Maureen Hynes is a Toronto poet whose first book, Letters from China (Women's Press, 1981), was an account of her teacher training experiences in Chengdu, China at the end of the Cultural Revolution.

She has published six collections of poetry (see below) Her poetry has appeared in over thirty anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry in English 2010, Ed. Lorna Crozier; Best Canadian Poetry in English 2016, Ed. Helen Humphreys: Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English: Tenth Anniversary Edition, 2017, Eds. Molly Peacock and Anita Lahey; and Best Canadian Poetry 2021, Ed Souvankham Thammavongsa.  

Maureen’s poems have appeared in dozens of journals across Canada and internationally, and in the first and second volumes of In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry, eds. Kate Braid and Sandy Shreve. Her poems have also appeared in over 30 anthologies.

Maureen has given readings, workshops and taken part in panels across Canada and in the U.S, England, Scotland, and Australia. She has also taught in the University of Toronto’s Creative Writing Program.

Besides her literary work, Maureen has also written ESL academic texts, and academic articles in the fields of second language acquisition, women's training issues, race relations and human rights, labour history and labour studies. In 2010, with David Kidd, she co-authored Mapping Our Work: Toronto Labour History Walking Tours, and conducts tours of Toronto's labour history sites. With Lost Rivers Toronto and other poets, she’s developed poetry walks focusing on Toronto’s buried rivers; and with the Ireland Park Foundation, walking tours on the history of Toronto’s Irish community. She has led poetry workshops in several cities across Canada, and taught in the University of Toronto’s Creative Writing Program. Maureen is Poetry Editor for Our Times, Canada’s national labour magazine (www.ourtimes.ca).