🎙️ New Writer’s Chair episode! I chat with James Kennedy ( @iamjameskennedy.bsky.social ), author of Bride of the Tornado, about surreal horror, small-town cults, and why horror should always break the rules. 🎧 pod.link/1829723468 📺 youtu.be/LONKqnqJL9Y

I loved doing this interview with @danielwillcocks.bsky.social !

Thrilled to be back in kidlit! My middle-grade BEHOLD! THE LEGEND OF FROGBOY, AND YOU SHALL READ IT comes out in 2027 on Norton Young Readers (+ another in 2028). Thanks to my great agent @johnmcusick.bsky.social at Folio Literary for making another dream come true. ODD-FISH fans will love this one!

My latest book review for the @wsj.com is of Dan Chaon's carnival-freak literary horror ONE OF US. I liked it, but I also have stuff to say! "A compelling, blood-curdling, often funny delight." Unlocked link: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

I wrote another book review for @wsj.com! This one is about @jaysongreene.bsky.social's UNWORLD, a satisfyingly weird and emotionally resonant novel about AI. "Less I, ROBOT and more ORDINARY PEOPLE . . . humane and refreshingly idiosyncratic." Read it here: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

I have an article in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal in which I chose 5 books that aren't horror books, but are scary nonetheless! (But the truly scary thing is my uncanny-valley author illustration.) Link: archive.fo/CfMy2

Last Friday we did the 90-Second Newbery Film Fest at Tacoma's Grant Center for the Expressive Arts! Great kid-made movies based on Newbery-winning books, including Dave Eggers' "The Eyes and the Impossible" done in the style of "Bohemian Rhapsody"! Recap: jameskennedy.com/2025/06/04/t...

Lucy's art! "The Dwellers lived on animals long after we left the Earth poisoned... they found a way to harness the animals' souls in their decaying bodies, at least until their flesh and bones decompose. The Dwellers live in the bones of their hosts until then."

I enjoyed my interview on @whostherepc.bsky.social! I talk of my love of the demented trailer for Stephen King's MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, ruining a double date with Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS, what tech companies have in common with Charles Manson, & more. Listen here: whostherepodcast.com/podcast/ep-2...

Congratulations Rita Williams-Garcia on a terrific graphic novel adaptation of your Newbery Honor winner ONE CRAZY SUMMER. One of my favorite Newbery books! Rita is a generous gem of a friend and an amazing co-host for the 90-Second Newbery film festival. Get this new graphic novel now!

Had a blast last night at @storystudiochicago.bsky.social's Storyball, whooping it up with @anandalima.bsky.social, @mxfaylitahicks.bsky.social, @fulmerford.com, @kathleenmrooney.bsky.social, @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social, and more ... and won a fancy copy of THE WIZARD OF OZ in the costume contest!

Saturday we did the San Antonio show of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival at the Tobin Center! An audience of 100s of young filmmakers & friends & family WHOOPED IT UP! Our biggest show every year, thanks to Bibliotech and HEB Read 3. And thx to my cohost Claudia Villarreal!

After a 6-year hiatus, the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival returned to Minneapolis on Saturday! Thanks to @jacquelinewest.bsky.social for being a tremendous co-host, and to all the talented young film filmmakers. Here's to next year!

A decade ago, 9-yr-old Eian-Gabriel Sinclair made his 1st movie for my 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. He's made a movie for us every year since, & just *graduated* college at age 18! Here's an interview with Eian, plus all his stop-motion movies here: jameskennedy.com/2025/04/18/e...

BOSTON! I'm doing a FREE screening of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival tomorrow (Saturday) at the @bpl.boston.gov. Kids make short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books! I'm co-hosting it with author @rebeccawriting.bsky.social. Tix: www.ticketleap.events/tickets/90se...

Floored when horror author @danielwillcocks.bsky.social included BRIDE OF THE TORNADO in his Top 10 Horror Novels of 2024. Now I'm on his podcast "The Other Stories" talking Ray Bradbury, my greatest fear, Twin Peaks, "that scene" in Stephen King's IT, & more. Listen: www.podbean.com/media/share/...

Big crowd at @eastmanmuseum.bsky.social for the Rochester showing of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival, hosted by me and @brucecoville.bsky.social! Kids made great movies: a stop-motion TALE OF DESPEREAUX, a claymation LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY, and more! Recap: jameskennedy.com/2025/04/07/t...

Hey Rochester, New York! Join the 430+ folks who have made their FREE reservations for this Saturday's screening of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival at the @eastmanmuseum.bsky.social at 2pm! Hosted by me and legendary author @brucecoville.bsky.social. Tix: www.ticketleap.events/tickets/90se...

I guess my Ricken theories have to wait another 3 years

ICYMI, I reviewed MALORT: THE REDEMPTION OF A REVERED AND REVILED SPIRIT by @joshnoel.bsky.social for the Wall Street Journal! "This quirky, enlightening, unexpectedly poignant book isn't only for aficionados of the offbeat Chicago liquor, but fans of stubborn underdogs everywhere." archive.fo/Yng1d

i'll be the death of her! (at indiana comic con)

chicago writers 🤝 reading each other's books! this is the way! congrats again on the malört book, it's a pleasure to write an honest rave. see you around town!

I wrote a rave review for the Wall Street Journal about @joshnoel.bsky.social's book about Malört! (For out-of-towners, Malört a notoriously nasty liquor, mostly imbibed only in Chicago, that we take a perverse civic pride in.) I loved it! Read: archive.fo/Yng1d

For my birthday, the wonderful @kathleenmrooney.bsky.social commissioned Eric Plattner of #poemswhileyouwait to write this gem of a poem "Bride of Tornado, Per Verse"! Thank you Kathleen and Eric!

A big, happy crowd of kid filmmakers (and lovers of weird cinema) at our Chicago screening of the 90-Second Newbery today!

The latest movie for the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival I made with my kids and their friends: Wanda Gag's 1929 Honor Book MILLIONS OF CATS, adapted in the style of a shot-by-shot remake of Quint's U.S.S. Indianapolis speech in JAWS! Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef1j...

The house was packed + the audience raucous at Saturday's screening of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival at the Brooklyn Public Library, kicking off our FOURTEENTH season! Thanks to co-host Rita Williams-Garcia and all who made movies and came. The recap: jameskennedy.com/2025/02/25/t...

Next Saturday 2/22, Newbery honoree Rita Williams-Garcia and I host the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival at @bklynlibrary.bsky.social (10 Grand Army Plaza). Kids make short funny movies that tell the stories of Newbery-winning books! Get yr FREE tix: www.ticketleap.events/tickets/90se...

Thanks so much @fuse8.bsky.social for featuring the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival on your blog today! We're doing screenings soon in NYC, Chicago, Boston, San Antonio, Minneapolis, Ogden UT, Rochester NY, and Tacoma WA... Come and catch hilarious and weird kid-made movies based on Newbery books!

These are my books! BRIDE OF THE TORNADO is a "super-storm of psycho-sexual intensity" (Daily Mail), DARE TO KNOW is a "voraciously readable page-turner" (Cory Doctorow), and THE ORDER OF ODD-FISH is "hilarious" (Booklist). Learn more and get them here: jameskennedy.com/books/