Winston H. Kemp is an American investigative journalist and former structural engineer. Born in 1979 in Toledo, Ohio, he earned a B.S. in civil engineering from The Ohio State University and spent a decade on bridge and transit projects around the Lake Erie basin before retraining in journalism at Northwestern's Medill School. His reporting on public contracting, industrial safety, and the shadow world of infrastructure finance has appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Midwest Dispatch, and ProPublica, garnering a Sigma Delta Chi Award and a Livingston Award finalist nod.
Kemp's work bridges the blueprint and the byline. Drawing on field inspections and procurement files, he writes crime-driven narratives that trace how money, metal, and municipal power collide—whether in reported features or in fiction that keeps one steel-toed boot in the facts. His books, including Blueprint of a Scandal, follow workers, whistleblowers, and officials through the opaque systems that shape Midwestern life, from decommissioned waterways to fast-tracked megaprojects.
He has taught longform reporting at Kent State, testified before the Ohio House on procurement transparency, and continues to mentor young reporters on document-driven investigations. Kemp lives in Cleveland Heights with his partner and a retired greyhound, and he still can't pass a bridge without checking the gusset plates.
