Biography

Deirdre Kelly is a Canadian journalist, author and internationally recognized arts critic and style writer. She holds a Master’s degree in English from the University of Toronto and is the best-selling author of the nonfiction books, Paris Times Eight and Ballerina: Sex, Scandal and Suffering Behind the Symbol of Perfection, the latter taking the number one spot on a Top 10 list of the world’s best ballet books published by the Guardian newspaper in 2021. Her next book, Fashioning the Beatles: The Looks that Shook the World, will be published in the fall of 2023 by Sutherland House Books.

From 1985 to 2017, she was a staff writer at The Globe and Mail, where she served as the Canadian newspaper’s award-winning dance critic, pop music reviewer, senior fashion reporter and Saturday arts section national columnist, among other editorial roles. In 2017, she was appointed Editor and principal writer of the The York University Magazine where she currently works. Her freelance articles have appeared in a variety of international publications, including Marie Claire in London, Elle in New York, Vogue in Australia and arts e-zine, Critics At Large, in Toronto.

A two-time recipient of the Nathan Cohen Award for Excellence in Theatre Criticism (2020 & 2014) and a multiple prize winner at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018) she is a contributor to the International Dictionary of Ballet and AWOL: Tales for Travel-Inspired Minds, among other published book titles.

A resident of Toronto, she sits on the advisory boards of the Canadian International Film Festival (CANIFFF), Fashion and Business Arts Humber College, and the bilingual-Chinese-Canadian luxury magazine, Fête Chinoise.