DaMaris B. Hill

Hill was born in Charleston, West Virginia, to Damaris J. Lowe and Winton M. Hill III. Both of her parents are clergy in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Much of Hill's creative work references her upbringing and family. Many of her books attend to public and familial histories.

In 1999, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Morgan State University. In 2005, she earned her Master of Arts in English from the same institution. In 2011, she earned a graduate certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Kansas. In 2012, she earned her Ph.D. in English (creative writing) from the same institution.

Hill has also earned several professional certificates. She earned a certificate in Holocaust Educators Network from City University of New York and Lehman College. She earned a certificate in Research Administration 101 through KU Research and Graduates Studies at the University of Kansas. She earned a certificate in Teacher Consultant Certification through the National Writing Project at Towson University.

Hill has worked for several higher education institutions as a faculty member and/or administrator, including Sojourner-Douglass College, Goucher College, the Lied Center of Kansas, the University of Kansas, The Project on the History of Black Writing, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, the University of Kentucky, and others. She has held scholar-in-residence appointments and fellowships at Harvard University and Brown University.

Hill began working in education and instruction as early as 1997 supervising reading instruction for pre-school and early elementary programs. She was a reading and English literature teacher and trainer with the Baltimore City Public School System. In 2004, she joined the second group of teachers for Digital Harbor High School and became a teaching consultant with the National Writing Project.

In 2008, she moved to become a professional writer. While at the University of Kansas, she served as a teaching assistant for the Department of English, a special collection coordinator for the Project on the History of Black Writing, and the inaugural program assistant for the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities. In 2012, she served as a research fellow for the Department of English.

In Spring 2013, she was a visiting assistant professor for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s English Department. In Fall 2013, she came to the University of Kentucky as an assistant professor of Creative Writing, English Literature, and African American Studies. Since then, she has served in multiple roles at the institution. In 2015, she was a scholar-in-residence for Race and Teaching at the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT). In 2018, she served again as a scholar-in-residence for CELT and had a parallel appointment as a faculty fellow for the Center for Graduate and Professional Diversity Initiatives. In 2019, she was promoted to associate professor. In 2020, she co-founded and was interim director of the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies while also serving as the interim director of the African American and Africana Studies Department. In 2022, she was promoted to full professor.

She has also served as affiliated faculty for the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media; the Center on Equality and Social Justice; the Department of Gender and Women's Studies; the Committee on Social Theory; the American Studies Program; and African American and Africana Studies.

In Fall 2022, Hill was a visiting fellow in Race and Ethnicity for the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. During the 2023 to 2024 academic year, Hill is serving as a fellow and scholar-in-residence for Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

Hill has also lent her service to national and international organizations, such as The Watering Hole Poetry, MacDowell, Tidal Basin Review, Lyric Theater and Cultural Arts Center, the National Council of Negro Women, Barnes-Findley Foundation, and the African American Heritage Festival in Baltimore.