Keith Dunnavant is the critically acclaimed author of four books, including The Missing Ring, which was hailed by Sports Illustrated as "evocative and provocative."

In a long and distinguished career marked by consistent achievement and remarkable versatility, Dunnavant has successfully combined journalism and entrepreneurship like very few professionals in American media.

A native of Athens, Alabama, he started his career as the 14-year-old sports editor of a local weekly newspaper, talking his way into a job that did not exist. At The Journal, he began covering Southeastern Conference football and basketball before he was old enough to drive. After exploiting his journalism skills to work his way through the University of Alabama-with an assist from coaching legend Paul "Bear" Bryant - Dunnavant continued to work his way up the journalism ladder as a sportswriter for the Birmingham Post-Herald, Dallas Times Herald, Los Angeles Times and Sports inc. magazine. Barely a decade after convincing the publisher of the The Journal to give him a chance, he was hired as a sportswriter at The National, Frank Deford's revolutionary, New York-based all-sports daily, which has often been described as the greatest collection of writing talent ever assembled under one roof. It was also perhaps the last great launch in the history of the newspaper business. As the youngest writer on staff alongside already legendary figures including Scott Ostler, Dave Kindred and Mike Lupica, Dunnavant cemented his reputation as one of the country's leading college football writers.

In his sportswriting career, Dunnavant traveled the country covering various major sports, including NCAA college basketball, Major League Baseball, and the National Football League. Along the way, he chased some of the most important sports news stories of the day and interviewed many of the major sports figures of the last half of the 20th century, including Paul "Bear" Bryant, Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Buster Douglas, Bobby Knight, Ted Turner, Joe Paterno, Richard Petty, Billy Payne, Edwin Moses, Jack Nicklaus, Herschel Walker, and Bill France.

Motivated to follow his inner entrepreneur, Dunnavant rolled the dice and walked away from the newspaper business after The National's demise. Combining his knowledge of college football with his ambition to blaze a new media trail, he devised an innovative way of publishing magazines in partnership with television and radio stations. The unusual licensing program-which he first sketched on a napkin at a Los Angeles hotel coffee shop-allowed him to launch the college football title Dunnavant's Paydirt Illustrated by leveraging his creative thinking...instead of the traditional route: Red ink, supported by a significant amount of borrowed money. Within three years, Paydirt boasted a circulation of more than 100,000 across the Southeast. Marketed under the banner of Atlanta-based Solovox Publishing, Paydirt and its corporate siblings, Dunnavant's Speed! Illustrated and South Walton Life, demonstrated the owner's ability to create editorially sophisticated magazines that connect with readers while harnessing a revolutionary business model.

In addition to his role as publisher and editor-in-chief of the three Solovox titles, Dunnavant has been editor of Adweek Magazines' Special Report, managing editor of Mediaweek, executive editor of Atlanta Magazine, and a long-time contributor to BusinessWeek, Sport and several other major publications. One of the few journalists who has been a top-level editor of three distinct types of magazines - sports, business and general interest - he has worked with a long line of writers to craft compelling narratives and overseen coverage of a wide variety of important stories, including the 2000 national elections and the ethics investigation of former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell.

His narrative journalism has been honored with dozens of major awards, including the Best of Show prize and five other Green Eyeshade Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, seven feature writing awards from the Football Writers' Association of America, and a Gold Medal from the City & Regional Magazine Association.

As a non-fiction author, Dunnavant has explored the boundaries of biography, sports, history and culture.

In Coach (Simon & Schuster, 1996), he brought a new level of insight and narrative depth to the epic rags-to-riches story of Paul "Bear Bryant, penning the definitive portrait of the Southern icon, considered by many the greatest college football coach of all time.

Critics hailed Coach as "a masterful job" (The Christian Science Monitor), "robust and revealing" (Birmingham Post-Herald), and "balanced and intelligent" (Kirkus Reviews).

After covering the national college football scene for more than two decades and watching television slowly consolidate its power over the sport, Dunnavant chronicled the evolution in The Fifty-Year Seduction (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2004), connecting the distant dots between the birth of the modern NCAA and the creation of the BCS.

The New York Times Book Review praised Seduction as "a fascinating tale of intrigue and betrayal."

With The Missing Ring (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2006), Dunnavant returned to the familiar territory of Bryant and Alabama football. Focusing on the undefeated, untied, uncrowned 1966 Crimson Tide, he took readers deep inside the process of molding a championship team that earned a dubious distinction in college football history. But The Missing Ring was more than a football book. It explored one of college football's greatest teams against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and a world on the brink of dramatic change-when the Crimson Tide was forced to compete with the divisive figures of George Wallace and Bull Connor to control the meaning of Alabama in the nation's consciousness.

In praising the book, Sports Illustrated said, "You can now add to your literary starting lineup The Missing Ring."

Birmingham columnist Paul Finebaum said, "Keith Dunnavant has proven again why he is one of America's greatest sports authors and historians."

His next book, a biography of Green Bay Packers icon Bart Starr, is scheduled for publication by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press in 2010.

Always interested in stretching himself creatively, Dunnavant recently expanded his horizons to include documentary filmmaking. He is the president and co-owner of ShadowVision Productions, which specializes in historic documentaries.

An accomplished after-dinner speaker who has addressed dozens of civic and professional organizations, Dunnavant has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama and a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan. He has been utilized as a creative consultant and expert commentator on several television documentaries dealing with Paul "Bear" Bryant and college football history, including ESPN's SportsCentury and Honor Roll, CBS Sports' The Bear, and HBO's Breaking the Huddle; and has been featured as a college football analyst on various radio programs, including the Paul Finebaum Radio Network, The Jim Rome Show, and the One-on-One Sports Network.