About Jessica McDiarmid
Jessica McDiarmid is Canada's National Observer's climate reporter leading our coverage of the Greater Toronto Area.
Jessica is a prominent Canadian journalist and has worked across Canada, West Africa and North America.
Her first book, Highway of Tears, was published in 2019 by Doubleday (Canada) and Atria (US).
She has written for the Associated Press, the Toronto Star, the Canadian Press, Harvard Review Online, Maisonneueve, and Canadian Business, among other publications.
AWARDS & OTHER ACTIVITIES
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Finalist for the RBC Taylor Prize and the BC/Yukon Book Prizes’ Hubert Evans Award for non-fiction, and winner of the Jeanne Clarke Memorial Publication Award, for Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (2019)
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Writer-in-residence for University of King’s College MFA program, 2020
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Speaker at numerous events, including Society of Environmental Journalists conferences in 2014 and 2015, the Toronto International Festival of Authors in 2020, UBC’s Green College lecture series and America Walks webinar in 2021; host and moderator for Toronto Public Library.
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Named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 by This magazine in July 2011 for coverage of civil war in Ivory Coast
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Honourable mention in Atlantic Journalism Awards’ Student Awards for Excellence in Journalism, 2007
Jessica graduated from University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia with a Master of Fine Arts in narrative non-fiction.
