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| First Name | Debbie |
| Last Name | Okun Hill |
| Member Since | January 9, 2015 |
| State | Manitoba |
| Country | Canada |
| Branch Affiliation | Member at Large (no branch affiliation) |
| Website | https://okunhill.wordpress.com/ |
| Blog | https://okunhill.wordpress.com/ |
| @OkunHill | |
| Goodreads | https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9819071.Debbie_Okun_Hill?from_search=true&from_srp=true |
| Bio | Debbie Okun Hill has been writing for over 35 years and is currently a Canadian poet/blogger/reviewer. She started her career as a journalist for a community newspaper in rural Manitoba then worked as a public relations specialist for The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Fanshawe College in London, Ontario before becoming a freelance writer in the early 1990s. Since 2003, over 485 of her poems have been published in over 175 different publications/websites including Descant, Existere, Juniper, Other Voices, The Fieldstone Review, The Literary Review of Canada, The Windsor Review, and Vallum in Canada plus LUMMOX, Mobius, Phati'tude, Philadelphia Poets, Still Point Arts Quarterly, THEMA, and The Binnacle in the US. She has read her work in four different provinces and at various events including the Fringe Stage of the 2011 Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, the 2012 PoeTrain Express/Spring Pulse Poetry Festival in Cobalt, the 2015 Edmonton Poetry Festival, the 2015 Niagara Literary Arts Festival, the 2017 ArtBar Reading series in Toronto, and on the 2015 Great Canadian PoeTrain Tour. She is also an active book reviewer on Goodreads and has posted over 183 features on her literary blog "Kites Without Strings". NOTE: Bio updated June 20, 2024 |
| Publications | She is one of five Canadian poets featured in the anthology EnCompass I (Beret Days Press, 2013 edited by Kate Marshall Flaherty). TARNISHED TROPHIES (Black Moss Press, 2014) is her first book by a trade publisher. In 2015, Beret Days Press launched MINDSHADOWS, a Canadian poetry anthology she compiled and edited for 81 contributing members of The Ontario Poetry Society. In 2017, Big Pond Rumours Press released DRAWING FROM EXPERIENCE, a 15-poem (30-page) chapbook focusing on ekphrastic and art-themed poetry. This manuscript placed third in the press's 2017 Chapbook Contest. Her latest book CHALK DUST CLOUDS, first place winner in The Ontario Poetry Society's Golden Grassroots Poetry Chapbook Award, was recently published by Beret Days Press. Final revisions to her next full poetry manuscript are now complete and a publisher is being sought. |
| Other Memberships | She is a professional member of the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers' Union of Canada and the Canadian Authors Association, plus a past president and current member of The Ontario Poetry Society and a past member of the Lake Winnipeg Writers' Group. |
| Awards | She is the recipient of two Ontario Arts Council Writers' Reserve grants and has won numerous minor awards for her poetry. A partial listing appears on The Ontario Poetry Society's membership page: http://www.theontariopoetrysociety.ca/Memberprofile009.htm |
| Contests | Her poetry has also placed in numerous provincial contests and she has judged several poetry contests over the years. |
| Genres | Fiction, Freelance, Poetry, Short Stories |
| Available For | Readings, Presentations, Workshops, Book Club Meetings, Speaking Engagements |
| Services Offered | Book Reviews, Promotional Copy |