Keith Birdsong (14 July 1959 – 4 June 2019; age 59) was an illustrator who created the cover art for several Star Trek Pocket Books novels. His first cover was the novel Metamorphosis by Jean Lorrah. Birdsong also created the portraits of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy for the 25th anniversary postal envelopes.
Birdsong liked Star Trek: The Original Series and the Star Trek films and called himself a Star Trek fan. His wife though, hated science fiction. In his opinion, the casting of Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard was perfect and he cited Picard as his favorite character.
Birdsong was interviewed by Bradley H. Sinor for the article "Keith Birdsong – Painter of Mad Worlds" for The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine issue 16, pp. 46-51.
Career[]
Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma and following his graduation from high school, Birdsong joined the army and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper and journalist. It was during his time in the army that he received the Keith L. Ware Award for his sketches and illustrations.
After his time in the army, he worked at a graphics studio in Raleigh, North Carolina. He sent slides of his work to several publishers and created the cover series "Chopper One", "Arrow and Sabre", "The Planet Builders", some western series, and science fiction.