Photo Credit:
Photo credit
Melissa Upfold of Calculated Colour Co.
Debbie Okun Hill
BIO
Biography

Debbie Okun Hill has been writing for over 35 years. She began her writing career as a journalist with a community newspaper in rural Manitoba then moved towards a profession in public relations with The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Fanshawe College in London, Ontario before becoming a freelance writer in the early 1990s.

Today, she is a Canadian poet/blogger: a member of both The Writers' Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets, past president and life member of The Ontario Poetry Society, and the recipient of two Ontario Arts Council Writers Reserve grants.

Since 2003, over 480 of her poems have been published in over 175 different publications/websites including Descant, Existere, In/Words Magazine, Juniper, Other Voices, The Fieldstone Review, The Literary Review of Canada,The Windsor Review, and Vallum in Canada plus LUMMOX, Mobius, Still Points Arts Quarterly, TAMARACKS, The Binnacle, and THEMA in the US.

She has read her work in four different Canadian provinces and at such events as the Fringe Stage of the 2011 Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, the Niagara Literary Arts Festival, the Edmonton Poetry Festival, the first 2012 PoeTrain Express/Spring Pulse Poetry Festival in Cobalt, the 2015 Great Canadian PoeTrain Tour, and Toronto's ArtBar Reading Series.

Since January 2014, she has written over 190 features on her literary blog Kites Without Strings. She also posts reviews on Goodreads. 

Check out her website/blog: http://okunhill.wordpress.com/

Content updated: March 9, 2024

ADDRESS
City: , Province/Territory: Ontario
EMAIL
GENRE
Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Blogs
LANGUAGES
English
PUBLICATIONS
Publications
Title
Tarnished Trophies (poetry collection - trade book)
Publisher
Black Moss Press
Year
2014
Title
Chalk Dust Clouds (first prize winner in The Ontario Poetry Society's 2017 Golden Grassroots Chapbook Award)
Publisher
Beret Days Press
Year
2017
Title
Drawing From Experience (third place winner in the Big Pond Rumours 2017 Chapbook Contest)
Publisher
Big Pond Rumours Press
Year
2017
Title
Another Trail of Comet Dust: Poems Pulled from Earth
Publisher
Beret Days Press
Year
2011
Title
Swaddled In Comet Dust: A Collection of Award-winning Poems
Publisher
Beret Days Press
Year
2008
AWARDS
Awards
Name
Ted Plantos Memorial Award
Year
2007
Name
Second Place in Adult Category, Dan Sullivan Memorial Poetry Contest
Year
2007
Name
Shortlisted in FreeFall 2008 Prose and Poetry Contest
Year
2008
Programs & Interests
Interested in participating Union’s Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools program:
All members are eligible for the Union’s Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools program. Are you interested in participating in this pro
Yes
Interested in participating in the Northern Ontario WITS program:
The Union’s Northern Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools program funds in-person visits to northern Ontario schools when possible. Ar
No