William McKeen

William McKeen is author of nine books and the editor of four more. His most recent books are Everybody Had an Ocean (2017), Too Old to Die Young (2015), Homegrown in Florida (2012), Mile Marker Zero (2011), Outlaw Journalist (2008), Highway 61 (W.W. Norton, 2003), Rock and Roll is Here to Stay (2000) and Literary Journalism: A Reader (2000). He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and raised in Warrington, England; Weisbaden Germany; Omaha, Nebraska; Homestead, Florida; and Fort Worth, Texas. Before beginning his teaching career, he worked for several newspapers and magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, The American Spectator, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post and The Tampa Bay Times. His writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Holiday, American History, Maxim, The Saturday Evening Post and many other newspapers and magazines. He has appeared on "The Today Show," "The O'Reilly Factor," "The CBS Evening News" and many other news programs. He earned his bachelor's degree in history and his master's degree in journalism from Indiana University and his Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Oklahoma. He taught at Western Kentucky University 1977-1982, the University of Oklahoma 1982-1986 and the University of Florida, 1986-2010. He teaches at Boston University, where he chairs the Department of Journalism. His major teaching areas have been literary journalism, history of journalism, reporting, feature writing and history of rock'n'roll. He is divorced, has seven children, and lives on the rocky coast of Cohasset, Massachusetts.