He was selected in 2013 for the Massey Lectures: he drew from his non-fiction book Blood: The Stuff of Life, published that year.

His ten books include other non-fiction and fictional works, and some have been translated into other languages and published in numerous other countries.

[6] Hill's mother, Donna Mae Bender, came from a white Republican family in Oak Park, Illinois, and graduated from Oberlin College.

[9] Lawrence Hill was born as the second son, and grew up with his brother Dan and sister Karen in the predominantly white Toronto suburb of Don Mills.

[15] These have included The Becoming Ground program at the University of British Columbia, the Humber School for Writers, Sage Hill Writing Experience, and The Banff Centre.

[13] Hill's first passion was running, but he was unable to realize his dreams of becoming an elite athlete and winning an Olympic gold medal in the 5,000 meters.

in economics at Laval University, Hill worked for four years as a full-time newspaper reporter for The Globe and Mail, and later for The Winnipeg Free Press.

[3][22] He became the parliamentary bureau chief for the newspaper in Ottawa, covering Parliament, the Supreme Court of Canada and a wide range of cultural, economic and social issues.

[22] Resigning from his position as parliamentary bureau chief in 1986, Hill moved to Spain to begin writing fiction full-time.

Hill curated and wrote the exhibit on his father for the Ontario Archives, called The Freedom Seeker: The Life and Times of Daniel G.

[11] The novel has been chosen by community or academic reading programs as a central work for discussion at Dalhousie University (twice),[23] Trent University, the Calgary Public Library,[24] The City of Rothesay (NB),[25] the Hamilton Public Library[26] and the One Book One Community program linking Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, Ontario.

The series featured actors Aunjanue Ellis, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Louis Gossett Jr.[28] Filmed in South Africa, Nova Scotia, and Ontario in early 2014, the miniseries premiered in Cannes, Toronto and New York City in the fall of 2014, began to air on CBC Television in Canada in January 2015, and was scheduled to air on BET in the US in February 2015.

[13] The Walrus published Hill's award-winning essay "Is Africa's Pain Black America's Burden",[35] and a short story entitled "Meet You at the Door".

In the fall of that year he delivered lectures in five Canadian cities, drawn from his non-fiction book Blood: the Stuff of Life (2013).

Deeply passionate about the advancement of women and girls in Africa, Hill has worked as a volunteer in the West African countries of Niger, Cameroon and Mali since 1979.

[49] As an honorary patron of Crossroads, in 2010 Hill founded the Aminata Fund, supporting programs for women and girls in developing areas of Africa.

The Deserter's Tale: the Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq was published by House of Anansi Press in Canada.