Diana Parsell

Diana Parsell is a former journalist and science writer in Falls Church, Va. She spent years as a reporter looking for good stories, and stumbled onto a great one while living and working in Southeast Asia. An 1897 travelogue on Java inspired her to write the first-ever biography of its author in Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington’s Cherry Trees.

A native of southeastern Ohio, Diana has made Washington her adopted home since graduating from college. She began her editorial career at National Geographic, and had done writing and editing for many other publications and organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Washington Post. Her work has appeared in a wide range of print and online outlets.

Diana was an English major at Marietta College, studied publication design and management at George Washington University, and has master’s degrees from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and Johns Hopkins University. Long active in the local literary community, she was among the founding writers and editors of the online Washington Independent Review of Books.

For her new book Diana received a Mayborn Fellowship in Biography and the 2017 Hazel Rowley Prize from Biographers International Organization (BIO). Other honors include fellowships from Rotary International and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, and a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Her volunteer activities including serving as a docent for public tours at the Library of Congress, where she did much of the research for her book.