Keven McQueen

According to information on his MySpace page and from personal knowledge of the individual, Keven Darryl McQueen, author, was born in Richmond, Madison County, Kentucky, on September 9, 1967. He received degrees in English from Berea College, Berea, Ky., and Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Ky. Since 1989 he has been an instructor of composition and literature in the Department Of English and Theater at Eastern Kentucky University.

McQueen is the author of four books on Kentucky history. Cassius M. Clay, Freedom’s Champion (Turner Publishing, 2001) is a biography of the nineteenth-century emancipationist. Offbeat Kentuckians (McClanahan Publishing, 2001) and its sequel, More Offbeat Kentuckians (McClanahan Publishing, 2004) include biographies of bizarre figures from Kentucky history. The colorful personalities profiled in the books include Louisville giant Jim Porter, panorama artist John Banvard, duelist Alexander McClung, prohibitionist Carry Nation, psychic Edgar Cayce, director Tod Browning, frontier poet Tom Johnson, botanist Constantine Rafinesque, bandit Mary Sullivan and math prodigy Reuben Field. [...] in Old Kentucky (McClanahan Publishing, 2005) is a hybrid of the Kentucky history and true crime genres, including the stories of various murders that occurred in the state between 1826 and 1937, including the Beauchamp-Sharp assassination and the “Ashland Tragedy.” The book aroused some controversy as the author makes no secret of his pro-death penalty stance.

McQueen’s books are marked by original research, a light writing style and a dry, even dark sense of humor. Most of McQueen’s books have been illustrated by his identical twin brother, Kyle. McQueen’s current projects include The Murdered Maid, another Kentucky true crime book and The Kentucky Book of the Dead, which concerns ghosts, giant skeletons, premature burial, monsters “and other strangeness.” He also has completed a true crime manuscript about murders from American history. He has written miscellaneous pieces for Clark’s Kentucky Almanac and maintains a humorous online MySpace blog.

McQueen has spoken before the Kentucky Historical Society and has made appearances at the annual Kentucky Book Fair and the Southern Kentucky Bookfest. In interviews and other sources he has alluded to having worked as a night watchman in a funeral home, to having giant crayfish in his backyard and to falling down a lot. Most notably perhaps, Keven McQueen is the older brother of Darren McQueen

This biography submitted by Gaile Sheppard