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Kenneth Wishnia was born in Hanover, N.H. to a roving band of traveling academics. He has lived and worked (and been chased by riot police) on three continents, including several years in Scotland, France and Ecuador. The urgent need for a day job forced him to earn a B.A. from Brown University (1982) and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from SUNY Stony Brook (1996). He teaches writing, literature and other deviant forms of thought at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, Long Island, where he is an Associate Professor of English, and would like you to know that, despite all the crap ya gotta put up with, being a writer is a dream come true.
His first novel, 23 Shades of Black, was nominated for the Edgar and the Anthony Awards and made Booklist’s Best First Mystery list, and was followed by four other novels, including Soft Money, which Library Journal listed as one of the Best Mysteries of the Year, and Red House, which was a Washington Post Book World “Rave” Book of the Year in 2002. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Murder in Vegas, Queens Noir, and elsewhere.
He has held many odd jobs over the years (simultaneous translator, carpenter, furniture builder and mover, rehearsal pianist, opera chorus singer, extra in film and TV, etc. You get the idea). He studied mime in Paris, taught English to the Ecuadorian Army, and worked in New York theatre for many years. He is married to a wonderful Catholic woman from Ecuador, and they have two children who are completely insane.
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With Sara Paretsky, a queen of the genre and certified Sisters in Crime goddess (Shamus Awards, 2009).
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With the fa-a-abulous Megan Abbott, visiting author in my crime literature class at Suffolk Community College (Fall 08).
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With Linda Barnes and Christa Faust at the 2009 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. |
With David Liss and Judy Bobalik |
With Ken Bruen at the Shamus Awards |
With S.J. Rozan at Toronto Bouchercon. |
With some woman who claims to be my wife. Note the dormant volcano behind us.
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With Paco Ignacio Taibo II and his wife Paloma on the equator a few miles north of Quito (naturally, I’m in the Northern hemisphere and he’s in
the Southern), |
With fellow lunatics Ted Fitzgerald and Gary Warren Niebuhr, at Edgar Allan Poe’s grave in Baltimore (Bouchercon 2008). |
The same, only creepier. |
With George Pelecanos at Partners & Crime. |
With some guy named Michael Connelly (I think he’s a writer or something). |
With Alison Gaylin, visiting author in my crime literature class at SuffolkCommunity College (Fall ’09). Don’t judge a book by its cover... |
With the legendary Ann Bannon
(and
a terrific issue of Black Mask) at Gary Lovisi’s Pulp Fiction Expo in NYC, Oct. ’09. |
With Lee Child, who actually agreed to visit the harsh and forbidding wasteland that is Western Suffolk County. (Note the evil scheme for world domination on the board
behind us.)
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With Alan Gordon, fellow manly man, armed with a deadly shrimp skewer (Bouchercon 2009). |
With the inimitable (and utterly charming) Charlaine Harris (Bouchercon 2009). |
With Gary Phillips, who’s keeping an eye on me so I don’t get out of hand (Bouchercon 2009). |
With Laurie R. King, who knows her Sherlock Holmes better than anybody (except maybe Leslie Klinger) (Bouchercon 2009). |
With July Hyzy, who just won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. You go, girl! Woo! Woo! Woo! (Bouchercon 2009).
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With Kate Flora, certified Sisters in Crime goddess (Bouchercon 2009).
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With Leslie S. Klinger, annotator extraordinaire of the Sherlock Holmes canon and other works (Bouchercon 2009). |
With Max Allan Collins,
somewhere
on the road to perdition
(Shamus Awards, 2009). |
Gee, guess who these two are? (Bouchercon 2009). |
In Quito, Ecuador. I just had to get a photo of this, for some reason. |
With Cynthia Baxter and Jill Brock at the Brooklyn Book Festival (Sept. '09). |
With Barbara D'Amato
in Chicago (her home turf). |
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| © Copyright 2010 Kenneth Wishnia |
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