LAWRENCE HILL'S fifth book, a work of non-fiction entitled Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada was published in 2001 by HarperCollins Canada. It generated significant public interest, was the subject of a cover story by Maclean's magazine, and became a bestseller. His latest novel, The Book of Negores, was published in 2007, also by HarperCollins Canada.

His novel, Any Known Blood (HarperCollins Canada, 1997), was published to critical acclaim across Canada. It is about five generations of a black family that migrates back and forth across the Canada-U.S. border. It is set between 1828 and 1995, mostly in Ontario and in Maryland. In January, 1999, William Morrow and Company published Any Known Blood in the United States.

His first novel, Some Great Thing (Turnstone Press, 1992) was also acclaimed by reviewers. In 1995, it was translated into French by Robert Paquin and published by Les Editions du Ble, under the title De grandes choses.

Hill has also written two books about the history of blacks in Canada. They include Trials and Triumphs; the Story of African-Canadians (Umbrella Press, 1993) and Women of Vision; the Story of the Canadian Negro Women's Association (Umbrella Press, 1996). His fiction has appeared in literary anthologies published by HarperCollins Canada, McClelland & Stewart, and Houghton Mifflin, and in various magazines and newspapers including Toronto Life, The Toronto Star, Descant, Exile, and West Coast Line.

Hill, who also speaks French and Spanish, has lived and worked across Canada, in Baltimore, and in Spain and France. As a volunteer with Canadian Crossroads International, he has on three occasions led cultural exchanges in the West African countries Niger, Cameroon and Mali. He has done volunteer work for various groups, including the Ontario Black History Society, the Writers' Union of Canada and PEN Canada. In 1997, he organized a major tribute in honour of the Canadian-Barbadian writer Austin Clarke. In 1998-99, Hill was a member of the national council of the Writers' Union of Canada, vice-chairperson of the Union's foreign affairs committee, and a member of the authors' committee of The Writers' Trust of Canada.

Hill has a B.A. in economics from Laval University in Quebec City and an M.A. in writing from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He has taught creative writing at Ryerson Polytechnic University and at The Johns Hopkins University, and he has served as a mentor to developing writers through the Writers' Union of Canada and through Writers in Electronic Residence, a program of the Canadian Education Association and York University.

Previously, Hill worked as a staff reporter for The Globe and Mail and for The Winnipeg Free Press, and later as a communications officer for the Ontario government.

Hill, who also runs a small freelance writing business out of his home, lives in Burlington, Ontario.