Keith Rosson

Keith Rosson (born April 12, 1976) is an American author, illustrator, and graphic designer. His fiction includes both novels and short stories, and blends horror and crime. His graphic design and illustration work includes cover art for books and punk rock albums. He created the punk fanzine Avow in 1995.

Life and education Keith Rosson was born on April 12, 1976. He was born with optic nerve hypoplasia, which has left him with a peripheral vision of 25 degrees with both eyes combined, rendering him legally blind. He did not realize the severity of his visual impairment until he was ten or eleven. He has dropped out of art school twice. He first studied to a fine arts school, and later studied graphic design. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his partner and two children.

Career In 1995, Rosson created the Avow punk rock fanzine while he was in art school in Seattle. It started off by merging punk rock content with poetry, but the poetry was gradually phased out until issue eleven, when it was entirely made up of his own art and creative nonfiction work.

Starting in 2007, Rosson has been writing short stories. His short stories have been published in various magazines, journals, and anthologies, including Reactor, Southwest Review, and Camera Obscura. His 2016 short story "Forgive Me This" was shortlisted for the Birdwhistle Prize for Short Fiction. In 2021, he reprinted many of his short stories in Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons. It won a Shirley Jackson Award for Best Single-Author Collection.

In 2017, Rosson published his debut novel The Mercy of the Tide with the independent publishing house Meerkat Press. His following novels, Smoke City and Road Seven, were also published by Meerkat Press. In 2023, Fever House was published by Penguin Random House, making it his first book published by a major publishing house. A sequel to Fever House, titled The Devil by Name, was released the following year. His latest novel, Coffin Moon, was published in 2025. His next novel, Crone, is set for release in 2026. His influences include Watchers, Swan Song, and the early works of Stephen King. Stephen King has praised his novels.

Rosson is also an illustrator and graphic designer. His work as an illustrator for punk album covers began when he was "maybe twenty", when he sent a batch of illustrations to a Canadian punk band called Submission Hold and ended up doing the illustrations for all of their albums. His biggest inspirations on his illustration and graphic design work include the punk graphic artist Pushead and comic book artists like Bill Sienkiewicz and Jae Lee. He is also inspired by the angularity and figure work of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. His clients include Green Day, Against Me!, and Warner Bros. Records. He also designs book covers, including covers for his own books published by Meerkat Press, as well as for John McNally's The Fear of Everything and a reissue of Kathe Koja's The Cipher.

Rosson was a member of a punk band called Neckties Make Me Nervous. While he enjoyed writing lyrics, he describes himself as "a horrible guitarist".