M. J. Hyland
Encyclopedia
Maria Joan Hyland is a novelist. She made her debut in Australia in 2003 with How the Light Gets In. Her second novel Carry Me Down
Carry Me Down
Carry Me Down is the second novel of British writer M. J. Hyland. It was awarded the Hawthornden Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize....

was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize
Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...

 and won both the Encore Award
Encore Award
The £10,000 Encore Award for the best second novel - now awarded biennially - was first awarded in 1990. It is administered by the Society of Authors and is sponsored by Lucy Astor. The award fills a niche in the catalogue of literary prizes by celebrating the achievement of outstanding second...

 and the Hawthornden Prize
Hawthornden Prize
The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender. Authors are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature" which can be written in either poetry or prose...

 in 2007. Hyland currently lives in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England, where she is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

.

Life

Maria Joan Hyland was born in London to Irish parents. When she was two years old her family moved to Australia, but returned to Dublin after a few years, where Hyland spent her early childhood. When she was eleven years old, the family once again travelled to Australia, settling in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

. After finishing school she worked briefly in film and television — appearing uncredited in an episode of Carson's Law
Carson's Law
Carson's Law is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Ten Network between 1983 and 1984. The series was a period piece set in the 1920s and starred Lorraine Bayly as progressive solicitor Jennifer Carson...

and working for a time as a Director's Assistant on the Hinch
Derryn Hinch
Derryn Nigel Hinch is an Australian media personality best known for his work on Melbourne radio. He is currently the host of 3AW's drive time radio show...

program — before completing an Arts/Law degree at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...

 in 1996. She worked as a lawyer for about six years. In 2004 she completed a M.A. in English at the University of Melbourne.

Hyland moved to London in 2005. In 2006, she lived in Rome thanks to an Australia Council
Australia Council
The Australia Council, informally known as the Australia Council for the Arts, is the official arts council or arts funding body of the Government of Australia.-Function:...

 scholarship. She teaches at the Manchester Centre for New Writing
Manchester Centre for New Writing
The University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing runs taught MA courses and PhD research programmes in creative and critical writing. According to its website "It was formed to develop and refine postgraduate and undergraduate students' writing, and explore and research collaboration between...

.

Writing

Hyland was first published at the age of 17 in Australian Short Stories.

Through the 1990s Hyland edited the now defunct literary magazine Nocturnal Submissions
Nocturnal Submissions
Nocturnal Submissions was an Australian literary periodical, based in Melbourne, which appeared sporadically and ran from 1991 to 1999. It was founded by David Lumsden and later edited by the novelist Maria Hyland...

.
One of her early stories was published in the magazine New York Stories, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize
Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....

. Hyland can work painstakingly and has at times taken a week to write a single paragraph. In 2002 she received an Australia Council grant to complete the final draft of her first novel, and to work on the first and second draft of a second novel about "family, first-love and lies."

Her first novel How the Light Gets In (2003) was published by Penguin
Penguin Group
The Penguin Group is a trade book publisher, the largest in the world , having overtaken Random House in 2009. The Penguin Group is the name of the incorporated division of parent Pearson PLC that oversees these publishing operations...

 in Australia, and then the following year by Canongate
Canongate Books
Canongate Books is a Scottish independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh; it is named for The Canongate, an area of the city. It is most recognised for publishing the Booker Prizewinner Life of Pi...

 in the United Kingdom. It has been translated into many languages, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and took third place in the 2005 Barnes and Noble Discover Award. In 2004 Hyland was jointly awarded the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelist Award for How the Light Gets In.

Her second novel, Carry Me Down, was published in 2006 by Canongate, and was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the 2007 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Europe and South Asia Region). Hyland's writing style has been described as claustrophobic, and she has been dubbed "the mistress of the telling detail".

Hyland has also written a short-story and non-fiction piece for Australian magazine The Monthly
The Monthly
The Monthly is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer Morry Schwartz...

.

Awards

  • The Sydney Morning Herald Award for Best Young Australian Novelist, 2004
  • The 'Encore Award
    Encore Award
    The £10,000 Encore Award for the best second novel - now awarded biennially - was first awarded in 1990. It is administered by the Society of Authors and is sponsored by Lucy Astor. The award fills a niche in the catalogue of literary prizes by celebrating the achievement of outstanding second...

    ', for Best Second Book, (United Kingdom) 2007
  • The 'Hawthornden Prize
    Hawthornden Prize
    The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender. Authors are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature" which can be written in either poetry or prose...

    ', for Best Work of Literature, (United Kingdom) 2007

Works

  • How the Light Gets In, Canongate, 2004. ISBN 1-84195-548-5.
  • Carry Me Down
    Carry Me Down
    Carry Me Down is the second novel of British writer M. J. Hyland. It was awarded the Hawthornden Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize....

    ,
    2006, ISBN 1-84195-740-2 (hardback), ISBN 1-84195-734-8 (paperback)
  • This Is How, 2009, ISBN 9780802170620.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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