Events

Friday, January 17, 2025
General deadline for submissions to the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. (Special extended deadline of March 24 for submissions to the San Antonio, Boston, Minneapolis, and Tacoma screenings.)

Saturday, February 22, 2025
The BROOKLYN, NY screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. Hosted by me and Newbery Honor winner Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer and more). At the Brooklyn Public Library Central Library (10 Grand Army Plaza) in the Dweck Auditorium. 1 pm. More details to come.

Saturday, March 1, 2025
The OGDEN, UTAH screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. Hosted by me and Keir Graff (author of The Tiny Mansion, Minerva Keene's Detective Club, and more). At the Treehouse Children's Museum (347 22nd Street). 6 pm. More details to come.

Sunday, March 9, 2025
The CHICAGO screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. Hosted by me and Keir Graff (author of The Tiny Mansion, Minerva Keene's Detective Club, and more). At the Harold Washington Library Center (400 S State St.) in the Pritzker Auditorium. 2 pm. More details to come.

Monday, March 24, 2025
Special extended deadline for entries for the San Antonio (5/3), Boston (4/12), Minneapolis (4/26), and Tacoma (5/30) screenings of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.

Saturday, April 5, 2025
The ROCHESTER, NY screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. At the George Eastman Museum (900 East Ave) in the Dryden Theater. Hosted by me and the legendary Bruce Coville (author of My Teacher is an Alien and more). More details to come.

Saturday, April 12, 2025
The BOSTON screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. Hosted by me and Rebecca Mahoney (author of The Valley and the Flood and The Memory Eater). At the Boston Public Library, in Rabb Hall at the Central Library in Copley Square (700 Boylston Street). 3 pm. More details to come.

Saturday, April 26, 2025 (TENTATIVE)
It's not for sure yet, but we're planning the MINNEAPOLIS screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival at the Minneapolis Central Library (300 Nicollet Mall) in Pohlad Hall. Hosted by me and another author to be named later. More details to come.

Saturday, May 3, 2025
The SAN ANTONIO screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. In the H-E-B Performance Hall at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts (100 Auditorium Circle). Made possible by our partners at the Bexar County Digital Library Bibliotech and H-E-B Read 3. More details to come.

Friday, May 30, 2025
The TACOMA, WA screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. At Grant Center for the Expressive Arts (2510 N 11th St.). Hosted by me and Tacoma's own Doug Mackey. More details to come.

Speculative Thrillers That Blur The Line Between Physics and Philosophy. An article I wrote for Crimereads.com in which I talk about "metaphysical technology" in the works of Isaac Asimov, Cixin Liu, Tanizaki Junichiro, Kelly Link, Colson Whitehead, Thomas Ligotti, Angela Carter, Susannah Clarke, and even obscurities like T.L Sherred and text adventure writer Brian Moriarty (anyone else remember Infocom's Trinity?)

Interview for the Chicago Review of Books. Devi Bhaduri interviews me about our changing emotional relationship to technology, my "Elf Theory" of friendship, and how L. Ron Hubbard stole the girlfriend (and life savings) of one of the people who inspired Dare to Know.

Interview for Shelf Awareness. Paul Dinh-McCrillis reviews Dare To Know and interviews me. Find out which parts of the book are inspired by Del Close's death-visions, a baffling cab ride I took with my wife, and why I dread December 19, 2046!

Interview for the Japanese Consulate's E-Japan Journal. Austin Gilkeson interviews me about my time in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) from 2004-2006. We discuss how living in Japan inspired me for The Order of Odd-Fish and Dare To Know, plus we talk about my experiences on the 88 Temples of Shikoku Pilgrimage and the time a Japanese schoolboy sang Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" to me on the train.

Read All Recent Press

The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. I founded a film festival in which kid filmmakers create weird short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books in about 90 seconds. Now in its 6th year, it screens annually in 14 cities: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and many others! The movies the kids create are weird, funny, and impressive. Learn more about the film festival here.

The Secrets of Story Podcast. I host a podcast with Matt Bird, the author of a book and blog called The Secrets of Story, in which we discuss (okay, argue about) advice for novelists and screenwriters.

The Classroom Guide to The Order of Odd-Fish. I've put together a 44-page Teacher's Guide / curriculum for Odd-Fish! It's a treasure trove of creative project ideas, discussion questions, chapter worksheets, and further resources. It also features fan art by enthusiastic teen readers of Odd-Fish. (This art was featured in a fan art gallery show in Chicago in April 2010.) You can download the teacher's guide for free here.

It's a mixtape for The Order of Odd-Fish. Listen to a stream of the songs I chose for an imaginary "movie soundtrack" for Odd-Fish, and read why I chose them. Lots of different stuff: French ye-ye, Kinshasa street bands, pseudo-classical, puzzling blippity-bloopity music, and more.

I used to be in a band called Brilliant Pebbles. We had been variously described as "melodramatic video game music," "moon-man opera," and "gypsy sex metal." It's over now, but I loved being in this band.

Email: kennedyjames [at] gmail [dot] com
Twitter: @iamjameskennedy

The Order of Odd-Fish on Goodreads
Dare to Know on Goodreads

Bride of the Tornado

DARE TO KNOW

Events