James S Kendall

Writer, thinker, wanderer.

James S. Kendall is an author of fiction both literary and other. He's also a husband and father constantly searching for ways to be a better human.

Follow him on twitter @JESKendall

My fiction has appeared in The Antioch Review, West Branch, and Blood Tree Literature.  I'm a winner of a Loft Literary Mentorship Award and have been Long-listed for the Santa Fe Writer’s Project Award. 

I grew up mostly in southern Pennsyltucky where the Civil War’s violence and racism live unresolved.  But I also grew up in New York City, Florida (where I gained a brother), Indiana, Pittsburgh (where I swiped a degree from Carnegie Mellon), Colorado, and the roads between.  I’m continuing to grow up in Minneapolis with my wife, our son, a house-spirit, and a dog-shaped bundle of excitement. 

I've been practicing writing since I was in grade school and trying to imagine the secret lives and adventures of earthworms.  I became enamored early with the excitement and complexity of sci. fi. and determined to become a theoretical physicist and genre author.  Somewhere along the way, I read Cannery Row and became infected with this idea of "characters" and "humanity" and "beauty."  My aspirations to be a pulp genre writer have never recovered.

Why do I write?  Because that's how I find beauty in the world.  With everything I write, I try to deepen and expand the place in the world that I inhabit.  I hope that everyone can find the same in their life.