William Kennedy (author)

For other people named William Kennedy, see William Kennedy (disambiguation).
William Kennedy
Born William Joseph Kennedy
(1928-01-16) January 16, 1928
Albany, New York, U.S.
Occupation Author, journalist, historian
Language English
Nationality American
Alma mater Siena College
Period 1955 – present
Genre Fiction, History, Supernatural
Notable works Legs, Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, Ironweed
Notable awards Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1984), Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award (2001)
Spouse Ana Segarra (m. 1957)
Children 3

William Joseph Kennedy (born January 16, 1928) is an American writer and journalist born and raised in Albany, New York, to William J. Kennedy and to Mary E. McDonald. Kennedy was raised a Catholic. Many of his novels feature the interaction of members of the fictional Irish-American Phelan family, and make use of incidents of Albany's history and the supernatural. Kennedy's works include The Ink Truck (1969), Legs (1975), Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978), Ironweed (1983, winner of 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; movie, 1987), and Roscoe (2002). During 2011, he published Changó's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes, which one reviewer called a book "written with such brio and encompassing humanity that it may well deserve to be called the best of the bunch".[1]

Kennedy is a graduate of Siena College in Loudonville, New York, and resides currently at Averill Park, a hamlet about 16 miles east of Albany. After serving in the US Army, Kennedy lived in Puerto Rico, where he met his mentor, Saul Bellow, who encouraged him to write novels. While living in San Juan, he befriended journalist/author Hunter S. Thompson, a friendship that continued throughout their careers. Kennedy, who had been eager to leave Albany, returned to his hometown and worked for the Albany newspaper the Times Union as an investigative journalist, writing stories exposing activities of Daniel P. O'Connell and his political cronies of the dominant Democratic Party. His use of Albany as the setting for eight of his novels was described during 2011 by book critic Jonathan Yardley as painting "a portrait of a single city perhaps unique in American fiction".[2]

During 2001, Kennedy received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.

He has written a nonfictional account of Albany titled O Albany!.

Bibliography

Fiction

The Albany Cycle

Nonfiction

Screenplays

Plays

Children's books

Criticism

See also

References

  1. Sacks, Sam (October 1, 2011). "Corruption on the Hudson". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  2. Yardley, Jonathan (September 30, 2011). ""Changó's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes" by William Kennedy". Washington Post. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  3. Zachary Houle (January 1, 2013). "¡Viva la Revolución(s)! 'Changó's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes'". PopMatters.
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