Stephen Kimber

STEPHEN KIMBER, a Professor of Journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax and co-founder of the university’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster.

He is the author of two novels — The Sweetness in the Lime (Nimbus, 2020) and Reparations (Harper Collins, 2006) — and 12 non-fiction books, including:

• The Phelan Feud: The Bitter Struggle for Control of a Great Canadian Food Empire (Barlow Books, 2024)
• Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions with Jennifer Robertson (HarperCollins, 2022)
• Alexa! Changing the Face of Canadian Politics (Goose Lane, 2021)
• What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five (Fernwood, 2013)
• Halifax: Warden of the North (co-author, updated edition) (Nimbus, 2010)
• IWK: A Century of Caring (Nimbus, 2009)
• Loyalists and Layabouts: The Rapid Rise and Faster Fall of Shelburne, NS 1783-1792 (Doubleday, 2008);
• Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War (Doubleday, September 2002);
• NOT GUILTY: The Trial of Gerald Regan (Stoddart, 1999) also available as an expanded e-book under the title, Aphrodisiac: Sex, Politics, Power and Gerald Regan;
• Flight 111: The Tragedy of the Swissair Crash (Doubleday, 1999/ Nimbus, 2013);
• More Than Just Folks (Pottersfield, 1996); and
• Net Profits (Nimbus, 1990).

His books have won numerous awards, including:

• What Lies Across the Water won the 2014 Evelyn Richardson Memorial Award for Nonfiction at the East Coast Literary Awards and was long-listed for a Libris Award as Nonfiction Book of the Year for 2013 by the Canadian Booksellers’ Association. The Spanish edition won the 2016 Readers’ Choice Award presented by the Cuban Institute for the Book.
•  Sailors, Slackers won the 2003 Dartmouth Book Award, the Evelyn Richardson Memorial Award for Nonfiction and a Torgi Award for its portrayal of Halifax dujring World War II.
• Reparations was shortlisted for both the Dartmouth Fiction Award and the Arthur Ellis Crime Writers of Canada First Novel Award.
• Loyalists and Layabouts was shortlisted for the Evelyn Richardson and Dartmouth Nonfiction Awards.

As a journalist Kimber has…

• won more than a dozen Gold and Silver awards from the Atlantic Journalism Awards for journalism and magazine writing,
• Won a Silver award for column writing from the National Magazine Awards and been a finalist in a variety of categories, including Best Overall Article, Column Writing and Religious Journalism,
• won Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for magazine writing from the Trade, Association and Business Publications International organization,
• won a Dan McArthur Award for excellence in radio documentary production,
• won a regional ACTRA award for documentary writing,
• won a Canadian Food Writers’ Award for the best magazine article on the Canadian Food Industry,
• a National Author’s Award for Best Business Magazine article,
• an Honourable Mention from the Centre for Investigative Reporting for investigative reporting.

His writing has appeared in almost all major Canadian publications including Canadian Geographic, Saltscapes, Financial Post Magazine, Maclean’s, Canadian Business, Elm Street, En Route, Chatelaine, Financial Times, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and the National Post. His op-ed, “The Cuban Five Were Fighting Terrorism: Why Did We Put Them in Jail” was published by the Washington Post in October 2013.

Between 1985 and 2002, he was a weekly political and general interest columnist for the Daily News in Halifax, Canada. He resumed his column again in the spring of 2004 and continued until the paper folded in 2008. He currently writes a weekly column on local and provincial politics for The Halifax Examiner. He is also a Contributing Editor to Atlantic Business Magazine.

Since 1983, he has taught journalism at the University of King’s College, where he specializes in creative nonfiction writing, newspaper reporting and editing and online journalism. From 1996-2003, in 2007-08 and 2013-14, he served as Director of the School of Journalism. In 1998-99, he was concurrently a Research Fellow with the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. In 2013, he co-founded King’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction degree program.

In 2023, he was named to the Order of Nova Scotia, the province’s highest honour. The citation:

As the author of two novels and eleven non-fiction works, Stephen Kimber is a distinguished writer, journalist and educator.

In the academic realm, he served as Professor of Journalism for more than thirty years, during which time he was a multi-term Director of the School of Journalism at the University of King’s College. In 2013, he founded the King’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program, and he is now its Fiction Cohort Director.

Kimber has tirelessly given back to his community, university, and profession by teaching and mentoring generations of journalists. He played a part in training reporters, educators, politicians, and businesspeople. Kimber’s accomplishments included serving as general editor of several government reports on a diverse range of topics from the economic future of Nova Scotia to the Royal Commission on the Wrongful Conviction of Donald Marshall, Jr.

His writing has appeared in almost every major English-Canadian publication, and he has helped ensure a strong Nova Scotian voice in the national press.

In addition to his prodigious output, Kimber’s service to the creative community has been outstanding. Through his involvement in numerous organizations, such as the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, the Writers’ Union of Canada, and others, he has given much to his profession.

Over five decades, Kimber’s contributions to the life and people of the Province through literature, journalism and academia have done much to enrich the lives of Nova Scotians.

He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction degree from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD.

He and his wife, Jeanie Steinbock Kimber, live in Halifax. They have three grown children.