Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum is an award-winning author, editor, & ghostwriter with numerous books of poetry, literary and genre fiction, creative non-fiction, and non-fiction to his name.
He is author of three poetry collections, Fight or Flight, Visiting Hours and Ghost Gear; Founder & Editor of PoemoftheWeek.com; Editor of Apocalypse Now: Poems & Prose from the End of Days; Assistant Director of the Owsley Fork Sanctuary; Acquisitions Editor for Upper Rubber Boot Books; Founder and Editor of The Floodgate Poetry Series; and professor of creative writing at the Infinity Center's Performing Arts Academy.
Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Andrew's first book of poems, Ghost Gear (University of Arkansas Press, 2014) tells the story of Andrew's childhood navigating a multi-racial, working class neighborhood. Ghost Gear was a finalist for the Miller Williams Prize, the Colorado Book Award, and the INDIEFAB.
His second collection of poems, Visiting Hours (Stephen F Austin University Press, 2020) chronicles Andrew's grief over the loss of his childhood love to suicide. Visiting Hours won a Human Relations Book Award (2021), the American Fiction Award for Best Book of Narrative Poetry & Best Book of Religious Poetry (2021), and was a finalist for the New York City Big Book Award (2021), the International Book Awards Book of the Year (2021), the Julie Suk Book of the Year Award (2021), the National Indie Excellence Book of the Year (2021), the National Poetry Series, the Georgia Poetry Prize, the Jake Adam York Prize, the Miller Williams Prize, the Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize, the Hudson Prize, and the Akron Poetry Series.
His third book Fight or Flight (Stephen F Austin University Press, 2023) artifacts the trauma of divorce and the journey he took across the wilds of America (living in a tent on the California coast, getting intentionally lost in the Utah desert, tracking wild animals in the bitter cold of Indiana winters) in search of healing that led to the greatest discovery of all: his indigenous wife and her three children he now calls his own. Fight or Flight won BookFest's Best book of Poetry Award in 2023 and was a Distinguished Favorite of the New York Big Book Award in 2023.
Andrew lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Karen Carr; their three wonderful children, Siliuna, Otis, and Eli; and their rather ridiculous dog, Chewy. Connect with Andrew here or via social media and, if you'd like to watch the most-beautiful family wedding of all time,
