Shay, Kevin 1973-

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Shay, Kevin 1973-

PERSONAL:

Born 1973; married; wife's name Gabria. Education: Graduated from Brown University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary Agency, 27 W. 20th St., Ste. 1003, New York, NY 10011.

CAREER:

Writer, software programmer. McSweeney's, San Francisco, CA, Web site editor, 2000-01. Has also worked for Parker Brothers' Games, Philip Morris, and for Macintosh.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with others) Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category, 1998-2003, Knopf (New York, NY), 2004.

The End as I Know It: A Novel of Millennial Anxiety, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of two one-act plays, produced by the Bruno's Island New Plays Festival, San Francisco, CA, 2003-04. Contributor to the anthology 101 Damnations. Contributor to periodicals, including McSweeney's, eCompany Now, Salon, and Modern Humorist.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kevin Shay was interested in writing and performing, as well as computers, from an early age. He performed in school plays and scripted two musicals while attending Brown University. His interest in computers led him to a series of software jobs that included working at Parker Brothers on the creation of their "Merlin" toy, and editing the Web site for McSweeney's. Shay served as an editor for Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category, 1998-2003, a collection that included some of the best material to have appeared on the magazine's Web site. Shay followed up that effort with his first novel, The End as I Know It: A Novel of Millennial Anxiety. The book looks back at the last days of the nineties, and the anxiety felt by many in anticipation of the computer chaos rumored to be coming with the change to the year 2000. Shay's protagonist, Randall Knight, lives a simple, unambitious life, with a bleak outlook on the future. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews found the book to be "mostly a sure-footed romp," and "a smirking time capsule of millennial tension." Karen Core, in a review for the Library Journal, dubbed Shay's effort "an amusing, well-written look at recent history."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2006, review of The End as I Know It: A Novel of Millennial Anxiety, p. 807.

Library Journal, October 1, 2006, Karen Core, review of The End as I Know It, p. 61.

Publishers Weekly, August 9, 2004, review of Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category, 1998-2003, p. 246; July 10, 2006, review of The End as I Know It, p. 48.