Jill was born and raised on the west coast of Canada just outside Vancouver, and now lives on Galiano Island. After a few years of wide but informal empirical learning starting with dropping out of high school and followed by all manner of things both bad and good in the "school of life," she was more formally educated at the University of Calgary (B.A., M.A.) and the University of Alaska in Fairbanks (M.F.A.). Her short stories have appeared in many literary journals, and published in four collections of stories: Saltwater Trees (1991), Lovely In Her Bones (1993), Eggplant Wife (1995), and Residual Desire (2003), and the novel More In Anger (2012 Thomas Allen)..
Jill has done a lot of teaching, workshopping, editing, and mentoring. She's a good reader, and loves to visit book clubs in person or via Skype.