Writing

Someone Knows My Name / The Book of Negroes

Lawrence Hill's new novel is published as Someone Knows My Name in the USA, and appears in Canada as The Book of Negroes. The book was longlisted for the ScotiaBank Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Canada and Caribbean region) and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and named one of the top 100 books of 2007 by The Globe and Mail and by Amazon.com.

Listen to a reading from the novel.

Any Known Blood

From Virginia in the time of slavery to the modern suburbs that were once a final stop on the Underground Railroad, Any Known Blood follows the search of Langston Cane V — divorced, 38 and recently fired — to understand himself by giving voice to those who came before him in five generations of an African-Canadian-American family.
 

Some Great Thing

Disillusioned and apathetic after four years of college, fledgling reporter Mahatma Grafton returns to his hometown to begin work at a local newspaper. When a peaceful demonstration escalates into a full-scale riot and police cover-up, Mahatma discovers the principles that have always eluded him.
 

The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq

In clear, compelling prose crafted with the help of writer Lawrence Hill, The Deserter's Tale tells the story of a young man who went to war in Iraq believing in his government, and who was transformed into someone who ethically, morally, and physically could no longer serve his country.

Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada

Lawrence Hill begins this book with personal stories about how his parents met and married, what it was like growing up in an otherwise entirely white Toronto suburb, and how his own children are beginning to see themselves in a country where issues of racial identity are ignored. But Hill also looks beyond the personal, sharing his coast-to-coast interviews with Canadians of black and white parentage, and examines subjects such as romance between blacks and whites, racial terminology and Ku Klux Klan activity in Canada.

Seeking Salvation: A History of the Black Church in Canada

This award-winning 90-minute film documentary premiered at Toronto's Hot Docs Film Festival and first ran on Vision Television in 2004.

Read a selection of Lawrence Hill's articles and essays.

In recognition of the 45th anniversary of the Ontario Human Rights Code, Lawrence Hill conceived, researched and wrote an online exhibit on his father's work in human rights for The Archives of Ontario, called, "The Freedom Seeker: The Life and Times of Daniel G. Hill."