John Kenny is a writer and editor, working with the Irish Writers Centre as a class facilitator and mentor. He has had short fiction published in Uncertainties, Fear the Reaper, Emerald Eye: The Best of Irish Imaginative Fiction, Transtories, The World SF Blog, Revival Literary Journal, First Contact, FTL, Woman’s Way, The Galway Review, Jupiter Magazine and several other magazines, webzines and anthologies. His poetry has featured in StepAway Magazine, Smashing Times and Every Day Poets, and is forthcoming in Prole.

He was co-editor of Albedo One from 1993 to 2013 and co-administrator of its International Aeon Award for Short Fiction from 2005 to 2013. Previous to that he edited several issues of FTL (1990 – 1992). He also edited Writing4all: The Best of 2009, Box of Delights, an original horror anthology, and Decade 1: The Best of Albedo One.

Testimonial

“Having John Kenny edit your manuscript means that you have the good fortune to work with a world-class editor and talented author rolled into one. John didn’t merely assist with line edits, but he asked important questions that led to more emotional resonance in my work and critical improvements in the structure of my stories. John went beyond the scope of our agreement, and consequently my work greatly improved by integrating his thoughtful suggestions. John’s perspective and experience not only made my words better, it has made me a better author.” – Taylor Grant, Head of Global Animation at Webtoon Studios, Los Angeles, Producer, Professional Storyteller

Reviews

There’s a nasty undercurrent to John Kenny’s ‘Last Love’, the tale of child murderer Gerry who is seeking a truth about the nature of death and regards his murders as an experiment, and thinks that his victims are a price worth paying. Ultimately this turns out to be either a case of revenge from beyond the grave or, if you prefer a more prosaic version, a man driven mad by guilt. What elevates the story above this common or garden scenario is Kenny’s depiction of Gerry, the unsettling details that he gives and the insights into the mind of somebody who is totally insane by any normal standard. One could even argue that his experiments are simply a means to excuse and aggrandise more base instincts, that he is at heart simply a paedophile. Whatever interpretation you give, and for all his talk of showing reverence to the dead children, it’s hard to read this story without feeling somewhat soiled by time spent in Gerry’s mind, but at the same time it’s a character study that is intensely felt and absolutely fascinating. – Black Static

‘Last Love’ by John Kenny – “…that in the last moment in extremis lay the greatest expression of life.”…There are some scenes in this remarkable story that you will never forget, I suggest, the ‘sculpted’ burial and unburial of a surrogate ‘objective correlative’ in the wilds of nature, the glimpses of this ‘objective correlative’ with its mother, discrete drops of rain (or seconds of time as a discrete entity) into a well-defined area of paranoia, “the greatest jolt of connection”, “It made the eyes appear almost completely black, at odds with the ghostly skin surrounding them, otherworldly in an intense, erotic way.” Desire and thirst for knowledge as two sides of the same coin. A fisherman with a tug on the line – like this rambling attempt at dreamcatching this story? A “grasping imagination.” A “vast oblivion.” “…no revealing of the irises.” The crowding in of Gerry’s mother and father...I keep my powder dry about this remarkable work. – nullimmortalis

‘The Cripple’ by John Kenny is broody stage-play material that offers an earnest glimpse into a Sarajevo-set relationship touched by the shared destructive experience of pathogenic war, and frozen in time and trauma by replayed video footage. – BugPowder

John Kenny’s ‘Encore’ is an intriguing piece, more an evocation of a mood than a strong narrative, but it is effective. Fermino Salousse lives in Maputo, Mozambique, and is dying from some unspecified disease. Shunned by nearly everyone, he makes his way through the heat and dust to the Parque José Cabral to see a travelling circus. From one tent, spectators emerge dazed and stunned; curious, Fermino makes his way inside and witnesses what may be a miracle, or what may simply be another illusion. The ambiguity of the ending is not a cop-out, or a hopeful attempt to substitute confusion for meaning, but emerges from Fermino’s character. The prose is solid, with a blunt naturalism that serves to accentuate Fermino’s plight. – Tangent Online

‘Malachi’s Return’ (John Kenny). This one elicited favourable comment from no less than David Brin. It’s immensely ambitious; it uses the Catholic Church of the Irish 1950’s as a model for some far-future global tyranny. The adventures of a rebellious computer hacker are intercut with contemporary newspaper reports and historical documents. It’s too big a concept for a short story, but it comes close to being great. – First Contact