Thomas Shanks McKeown (born September 29, 1937) is an American poet and educator.
His growing fame as a poet enabled him to gain the post of poet-in-residence at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, 1968–74, and University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, 1976–81.
He then served as professor of English at Savannah College of Art and Design, 1982–83, and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 1983–87.
He once again won a position as poet-in-residence in 1989 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, serving in this capacity until 1994.
[1] In the late 1970s, McKeown collaborated with composer Harold Blumenfeld, contributing a cycle of poems, Circle of the Eye, to a composition for voice and piano.