In contemporary contexts, young people are accustomed to life story; indeed, their lives are saturated with constructions of their stories and those of others, whether created by themselves or their "friends" on social networks. Multimedia outlets convey often detailed stories of more-famous others, whether celebrities or those experiencing fleeting fame due to some unusual circumstance. Yet, it is difficult to ascertain the extent to which young people are given serious opportunities to slow down the fast pace of the information flow of their lives to critically consider what these stories convey and why. Biographies provide both possibilities and challenges for teachers and students; in other words, life stories provide educative opportunities for citizens in democratic communities that are fraught with possibilities and limitations. Because the author finds biography to be an important and unavoidable component of contemporary life, her hope with this article is to begin a conversation about biography among English teachers that will encourage different engagements with the genre in classrooms, and ultimately more nuanced understandings of the complexities, challenges, contradictions, and consequences of life stories. To situate these issues, she shares examples from her work that were part of a recent conversation with a group of English teachers as they explored four key questions about biography and the authors of biography. She concludes with ideas for classroom practices to engage these questions. (Contains 3 notes.)