Joey Kennedy

Joey Kennedy (born Joe David Kennedy, Jr. on March 28, 1956) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer who lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Kennedy was born in southeastern Texas and grew up in Cajun southern Louisiana. He has called Alabama home for three decades. He came to The Birmingham News as a sports copy editor in 1981 but also worked as an assistant Lifestyle editor, the newspaper’s first photo editor, as Sunday editor, editor of the newspaper’s television section, and as book editor before joining the editorial board as an editorial writer and columnist in 1989.

He left Alabama Media Group in February 2015 and is currently back-page columnist for B-Metro magazine, a political columnist for Alabama Political Reporter and publisher of Animal Advocates of Alabama. Kennedy also teaches English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

In 1991, Kennedy and colleagues Ron Casey and Harold Jackson were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for the series, "What They Won’t Tell You About Your Taxes." Kennedy and The News editorial board were finalists for Pulitzer Prizes in 1994 and 2006, as well. He has been named the state’s top editorial page columnist five times. Kennedy's creative nonfiction has been published nationally in Redbook magazine and in literary journals.