Robert Billings was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario and raised in Fort Erie.
Billings became well known in Canadian literary circles as a poet, critic, teacher, and editor of Poetry Canada Review and Poetry Toronto.
His poems and reviews of Canadian poetry have appeared widely in Canada, Britain, and the United States.
Suffering from depression after the breakdown of his marriage, Billings committed suicide at Niagara Falls in November 1986.
[2] Efforts to find the body were halted once Horseshoe Falls froze over, and the ice melted before his body was recovered six months later in June.