William Kennedy, born 1928 in Albany, New York, is an award-winning author and journalist. He is best known for his "Albany Cycle" of eight published novels, one of which, Ironweed, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1984.

Following his childhood and primary and secondary schooling in Albany, Kennedy attended nearby Siena College where he earned a bachelor of arts degree and edited the school's newspaper. Kennedy then began his professional literary career as a journalist at a local newspaper, followed by a U.S. Army newspaper during military service in Europe, the Albany Times-Union, and later as the managing editor of the San Juan Star in 1959. After attending Saul Bellow's fiction writing workshop at the University of Puerto Rico, he left his editorial position to focus on a career as a writer and subsequently returned to Albany in 1963. Kennedy initially wrote feature articles part-time for the Albany Times-Union about slum conditions and integration in the city that garnered him a Pulitzer Prize nomination and were later the inspiration for his nonfiction work O Albany! (1983). While serving as the Times-Union film critic, he released his first novel The Ink Truck (1969).

Beginning in 1975 with his novel Legs, Kennedy introduced his "Albany Cycle" of fiction, books that center upon the state capital and frequently focus on the struggles of recurrent characters, most notably the extended Phelan family. To date he published seven additional novels in this series, most recently Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes (2011). Kennedy also co-authored two children's books with his son Brendan Kennedy, Charlie Malarkey and the Belly Button Machine (1986), and Charlie Malarkey and the Singing Moose (1993). His first play, Grand View (1996) appeared at the Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany. Kennedy released a second nonfiction book, Riding the Yellow Trolley Car, in 1993, a collection of essays, interviews, and human interest stories from the past 40 years.

Kennedy also garnered attention with his screenplay writing. He co-wrote The Cotton Club (1984) with the movie's director Francis Ford Coppola. He penned the script for the film version of his novel Ironweed (1987).

In addition to his own writing career, Kennedy serves as a cultural and educational mentor to others in the field. Kennedy is the founder and executive director of the University at Albany-based New York State Writers Institute. He joined the University at Albany's English Department in 1974, teaching creative writing and journalism as an instructor until 1982, and now serves as a professor. He also taught at Cornell University in 1982-1983 and was professor at the University of Oregon from 2001-2002.

Today Kennedy is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and serves on the board of directors of the New York State Council for the Humanities. In addition to his Pulitzer Prize, he also received many other awards and accolades including a National Book Critics Circle Award, a MacArthur Fellowship (Genius Award), part of which served to establish the Writers Institute, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Regents Medal of Excellence from the State University of New York.

Kennedy met and married his wife Dana Sosa while working in Puerto Rico, and the couple has three adult children.