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Raymond Kennedy (March 3, 1934 – February 18, 2008) was an American novelist. He was born in Wilbraham, Massachusetts to James Patrick Kennedy and Orise Belanger and was the youngest of three brothers. Kennedy spent his formative years in Belchertown and Holyoke. He would later set many of his books in the region.

After serving in the United States Army, Kennedy returned home and, under the G.I. Bill, studied at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, graduating in 1960 with a degree in English. While there, he studied under the poets Ted Hughes and Joseph Langland, as well as writing teachers Bob Tucker and Doris Abramson. Shortly after graduating, Kennedy moved to New York City's Greenwich Village. In the 1960s and 1970s he worked as a staff editor, first for Collier's Encyclopedia and later for the Encyclopedia Americana. In 1982, he joined the faculty of Columbia University, where he taught creative writing until his retirement in 2006. Short story writer Jacob M. Appel, a former student of Kennedy's, has cited him as an important influence.

He is survived by his only daughter, Branwynne, to whom he dedicated one of his novels.

Kennedy's archives are maintained at Boston University's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center and are open to the public.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Raymond Kennedy", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0