Kimber was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He attended Dalhousie University from 1967 to 1970, where he served as editor of the Dalhousie Gazette. He earned his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College in Baltimore in 2001.[citation needed]
Career
From 1985 to 2002, he was the weekly political and general columnist for The Daily News in Halifax. Later, he served as a weekly political and public affairs columnist for Halifax Metro and the Halifax Examiner, and was a Contributing Editor for Atlantic Business Magazine. His writing has appeared in many major Canadian newspapers and magazines. As an Ottawa-based broadcaster, he was a current affairs producer on CTV Television Network and a producer, story editor, writer and host for many CBC Television and radio programs.
He has been a professor at the University of King's College from 1983 to his retirement in 2025 and has been the director of the School of Journalism three times. In 2013, he co-founded the university's Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program.
Honours
Kimber received an honorable mention from the Centre for Investigative Journalism that he shared with Kelly Shiers for an article in Cities Magazine about the botched search for a little boy lost in the woods of Nova Scotia.
He won the 2022 Evelyn Richardson Award for his book Alexa!: Changing the Face of Canadian Politics.
In 2023, he was appointed a member of the Order of Nova Scotia for representing Nova Scotia in the national press and mentoring several generations of journalists.
In 2026, he was honoured with a Legacy Award from the Atlantic Book Awards Society, which is presented to individuals who have made "a lasting contribution to the development of the literary arts in Atlantic Canada, people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty and who have, through innovation, risk-taking, self-sacrifice, and/or creativity, provided opportunity or inspiration (or both) for those sharing Atlantic Canadian stories through writing and publishing."
