Member Profile

Mary Lou Soutar-Hynes, Jamaica-Canadian, former nun, is an Ontario poet/educator with an interest in poetic inquiry. In 2009, she was a Fellow at the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers. Her second collection, Travelling Light, Seraphim Editions (2006), was long-listed for the 2007 ReLit Poetry Award. A member of an active writing group of poets, she is a founding member of the collaborative ekphrastic project between the Long Dash group of poets and studio artists from the Women's Art Association of Canada. She belongs to the League of Canadian Poets, The Women's Art Association of Canada, The Ontario College of Teachers, and the Ontario Public Supervisory Officials Association.

Her poetry and essays have appeared in journals in Canada and the UK, including Poetry Wales, Quills, The Toronto Quarterly, Arc and Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme; and in antlologies/publications including, Jubilation !, Poems Celebrating 50 Years of Jamaican Independence, Peepal Tree Press (2012), The Poet to Poet Anthology, Guernica Editions (2012),The Art of Poetic Inquiry, Backalong Books (2012), Jamaica in the Canadian Experience: A Multiculturalizing Presence, Fernwood Publishing (2012), Resonance: Poetry and Art, Sixth Floor Press (2008), Garden Variety, An anthology of flower poems, Quattro Books (2007), and Calling Cards, New Poetry from Caribbean / Canadian Women, Sandberry Press (2005). She has featured in public readings in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Merrickvillle, Picton, Halifax, Antigonish, Charlottetown, St. John, Vancouver and Victoria, as well as Perth, Scotland and Bournemouth, England. She has extensive leadership experience in education, curriculum/policy development and implementation, and as a speaker/presenter at conferences, workshops and symposia. Retired from the Ontario Ministry of Education, she divides her time between writing and projects in education.