Hyland's short story "Even Pretty Eyes Commit Crimes", which was shortlisted for the BBC International Short Story Prize (2012) and first published online by Granta, was story of the week in Narrative Magazine.[3]
Hyland's short stories have been published in many places, including Zoetrope: All-Story (2004, 2005, 2006, 2008), Blackbook Magazine (2004, 2006 & 2007), Best Australian Short Stories (2006 & 2008) and, in September 2011, her short story "Rag Love" was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. Hyland's "Even Pretty Eyes Commit Crimes" has been published in the anthology Best British Short Stories (2013). Boyd Tonkin from The Independent said of the anthology: "Nicholas Royale has excellent taste, ensuring little explosions of weirdness or transcendence often erupt amid much well-observed everyday life."
Teaching and editing
Hyland runs regular in the Guardian Masterclass Programme,[4] has twice been shortlisted for the BBC Short Story Prize (2011 and 2012) and regularly publishes non-fiction in The Guardian (including in the How to Write series), the Financial Times, the London Review of Books, Lonely Planet, Granta, the Scottish Herald, and elsewhere. Hyland teaches three fiction courses in 2014 in the Curtis Brown (International Literary Agency) programme. Her advice on proof-reading has been cited in The New Scientist.[5][6]
Hyland has also been appointed writer-in-residence in programmes such as Arizona State University's Workshop Programme (February 2014) and writer-in-residence at Griffith University (August 2013), and has appeared at the Melbourne Writers Festival, Crossing Borders, the Netherlands, Segovia, Rome, the Brisbane Writers' Festival (July/August, 2013).
Personal life
In 2008, Hyland was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a debilitating neurological disease.[7]
"Hyland can do humour, horror and pathos all at once..." The Spectator
"This is writing of the highest order..." JM Coetzee
"[Hyland] brings life's uncomprehended complexities horribly alive." The Times
This Is How (2009)
"Unflinching, absorbing, morally complex ... an eerie, commanding book ... a novel about crime but not a crime novel ... thrilling, moving and compassionate." The New York Times
"Bleak yet moving, mercilessly dispassionate yet shot through with kindness and wit, it is a profound achievement" Justine Jordan
"A novel of extraordinary power ... Hyland tells her story in a supercharged present tense, tremblingly aware of physical detail." The Guardian
"This is an expertly paced, gripping novel that doesn't falter and never compromises its emotional truth." The Times
"A tour de force. Hyland illuminates this man's damaged soul with such a steely, brilliant clarity that your heart breaks for him." Helen Garner
"When you've been reading Hyland, other writers seem to lack integrity ... whereas she aims straight for the truth and the heart." Hilary Mantel
"Three or four days [after finishing the novel], Hyland's white-hot prose was still smouldering in my head." Financial Times
"She makes it look so simple, with her words of one syllable, with a style almost entirely devoid of affect; but there is nothing simplistic about her achievement." New York Times[10]
"The narrative drive is relentless, surging on and on in the toneless voice of Patrick Oxtoby, Hyland’s protagonist." Philip Womack[11]
Teaching and editing
"The course carries on and, just as I'm starting to get bored by the group discussion, Curtis Brown Creative pulls what is a stroke of genius in the form of four sessions with MJ Hyland. OMFG. I read the first chapter of her book Carry Me Down. Wow, she can write – even if she is writing about teaching a child to drown puppies. I should have worked out what was coming. She is lively, clever and shit-scary in a way that few men are. She is intimidating yet attentive. Comparing her to our tutor is like comparing Guns N' Roses to Otis Redding." Collette Brown.[12]
Even Pretty Eyes Commit Crimes – Published by Granta in 2012. Shortlisted for the International BBC Short Story Prize (2012), also Published in Narrative Magazine and Comma Press
Rag Love – originally published in January 2011 as First-Class Passage. Also published in Australia's major review/politics/ arts & media magazine, The Monthly. Available as a BBC radio broadcast. ISBN9781445816425
M. J. Hyland's Short Stories published in Zoetrope: All-Story:
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.