A Late Lunch

Authors

tribute, literary friendship, theory of fiction, American novel, authorial legacy

William Kennedy

William Kennedy was born and raised in Albany, New York. He brought his native city to literary life in many of his acclaimed Albany cycle of novels—seven to date—which includes Roscoe, Legs, Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ironweed. The versatile Kennedy has written a play, Grand View, wrote the screenplay for Ironweed and co-wrote the screenplay for Cotton Club with Francis Ford Coppola. He founded the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.