Educated in Wellington, Kennedy was a piano teacher and music librarian in her early years.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Victoria University of Wellington and taught at Trinity College London.
[1] In 2007 she completed a Master of Arts at Victoria University of Wellington, under the supervision of Lydia Wevers, titled Kicking round home: Atonality in the Bone People.
Her most recent novel, The Last Days of the National Costume, was featured on the Listener's Top 100 Books of 2013, and on the Nielson 2013 Bestseller's list in New Zealand adult fiction.
[5] In 2021 she received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry.