About
Peter Kuitenbrouwer
Forester. Teacher. Writer.
Peter Kuitenbrouwer
I grew up on a farm in the Outaouais region of Quebec, and graduated from McGill University in 1984. A year later, I co-founded Montreal Mirror. My career as a journalist took me across North America: to Canadian University Press in Ottawa, The Mexico City News, The Gazette in Montreal, where I covered the Oka crisis and the massacre of women at the École polytechnique—and New York, where I worked as a producer for Radio-Canada and Radio-Québec, and as a correspondent for Southam News and the Canadian Press. I crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a Soviet container vessel, was detained by Zapatista guerrillas on assignment in Chiapas, Mexico and hiked the Inca Trail.
In 1994 I moved to Toronto. In 1997 I joined the National Post. I stayed at the Post 20 years, where I worked as a local news columnist and Toronto editor, and won an award for business feature writing. I reported from the Turks & Caicos Islands and Yemen. I have published two books for children. In 2012 I earned a William Southam Journalism Fellowship to Massey College, University of Toronto, where I studied forestry and Canadian fiction. My stories have appeared in Canadian Geographic, Chatelaine, GEO, Maclean’s, The Narwhal, Saturday Night, Toronto Life, The Walrus and newspapers across North America.
In 2019 I graduated from the Master of Forest Conservation program at the University of Toronto, and joined Forests Canada as editor of its magazine, Our Forest. In 2021 I became a registered professional forester. Today I work as a forester, editor, writer and instructor.
I live in Toronto with my wife, Mimi Maxwell, and our dog. Our family (including our two grown children) also enjoy time on our property in Madoc, Ontario. Some day I hope to complete work on the sugar shack I have been building in our forest.
I serve as a volunteer board member of the Quinte Woodlot Association and volunteer with the Forestry in the Classroom and Envirothon programs at Forests Canada.
I am fluent in French and Spanish.