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BIO NOTE
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LIFE
Lawrence Hill was born in 1957 in Newmarket, Ontario, to two American immigrants who had moved from Washington, DC, four years earlier. Hill received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Laval University and later a Master of Arts in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University. He worked as a reporter at The Globe and Mail and the Winnipeg Free Press, and also as Parliamentary Bureau Chief in Ottawa. As he began his career as a writer, he was influenced by the work of his parents, both politically active individuals who had published work on black history and civil rights issues. Hill is the author of several works of fiction, nonfiction, and journalism, and he also co-wrote the screenplay for the miniseries adaptation of The Book of Negroes. Hill divides his time between Hamilton, Ontario, and Woody Point, Newfoundland. He visited the Canadian Literature Centre to deliver his Brown Bag Lunch Reading on September 11, 2015.
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AWARDS2016
Received NAACP Image AwarD, Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Television) for The Book of Negroes (with Clement Virgo) (TV)
Received Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Program or Limited Series for The Book of Negroes (with Clement Virgo) (TV Series)
Finalist for Peabody Award for The Book of Negroes (TV Series)
Won Canada Reads for The Illegal2015
Named on The Globe and Mail’s Best 100 Books of 2015 for The Illegal
Appointed to the Order of Canada
Inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame
Diversity Award at The Banff World Media Festival for The Book of Negroes (TV Series)
Honorary Doctorate, Mount Allison University2014
Received Honorary Doctorate, Dalhousie University
Became Associate Senior Fellow, Massey College, University of Toronto
Hamilton Literary Award for Non-Fiction for Blood: The Stuff of Life2013
Short-listed for Prix Fetkann for Aminata (French translation of The Book of Negroes)
Won Radio-Canada’s Le Combat des Livres for Aminata (French translation of The Book of Negroes)2012
Received Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
Received Freedom to Read Award from the Writer’s Union of Canada
Received Award of Excellence from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association
Received Rev. John C. Holland Award of Merit, Hamilton Black History Committee
Received Medal of Distinction, Huron University College2011
Received Honorary Doctorate, The University of Waterloo2010
Received Honorary Doctorate, Wilfrid Laurier University
Received Honorary Doctorate, The University of Toronto
Received Bob Edwards Award from the Alberta Theatre Projects
Received Renaissance Award from Planet Africa
Nominated for National Magazine Award for “Meet You at the Door”2009
Placed seventh on Maclean’s Top Ten Canadian Books of the Decade for The Book of Negroes
Named Author of the Year, Go On Girl! Book Club for
Longlisted for the International IMPAC Award for The Book of Negroes
Won CBC Radio’s Canada Reads for The Book of Negroes2008
Finalist in the USA for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Someone Knows My Name (U.S. title of The Book of Negroes)
Received The Ontario Library Association’s Evergreen Award for The Book of Negroes
Received The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book for The Book of Negroes
Named Author of the Year by the Canadian Booksellers Association2007
Received The Rogers/Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for The Book of Negroes
Longlisted for the 2007 Giller Prize for The Book of Negroes2005
Received the National Magazine Award for “Is Africa’s Pain Black America’s Burden?”
Received The American Wilbur Award for best national television documentary for Seeking Salvation: A History of the Black Church in Canada
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PROUST QUESTIONNAIREWhat literary work should be a Canadian classic but isn’t?
The novel Home Game by the late Paul Quarrington is the funniest Canadian novel I have read. But it’s far from his best known work.Have you ever dreamt in a language other than your maternal language?
Yes, in French and Spanish. And why not? If you are thinking and speaking a lot in a certain language, isn’t it normal to dream in it too?Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
The words “really” and “very” do need to be stripped from my vocabulary. Talk about really very useless words!Do you have a recurring nightmare?
Yes, I do. In some unnamamed, unknown country that is not my own, I have committed some awful crime off-stage, outside the realm of my dream, and I have try to slip through the border. Will I be caught and arrested? This anxiety seems to be the crux of the dream.When do you feel most compelled to write?
When I have slept decently and am energetic, I feel compelled to write, preferably first thing in the morning.What do you consider to be your greatest extravagance?
I like shoes: running shoes, hiking shoes, sandals with orthotics built into them, flip flops for swimming pools, dress shoes for appearing on stage, rain boots for gardening in Newfoundland, heaving boots to wear while cooking outdoors in the Yukon winter. It’s ridiculous at the front door.
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PRIMARY BIBLIOGRAPHY
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LIFE WRITINGHill, Lawrence. Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada. Flamingo, 2001.
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LONG FICTIONHill, Lawrence. Some Great Thing. Turnstone P, 1992.Hill, Lawrence. Any Known Blood. HarperCollins, 1997.Hill, Lawrence. The Book of Negroes. HarperCollins, 2007.Hill, Lawrence. The Illegal. HarperCollins, 2016.
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LONG NON-FICTIONHill, Lawrence. Trials and Triumphs: The Story of African-Canadians. Umbrella P, 1993.Hill, Lawrence. Women of Vision: The Story of the Canadian Negro Women’s Association. Umbrella P, 1996.Hill, Lawrence and Joshua Hill. The Deserter’s Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq. House of Anansi, 2007.Hill, Lawrence. Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book: An Anatomy of Book Burning. U of Alberta P/Canadian Literature Centre, 2013.Hill, Lawrence: Blood: The Stuff of Life. House of Anansi, 2013.
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SHORT FICTIONHill, Lawrence. “And Now I Am Old (London, 1802).” Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, vol. 41, no. 1, 2008, pp. 57-61.Hill, Lawrence. “Meet You at the Door.” The Walrus, Jan./Feb. 2011, pp. 60-7.
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SHORT NON-FICTIONHill, Lawrence. “So, What Are You, Anyway?” Canadian Writers of African Descent, edited by Ayanna Black, HarperPerennial, 1992, pp. 33-8.Hill, Lawrence. “Black + White…Equals Black.” Maclean’s, 27 Aug. 2001, pp. 16-20.Hill, Lawrence. “Dad will always Live within Us.” Toronto Star, 6 July 2003.Hill, Lawrence. “Brutal Tale, Brave Teller.” Maclean’s, 31 Jan. 2005.Hill, Lawrence. “Is Africa’s Pain Black America’s Burden?” The Walrus, Feb. 2005, pp. 62-70.Hill, Lawrence. “Marathon Man: At 74, Ed Whitlock is one of the Fastest Men on Earth.” The Walrus, Apr. 2005, pp. 28-30.Hill, Lawrence. “The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Montréal.” The Beaver, vol. 86, no. 4, 2006, p. 49.Hill, Lawrence. “Living Under the Radar: A Gifted Chronicler Walks Toronto’s Streets and Keeps His Eyes Open.” Literary Review of Canada, vol. 14, no. 5, 2006, p. 24.Hill, Lawrence. “Behind the Book of Negroes.” Canada’s History Magazine n.p. (Also published as Hill, Lawrence. “Freedom Bound.” The Beaver, vol. 87, no. 1, 2007, pp. 17-23.Hill, Lawrence. “Why I’m not Allowed My Book Title.” The Guardian, 20 May 2008.Hill, Lawrence. “Don’t Ban the Book—Read a lot more like it.” Toronto Star, 22 Aug. 2009.Hill, Lawrence. “How Gros Morne National Park Bewitched Lawrence Hill.” The Globe and Mail, 30 July 2011.Hill, Lawrence. “Lawrence Hill’s Insider Guide to Western Newfoundland.” The Globe and Mail, 30 July 2011.Hill, Lawrence. “Book Review: The Stone Thrower, by Jael Ealey Robinson.” National Post, 16 Nov. 2012.Hill, Lawrence. “Book Review: TransAtlantic, by Colum McCann.” National Post, 19 July 2013.Hill, Lawrence. “From ‘High Risk’ to Hopeful.” Metro Canada, 7-9 Mar. 2014: 12.Hill, Lawrence. “Chains Unearthed: A Ground-breaking Work on the Black and Aboriginal Slaves who Helped Build New France, Finally Translated into English.” Literary Review of Canada, vol. 22, no. 4, 2014, n.p.Hill, Lawrence. “Adaptation: Rewriting the Book of Negroes for the Small Screen.” The Walrus, Jan./Feb. 2015, pp. 61-3.Hill, Lawrence. “What I Learned about Language when I Titled My Novel The Book of Negroes.” Slate, 13 Feb. 2015.Hill, Lawrence. “Review: Removed from Immediacy of Childhood, Go Set a Watchman Less Powerful than Mockingbird.” The Globe and Mail, 14 July 2015.Hill, Lawrence. “A Moment to Revisit Our Canadian Values.” The Globe and Mail, 5 Sept. 2015.
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SECONDARY BIBLIOGRAPHY
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BOOK REVIEWS
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ANY KNOWN BLOODBethune, Brian. “The Past Imperfect.” Maclean’s, vol. 110, no. 42, 1997, p. S5.“Hill, Lawrence. “Any Known Blood.” kerryoncanlit, WordPress, 17 Apr. 2011.Nelson, Corinne. “Any Known Blood.” What’s a Black Critic to Do? edited by Donna Nurse Bailey, Insomniac P, 2003, pp. 173-4.
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BLACK BERRY, SWEET JUICEEvans, James Allan. “The Blacker the Berry.” Books in Canada, vol. 31, no. 3, 2002, p. 36.Hansen, Denise. “Questioning Being Black and White in Canada.” Canadian Dimension, 24 Aug. 2012, n.d.“Lawrence Hill Review: Black Berry, Sweet Juice.” Donna Magazine, WordPress, 20 Oct. 2011.
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BLOOD: THE STUFF OF LIFEAbraham, Carolyn. “Lawrence Hill Dives Full Bore into the Subject of Blood.” The Globe and Mail, 4 Oct. 2013.Kidd, Monica. “How Blood Reveals us, Divides us and Unites us.” Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 186, no. 4, 2014, pp. 296-7.Vasileski, Christina. “Book Review: Blood: The Stuff of Life by Lawrence Hill.” Christina Vasileski: Copywriter, Editor, and Blogger for Entrepreneurs and Marketers, 6 Feb. 2014.
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THE BOOK OF NEGROESKavanagh, Afra. “Slavery’s Painful Story.” Canadian Literature, vol. 197, 2008, pp. 141-3.Moynagh, Maureen. “The Book of Negroes.” Canadian Literature, vol. 220, 2014, pp. 162-4.“The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill.” Giraffe Days, n.d.
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DEAR SIR, I INTEND TO BURN YOUR BOOK: AN ANATOMY OF BOOK BURNINGBeveridge, Lian. “Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book: An Anatomy of Book Burning.” CM: Canadian Review of Journals, vol. 20, no. 1, 2013, p. 8.Boyagoda, Randy. “Book Review: Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book by Lawrence Hill.” National Post, 19 Apr. 2013.“Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book.” Curled Up with a Good Book and a Cup of Tea, blogspot, 6 June 2013.
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THE DESERTER’S TALEBiskeborn, Mark. “Book Review: The Deserter’s Tale.” The Smirking Chimp, 21 Feb. 2008.Kett, Andrew. “The Deserter’s Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier who Walked Away from the War in Iraq; The Volunteer: A Canadian’s Secret Life in the Mossad.” Quill and Quire, vol. 73, no. 2, 2007, p. 67.Nielsen, Kirk. “War Stories.” The Progressive, vol. 71, no. 5, 2007, pp. 42-4.
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THE ILLEGAL“Hill, Lawrence: The Illegal.” Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2015.Snyder, Carrie. “Review: Lawrence Hill’s The Illegal is a Twisting, Intricately Woven Yarn.” The Globe and Mail 4 Sept. 2015.“The Illegal by Lawrence Hill.” Curled up with a Good Book and a Cup of Tea, blogspot, 12 Oct. 2015.
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SOME GREAT THING“A Review of Some Great Thing.” In Sean’s Opinion. WordPress 25 Jan. 2010.“Book Review: Some Great Thing by Lawrence Hill.” The Woyingi Blog, WordPress, 7 Mar. 2011.Jenkins, Ron. “Society and the Self.” Canadian Literature, vol. 142/143, 1994, pp. 236-7.
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TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS: THE STORY OF AFRICAN-CANADIANSBrooks, Phyllis. “Trials and Triumphs: The Story of African-Canadians.” Quill & Quire, vol. 59, no. 4, 1993, p. 33.“Review: Trials and Triumphs.” A Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land, blogspot, 14 Aug. 2006.Young, Gerri. “Trials and Triumphs: The Story of African-Canadians.” CM: A Reviewing Journal of Canadian Materials for Young People, vol. 21, no. 4, 1993, n.p.
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BOOKS/DISSERTATIONSClarke, George Elliot. Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature. U of Toronto P, 2002.Flagel, Nadine. Resonant Genres and Intertexts in the Neo-Slave Narratives of Caryl Phillips, Octavia Butler, and Lawrence Hill. Dissertation, Dalhousie U, 2005. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada, 2005.Krampe, Christian J. The Past is Present: The African-Canadian Experience in the Fiction of Lawrence Hill. Dissertation Trier University, 2012, Peter Lang, 2012.Wall, Natalie. Mixing in the Postcolonial Diaspora: Writing Race as Fiction in the Works of Lawrence Hill, Shani Mootoo, and Danzy Seena. MA Thesis, U of Calgary, 2009, Library and Archives Canada, 2009.
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INTERVIEWSHill, Lawrence. “Projecting History Honestly: An Interview with Lawrence Hill.” By Jesse Sagawa, Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en Littérature Canadienne, vol. 33, no. 1, 2008, pp. 307-22.Hill, Lawrence. “Talking Translation.” By Kerry Lapin-Fortin, Canadian Literature, vol. 223, 2014, pp. 102-19.Hill, Lawrence. “A Conversation with Lawrence Hill.” By Winfried Siemerling, Calaloo, vol. 36, no. 1, 2013, pp. 5-26.
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PEER-REVIEWED ACADEMIC ARTICLES
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ANY KNOWN BLOODCuder-Domínguez, Pilar. “African Canadian Writing and the Narration(s) of Slavery.” Essays on Canadian Writing, vol. 79, 2003, pp. 55-75.Fraile, Ana María. “When Race Does Not Matter, ‘Except to Everyone Else’: Mixed Race Subjectivity and the Fantasy of a Post-Racial Canada in Lawrence Hill and Kim Barry Brunhuber.” Unruly Penelopes and the Ghosts: Narratives of English Canada, edited by Eva Darias-Beautell, Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2012, pp. 77-105.Flagel, Nadine. “Fictional Revisions of Slavery and Genealogy in Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood.” 49th Parallel, vol. 26, 2011, pp. 1-32.Harris, Jennifer. “Ain’t No Border Wide Enough: Writing Black Canada in Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood.” The Journal of American Culture, vol. 27, no. 4, 2004, pp. 267-74.Moynagh, Maureen. “Eyeing the North Star? Figuring Canada in Postslavery Fiction and Drama.” Comparative American Studies: An International Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, 2005, pp. 15-27.Siemerling, Winfried. “‘May I See Some Identification?’: Race, Borders, and Identities in Any Known Blood.” Canadian Literature, vol. 182, 2004, pp. 30-50.Wall, Natalie. “Passing, Performance, and Perversity: Rewriting Bodies in the Works of Lawrence Hill, Shani Mootoo, and Danzy Seena.” 49th Parallel, vol. 26, 2011, pp. 1-19.
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BLACK BERRY, SWEET JUICEBrydon, Diana. “Detour Canada: Rerouting the Black Atlantic, Reconfiguring the Postcolonial.” Reconfigurations: Canadian Literatures and Postcolonial Identities/Littératures Canadienne et Identités Postcoloniales, edited by Marc Maufort and Franca Bellarsi, Peter Lang, 2002.
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THE BOOK OF NEGROESThe Book of Negroes Historical Guide. Apple App Store, Version 2.1, CBC, 8 Mar. 2015.Borman, David. “‘What Happened in Between’: Lawrence Hill and The Book of Negroes.” The South Carolina Review, vol. 6, no. 2, 2014, pp. 44-54.Fleming, Melissa. “The Book of Negroes Teaching Guide.” HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 2011.Medovarski, Andrea. “Currency and Cultural Consumption: Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes.” Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en Littérature Canadienne, vol. 38, no. 2, 2013, pp. 7-30.Nurse, Donna Bailey. “Lawrence Hill’s Big Spring.” Quill and Quire, vol. 73, no. 2, 2007, pp. 10-11.Phillips Casteel, Sarah. “Port and Plantation Jews in Contemporary Slave Fiction of the Americas.” Callaloo, vol. 27, no. 1, 2014, pp. 112-29.Roberts, Gillian. “The Book of Negroes Illustrated Edition: Circulating African-Canadian History through the Middlebrow.” International Journal of Canadian Studies/ Revue Internationale D’Études Canadienne, vol. 48, 2014, pp. 53-66.“What was the Book of Negroes?” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, vol. 63, 2009, p. 28.Yorke, Stephanie. “The Slave Narrative Tradition in Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes.” Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en Littérature Canadienne, vol. 35, no. 2, 2010, pp. 129-44.
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THE DESERTER’S TALENurse, Donna Bailey. “Lawrence Hill’s Big Spring.” Quill and Quire, vol. 73, no. 2, 2007, pp. 10-11./
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OEUVREBanita, Georgiana. “Canons of Diversity in Contemporary English-Canadian Literature.” History of Literature in Canada: English-Canadian and French-Canadian, edited by Reingard M. Nischik, Camden House, 2008, pp. 387-412.
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SOME GREAT THINGCuder-Domínguez, Pilar. “The Racialization of Canadian History: African-Canadian Fiction, 1990-2005.” National Plots: Historical Fiction and Changing Ideas of Canada, edited by Andrea Cabajsky and Brett Josef Grubisic, Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2010, pp. 113-29.
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EXCERPTS (TEN CANADIAN WRITERS IN CONTEXT)
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FROM WINFRIED SIEMERLING CRITICAL ESSAY
Hill’s work tells us much about history and is extensive in its temporal and geographical reach from eighteenth-century Africa right down to the here and now of a Canada we thought we knew.The marvelous effect of his writing is to make readers realize that events relate to each other across distances of time and space. His narrators show us how they — and we — can realize those connections that often have to be concretized through the personal and necessary truth of the imagination.
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FROM LAWRENCE HILL’S “MEET YOU AT THE DOOR”
After Howie hanged himself from the branch of a tree in High Park, his mother glued herself to me, desperate for explanations I couldn’t offer. But Howie also stuck to me. He didn’t care where I slept, or how much I paid for a cot in a youth hostel.
The dead had an unfair advantage.They could hector you all they wanted through the deepest, darkest Saskatchewan nights, where there was no movement but oil pumps bobbing in agreement. When the dead spoke, it was always a monologue.
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