Mary Lou Soutar-Hynes is a Jamaican-Canadian, poet/educator and former nun. A Fellow at Scotland’s Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers in Fall, 2009, her literary publications include the collections: Dark Water Songs (2013); Travelling Light (2006), long-listed for the 2007 ReLit Poetry Award; and The Fires of Naming (2001). Published in Canada, the UK and The Netherlands, her work includes poetry and essays in journals and anthologies and chapters in edited books. She lives in Toronto.