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 and The Women's Art Association of Canada.

Her poetry and essays have appeared in journals in Canada and the UK, including Poetry Wales, Vallum, The Maynard,  Quills, The Toronto Quarterly, Arc and Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme; and in anthologies/publications including, Poetic Inquiries of Reflection and Renewal, Poetry as Research, MacIntyre Purcell Publishing (2017), Poetic Inquiry II -- Seeing, Caring, Understanding, Using Poetry as and for Inquiry, Sense Publishers (2016), 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, Wolfville, 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 lives in Toronto.