Kostya Kennedy


Kostya Kennedy is an American sportswriter. Since 1994 he has been a contributing editor at Sports Illustrated. He is an expert on baseball and hockey and was the magazine’s first regular NHL columnist. He has written columns and articles for SI.com since its inception. Before joining SI, he was a staff writer at Newsday and contributed to The New York Times and The New Yorker.

Biography

Originally from Great Neck, New York, Kennedy graduated with a BA in Philosophy from Stony Brook University in 1990 and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1992, where he was awarded the distinctive Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship.

Career

Kennedy helped found and develop several features at Sports Illustrated including "SI Players" and "SI Adventure" and he served as the top editor of the Sports Illustrated Presents franchise, overseeing special print and digital issues devoted to the commemoration of milestones in sports.
A frequent contributor and commentator on sports talk radio as well as on television for MSNBC and other networks, Kennedy has appeared on "Late Night with Seth Meyers", "Charlie Rose", "Morning Joe" and other news entertainment programs. He occasionally hosts public speaking engagements focusing on issues and ethics in sports.
As of 2015, Kennedy holds a visiting professorship at New York University's Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media and Business. He previously taught journalism at NYU and Columbia University.

Books and awards

Kennedy is the author of 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports which was named "the best baseball book to appear in many a season," by Roger Kahn. And Pete Rose: An American Dilemma, described this way by the novelist Richard Ford: "Like the best writing about sport–Liebling, Angell–it qualifies as stirring literature." For both books, Kennedy earned the Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. Each was a New York Times Bestseller.
His book on Rose, along with other pieces and appearances by Kennedy, including a 2014 New York Times Op-Ed piece, have played a significant role in the renewed discussion about Rose’s eligibility for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Editor