Robert Hilles (born November 13, 1951) is a Canadian poet and novelist. He was born in

Kenora Kenora (), previously named Rat Portage (french: Portage-aux-Rats), is a city situated on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada, close to the Manitoba boundary, and about east of Winnipeg by road. It is the seat of Kenora District. The his ...

, Ontario and grew up at Longbow Lake, Ontario. He left there in 1971 to attend university and later studied at the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

, earning a BA in

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

and English in 1976.Robert Hilles VIU Department of Creative Writing and Journalism faculty page
/ref> He also holds an MSc in Educational Psychology, earned at the university in 1985. For ten years he acted as the managing editor of ''Dandelion'', the oldest surviving literary magazine in Alberta. In 2001, he moved to British Columbia and has been active in the literary community there, especially on Salt Spring Island where he lived for 17 years. With other writers, he helped to set up a scholarship for beginning writers on Salt Spring and also organized a new reading series on the island. He moved to Nanaimo in 2019. He served on the executive of the

League of Canadian Poets The League of Canadian Poets (LCP), founded in 1966, is a national non-profit arts service organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The organization acts as the national association of professional and aspiring poets in Canada. The League co ...

for five years and in 1996 was sent by the League of Canadian Poets and the Department of Foreign Affairs to represent Canada at an International Poetry Festival in Japan. Hilles won the 1994 Governor General's Award for Poetry for ''Cantos From A Small Room'' (1993). In the same year, his first novel, ''Raising of Voices'' (1993), won the Writers' Guild of Alberta's George Bugnet Award for Novel. He has published sixteen books of poetry and five books of prose. ''Wrapped Within Again, New and Selected Poems'' was published in the fall of 2003 and won the Stephan Stephansson Award for Poetry. His second novel, ''A Gradual Ruin'', was published by Doubleday Canada in 2004. His books have also been shortlisted for the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Prize, the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize, the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry, and the Howard O'Hagan Award for Short Fiction.About Robert Hilles
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Bibliography

Books

*''Look the Lovely Animal Speaks'' (1980), *''The Surprise Element'' (1982) *''An Angel in the Works'' (1983), *''Outlasting the Landscape'' (1989), *''Finding the Lights on'' (1991), *''A Breath at a Time'' (1992), *''Raising of Voices'' (1993), *''Cantos from a Small Room'' (1993), – winner of the 1994 Governor General's Award for Poetry *''Near Morning'' (1995), *''Kissing the Smoke'' (1996), *''Nothing Vanishes'' (1996), *''Breathing Distance: A Book of Odes'' (1997), *''Somewhere Between Obstacles and Pleasure'' (1999), *''Higher Ground'' (2001), *''Wrapped Within Again: New and Selected'' (2003), *''A Gradual Ruin: A Novel'' (2004), *''Calling the Wild'' (2005), *''Slow Ascent'' (2006), *''Partake'' (2010), *''Time Lapse'' (2012), *''Line'' (2018), *''Shimmer'' (2019), *''Don't Hang Your Soul on That'', (Novel), Guernica Editions, (2021), *''From God's Angle,'' Black Moss Press, (Prose Poems), (2021), ISBN 9780887536236 *''Release,'' Short Story collection now complete. *''One True Note'', Second novel set in Thailand now complete. *''Pink Puppet'' , book of Flash Fiction in the works. *''To Parts Unknown'', novel set in Northwestern Ontario in the works. *''The Stone Boats,'' novel set in Canada and US in 1920 and 1921. *''Morning Poems,'' In the works.

Anthologies

Ride Off Any Horizon I and II, NeWest Press. Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, Monitor Books, California. 1988. Men and Women (Together and Alone), The Spirit That Moves Us Press, Iowa. 1988. A Discord of Flags, a discord of flags, Toronto, 1992. Snapshots, Black Moss Press, 1992. Boundless Alberta, NeWest Press, 1993 (Short Story) Reconsilable Differences, Bayeaux Press, 1994 That Sign of Perfection, Black Moss Press, 1995 (Nonfiction) Fresh Tracks, Polestar, 1998 In the Clear, Thistledown Press, 1998 Losers First, Black Moss Press, 1999 I Want to be the Poet of Your Knee Caps, Black Moss Press, 1999. Threshold, University of Alberta Press, 1999 Henry's Creature, Black Moss Press, 2000. Smaller Than God, Black Moss Press, 2001. Gifts: Poems for Parents, Sumach Press, 2002. Writing the Terrain, University of Calgary Press, 2005. Rocksalt, Mother Tongue Publishing, 2008 111 West Coast Literary Portraits, Mother Tongue Publishing, 2012 Window Fishing: The night we caught Beatlemania, Hidden Book Press, 2014 Where the Nights are Twice as Long, Goose Lane Editions, 2015 Carteggi Letterari, Italian Online Anthology, 2016 Blackberries, Salt Spring Library Anthology, 2018 Plume 9, St. Petersburg Florida, 2021 The Beauty of Being Elsewhere, Hidden Brook Press, Brighton, Ontario, 2021

Magazines

His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous magazines in North America and abroad including: ''The Windsor Review, Prairie Fire, Event, Capilano Review, West Coast Line, The Fiddlehead, CV 2, Descant, The Antigonish Review, The New Quarterly. Arc, Poetry Canada Review, NeWest Review, Canadian Fiction Magazine, The Forge Literary Magazine, The Write Launch Literary Magazine, The Malahat Review'', ''Canadian Literature,'' ''Carousel, The Danforth Review, The JellyFishReview, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, Varnish Journal, Eclectica Magazine, Mantra Review, Grain Magazine, Juniper: A Poetry Journal, Penultimate Peanut'', and ''Zone 3: A Literary Journal, Plume Poetry Journal,'' and many others.

Awards

2004 Winner Stephan G. Stephanson Award for Wrapped Within Again. 1994 Winner Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry for Cantos from a Small Room. 1994 Winner Writer's Guild of Alberta Best Novel Award for Raising of Voices. 2004 Finalist for the City of Calgary/W.O. Mitchell Award for Wrapped Within Again. 1998 Finalist for the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award for Breathing Distance. 1997 Finalist for the City of Calgary/W.O. Mitchell Award for Kissing the Smoke. 1997 Finalist for the Stephan Stephanson Award for Nothing Vanishes. 1996 Finalist for the Writer's Guild of Alberta Best Short Fiction Award for Near Morning.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hilles, Robert 1951 births Living people 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian male writers Canadian male poets 21st-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian male novelists Governor General's Award-winning poets People from Kenora Writers from British Columbia Writers from Ontario 21st-century Canadian male writers