John Keeble (writer)

He was nominated in 1993 for a Northwest Regional Emmy for his writing of the documentary film "To Write and Keep Kind," a biography of Raymond Carver., which won a Blue Ribbon at the American International Video Festival (1993) and First Prize in the Documentary Category at the New York Film Festival (1993).

He was the script writer for To Write and Keep Kind, a documentary on the life of Raymond Carver funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and aired on Public Broadcasting System in 1992. He was later a literary consultant for Westword, a National Endowment for the Arts-funded documentary on Western Fiction Writing, which aired on the Public Broadcasting System in 1995.

He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for the piece "Black Spring in Valdez," written for The Village Voice about the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989; Keeble arrived at the site on April 8, 1989, and traveled back and forth from his home in Spokane County, Washington, to interview fishermen and Native Americans, public and corporate officials, and hundreds of scientists for the human-caused environmental disaster.

His awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Washington State Governor's Award., and Eastern Washington University Trustee's Medal for Teaching and Research (1980).

He has also worked as an educator, having taught at Grinnell College (1969-1972) and Eastern Washington University (1973-2002). At Eastern Washington University, he is presently Professor Emeritus. He was Distinguished Visiting Writer at Boise State University in spring 2006, and held the Coal Royalty Trust Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama (Fall Semesters, 1992, 1998, 2002). He also served at Alabama as a Visiting Professor in 1995/96.

Keeble was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and raised in Saskatchewan until his parents moved the family to California. The son of a minister, Keeble holds dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship. Keeble attended the University of Redlands (Bachelor of Arts, "magna cum laude", 1966), and the University of Iowa (Master of Fine Arts, 1969). Additionally, he attended Brown University for one year (1971/72). He began adult life as a musician, but turned seriously to writing while at the University of Iowa.

John Robert Keeble (born November 24, 1944) is a Canadian-American author. Primarily a novelist, he is best known for his novel Yellowfish (1980) and Broken Ground (1987). He has also written short stories and nonfiction. In 2019, he won an O. Henry Award for his short story, "Synchronicity", which was published in Harper's Magazine.