Lawrence Hill to be McMaster’s next writer-in-residence

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Hill_Lawrence.jpg” caption=”Best-selling author Lawrence Hill will be McMaster’s next writer-in-residence. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Hill.”]Aspiring writers at McMaster should note that best-selling author Lawrence Hill will be the University's next writer-in-residence. He will bring with him his passion for community involvement and his formidable talent with the printed word.

This past May, Hill's latest novel, The Book of Negroes, recently won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. The novel tells the story of a young African woman named Aminata who is taken from her home and sent as a slave to the United States.

She undergoes an incredible and harrowing journey, and eventually returns to Africa. Lawrence's talent for page-turning narrative and believable character development helps animate the history of the returning slaves into a living world.

“The title comes from a British military ledger that allowed slaves into Nova Scotia,” says Hill. “Getting her name into this book becomes central to the main character's struggle. The story itself was a nightmarish process to research and write. Looking into these histories is very hard as there was an incredible amount of suffering. I consulted hundreds of resources: books, articles, diaries, maps and the actual Book of Negroes, and I also talked to experts. The entire novel took about four years to write.” The research shows in the amount of detail Hill offers in the story.

“I really wanted to write about how a person copes with that kind of hardship. I tried to explore how one might survive while staying sane and loving life. How does one suffer such astounding deprivation and come out the other side?”

Hill lives in Burlington, so McMaster was a natural choice for him.

“Working in your own backyard is always great,” he said of his upcoming residency. Having taught creative writing at Johns Hopkins University and the University of British Columbia, Hill is no stranger to post-secondary institutions. He plans to make his fall term a busy one.

“Sometimes universities do not seek to be community-based. I don't think that this is helpful, and I'm hoping I can use literary events to bring the community and the university closer together.”

In addition to community outreach, Hill will be reading manuscripts from developing authors and promoting literature at the University.