Brandon Stickney

{{Short description|American biographer and journalist (born 1967)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2012}}

Brandon M. Stickney (born in 1967 in Lockport, New York) is an American journalist, author, and documentarian. He was a newspaper reporter at the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal from 1990 to 1995. He is the author of All-American Monster: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh (about Timothy McVeigh){{cite news|title=Biographer of McVeigh has moved on from dark era|last=Continelli|first=Louise|date=April 19, 2009|work=The Buffalo News}}{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986240-2,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105133736/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986240-2,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 5, 2012|title=Oklahoma City: The Weight of Evidence|date=April 28, 1997|magazine=Time|access-date=June 11, 2010}} and The Amazing Seven Sutherland Sisters: A Biography of America's First Celebrity Models (about the Seven Sutherland Sisters).{{cite news|title=Old letter reports nine Sutherland sisters|last=Stickney|first=Brandon|date=July 10, 2006|work=Niagara Gazette|url=http://niagara-gazette.com/columns/x681249824/GUESTVIEW-Old-letter-reports-nine-Sutherland-sisters/print}}{{cite web |url=http://www.sideshowworld.com/tgod7sutherlands.html |title=Sideshow World, Sideshow Performers from around the world |access-date=2010-06-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717182535/http://www.sideshowworld.com/tgod7sutherlands.html |archive-date=July 17, 2010 |df=mdy }} Released in late 2020, Stickney's memoir is The Five People You'll Meet in Prison.{{cite news|url=https://buffalonews.com/entertainment/books/lockport-mans-prison-memoir-i-knew-there-was-a-story-there-that-wasn-t-being/article_47402388-2047-11eb-874a-af82ab804d40.html|title=Lockport man's prison memoir: 'I knew there was a story there that wasn't being told'|last=Prohaska|first=Tom|date=November 21, 2020|work=The Buffalo News}}

Since his release from prison{{cite news|title=The Five People You'll Meet in Prison: A Memoir of Addiction, Mania & Hope|newspaper=Kirkus Reviews|volume=LXXXVIII |issue=15 |date=August 1, 2020}} in 2018, Stickney has volunteered in prison reform advocacy in Florida and in New York.

He attended Daemen College, Niagara County Community College, and graduated with a B.A. in English literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB).{{When|date=October 2021}} UB's English program was noted for professors Leslie Fiedler and Robert Creeley, among others.

After five years at the Union-Sun & Journal, Stickney helped ABC News, A&E Biography, and Court TV create documentaries on the Oklahoma City bombing. He also attended Timothy McVeigh's trial in Denver. He later managed marketing and promotions at Prometheus Books. RSA, a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz Financial, hired him as marketing manager, where he led the communications department. He remained at RSA when it was acquired by Fiserv, a banking services partner.

He continued freelance writing for various publications, including Publishers Weekly and The Buffalo News. After working as a copywriter for Stand Advertising, the Partnership, and J. Fitzgerald Group, he began a Facebook column on addiction and mental illness called "Couchsurfing". The column, along with 20 prison diaries, became The Five People You'll Meet in Prison.