Kenneth J. Harvey

Kenneth J. Harvey

Kenneth Joseph Thomas Harvey (born 22 January 1962) is a Canadian award-winning filmmaker, journalist and internationally bestselling author. Born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, his books are published in Canada, the US, the UK, Russia, Germany, China, Japan, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Turkey, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and France. He has won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the Winterset Award, Italy's Libro Del Mare, and has been nominated for the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and twice for both the Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Harvey's editorials have been published in most major Canadian newspapers, and he is the chief writer and producer of The Harvey Retaliation, a consumer revenge broadcast. He has held the prestigious posts of Writer-in-Residence at both the University of New Brunswick and Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the founder of the ReLit Awards for poetry, short fiction and novels.

Harvey lives in St. John's and an outport on the Island of Newfoundland.

One of his latest books, The Town That Forgot How to Breathe (2003), takes place in Bareneed, Newfoundland and Labrador, where the residents have suddenly lost their ability to breathe automatically. Ladyhawke Ventures acquired the rights to produce a film based on the book.

Harvey sits on the Board of Directors of the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

Harvey also keeps personal blog as well as a Wal-Mart criticism blog where he posts emailed testimonies by Wal-Mart employees of unethical treatment and conduct at their workplace.