Get to know John Kenney

John Kenney is the author of two novels and four books of poetry, including LOVE POEMS FOR MARRIED PEOPLE. His first novel, TRUTH IN ADVERTISING, won the Thurber Prize for American humor. The book was optioned and Kenney wrote the screenplay. Ryan Reynolds was attached to the film as was Notting Hill director Roger Michell. He is also the author of Talk to Me, also a starred Kirkus review. He is a long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine’s Shouts & Murmurs. He lives in Larchmont, NY, with his wife, Lissa, and two children.

His book, I SEE YOU'VE CALLED IN DEAD, will be published April 1, 2025 by Zibby Books.

Hometown

Boston, MA

Fun fact

I worked on the archeological dig of King Herod The Great’s Winter Palace in Jericho. (I can’t be 100 percent sure but I think I found his house keys.)

Favorite author

Impossible question. Names that easily come to mind: Alice McDermott. Don Delillo. Richard Ford. Patty Marx. J.D. Salinger.

Favorite place in the world

Home with the family.

Favorite place to read

The Rose Main Reading Room of the New York Public Library. Although I am no longer let in, as apparently they have a strict policy against nudity.

Books by John Kenney

I See You've Called in Dead

Coming April 1, 2025

The Office meets Six Feet Under meets About a Boy in this coming-of-middle-age tale about having a second chance to write your life’s story. 

Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who is afraid to live. Yes, his wife recently left him for a “far more interesting” man. Yes, he goes on a particularly awful blind date with a woman who brings her ex. And yes, he has too many glasses of Scotch one night and proceeds to pen and publish his own obituary. The newspaper wants to fire him. But now the company’s system has him listed as dead. And the company can’t fire a dead person. The ensuing fallout forces him to realize that life may be actually worth living. 

As Bud awaits his fate at work, his life hangs in the balance. Given another shot by his boss and encouraged by his best friend, Tim, a worldly and wise former art dealer who is now confined to a wheelchair, Bud starts to attend the wakes and funerals of strangers to learn how to live.

Thurber Prize-winner and New York Times bestselling author John Kenney tells a funny, touching story about life and death, about the search for meaning, about finding and never letting go of the preciousness of life.
more details
I See You've Called in Dead

Sometimes I feel like just going out and, I don’t know, stealing a traffic cone and putting it on my head and saying, ‘Look at me! I’m a giant witch!’

Alan Partridge