Jennifer DeLeskie

Jennifer DeLeskie is a writer, lawyer, and editor whose work grapples with responsibility, memory, and the courage to speak truth. Through stories rooted in place and resistance, Jennifer's writing asks what we owe each other when systems fail and silence becomes survival. Her debut YA novel Everclear follows a girl venturing into the Northern Quebec wilderness to uncover the dangerous truths powerful forces tried to erase.

Jennifer DeLeskie (she/her) lives in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal) with her husband and three children. A lawyer and member of the Barreau du Québec, she has, in past lives, worked in Chiapas with a collective of organic coffee farmers, facilitated at the Cuernavaca Centre for Intercultural Dialog on Development, and participated in archaeological fieldwork in Nunavut, Belize, France, and on the Saugeen Peninsula. Her work has appeared in Prairie Fire, The Globe and Mail, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Colored Lens, and elsewhere, and has been recognized by the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Award, the Fish Short Story Prize, and as Prairie Fire's nominee for the Journey Prize. She edits Quist, the Quebec Writers' Federation youth literary journal. Her stories often grapple with witness, complicity, and transformation. Her debut novel, Everclear, is a YA dystopian for readers of The Marrow Thieves, a story about survival, resistance, and reclaiming what was stolen.

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PRAISE FOR JENNIFER DELESKIE

  • Alyssa Cherise, Author of The Wild We Chose

    Everclear is an exhilarating read that is both heartbreaking and hopeful, a prescient story for our time.

  • Richard Scrimger, Award-winning Author of The Other Side of Perfect

    Action, mystery (lots of mystery) and family dynamics are set in a fast-paced future that reads like it could happen soon. Everclear grabs you from the first page.

  • Su J Sokol, Author of Invisible Line & Run J Run

    In her debut novel, Jennifer DeLeskie has drawn on her knowledge in a wide range of subjects to create a biopunk, ecological, anti-colonial, anti-corporate YA novel, community and chosen family, that's both thoughtful and propulsive. Younger and older adults alike will have a hard time putting this book down.

  • Coltrane Seesequasis, Author of Secrets of Stone

    Jennifer DeLeskie crafts a futuristic, biopunk-esque reflection of our world with compelling characters and mysteries to unravel. Through the eyes of Kai, we embark on a potent journey of discovery and self-reflection.

FEATURED INTERVIEW

Meet Jennifer DeLeskie and discover the ideas behind Everclear, her debut upper-YA speculative novel. In this conversation with Flame Arrow Publishing, Jennifer discusses writing, memory, identity, language, and the journey that brought Everclear to life.

Read or listen to the interview

BOOKS