Kennedy was born in southeastern Texas and grew up in southern Louisiana.
Kennedy also teaches English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he was awarded the Walt Mayfield Adjunct Teaching Award in 2018 and the Most Distinguished Teacher for the University Honors Program in 2020.
In 1991, Kennedy and colleagues Ron Casey and Harold Jackson were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for the series, "What They Won't Tell You About Your Taxes.
He has been named the state's top editorial page columnist five times.
Kennedy's creative nonfiction has been published nationally in Redbook magazine and in literary journals.