional communities and she is a Regional Arts Australia Fellow and an Australian Rural Leadership Program Fellow. She currently serves on the boards of Outback Theatre for Young People and Carclew. (102 words)
or
Alysha Herrmann lives, loves, and creates from regional South Australia. She is an award winning independent creative producer, writer, performance-maker, and community organiser, and is the co-founder of Part of Things. Recent work includes Writing the River Rising for Country Arts SA (SA), We repeat ourselves. There is no cure for Neoterica (SA), Drowned in the Saltbush Review (SA), Guthrak for Under the Microscope (SA), The Riverland of Rax for Critical Stages (NSW) and Paines Plough’s (UK) Come to Where I Am Australia, and DEV for State Theatre Company (SA) and ActNow Theatre’s (SA) Decameron 2.0. Her written work has been published by Currency Press, Griffith Review, Rochford Street Press, Routledge, Ginniderra Press, The Dirty Thirty, ABC Open and others. (120 words)
All are true and roughly the same length but they hone in on different aspects of me and my work.
Other tips:
- Your bio is where media or arts orgs will grab info from, they will often copy and paste. It’s a good idea to make sure your first sentence works for this use when they are short on space. For example: Alysha Herrmann (she/her) is an independent creative producer, writer, performance-maker and community organiser, and is the co-founder and Chief Storyteller at Part of Things.
- Depending on where and how the bio will be used, it can be lovely (and fun) to include a random fact or something more personal. For example mentioning your pets or family role. Sometimes I mentioned that I’m afraid of birds and that my favourite colour is yellow. This creates a conversation starter when people meet me too!
- In most cases 3rd person POV is best for artist bios. If someone specifically wants 1st person, they’ll ask for it.
- Don’t forget to imbue with your personality and voice. This is an introduction to you remember!
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Alysha Herrmann is an independent creative producer, writer, performance-maker and community organiser, and is the co-founder of Part of Things. Part of Things is an ideas hub, small co-working space and producer of weird & wonderful creative experiences in regional South Australia. As a creative practitioner, Alysha makes performances, installations, experiences, presentations, poetry, digital exchanges and small moments of connection in public places. She works across disciplines in the arts, education, tourism, community development, youth work, social justice and social enterprise
You can find out more about Alysha and her work here.
Part of Things 