M. J. Hyland

Hyland has also been appointed writer-in-residence in programmes such as Arizona State University's Workshop Programme (Feb, 2014) & writer-in-residence at Griffith University, Australia (August 2013), and has appeared at the Melbourne Writers' Festival, Crossing Borders, the Netherlands, Segovia, Rome, the Brisbane Writers' Festival (July/August, 2013).

Hyland runs regular in the Guardian Masterclass Programme, 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.

In 2008, Hyland was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a debilitating neurological disease.

At the University of Manchester she has run fiction workshops alongside Martin Amis (2007–2010), Colm Tóibín (2010–2011) and Jeanette Winterson (2013–present). Hyland runs regular Fiction Masterclasses in the Guardian Masterclass Programme, has twice been shortlisted for the BBC Short Story Prize (2011 and 2012) and she publishes in The Guardian How to Write series and the Financial Times, the LRB, Granta and elsewhere.

Carry Me Down (2006) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won both the Hawthornden Prize and The Encore Prize and all three novels have been longlisted and short-listed for several prizes: the Orange Prize (2004 and 2009). Carry Me Down has been listed as one of the Top 100 ‘Australian’ Novels of all time by the Society of Authors.

Maria Joan Hyland is an ex-lawyer and the author of three novels: How the Light Gets In (2004), Carry Me Down (2006) and This is How (2009). Hyland is a lecturer in creative writing in the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester. Carry Me Down (2006) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Hawthornden Prize and the Encore Prize.

Hyland has twice been longlisted for the Orange Prize (2004 and 2009), the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (2004 and 2007) and This is How (2009) was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

How the Light Gets In (2004) and Carry Me Down (2006) were shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (2004 and 2007) and This is How (2009) was longlisted for the Dublin International IMPAC Prize and The Orange Prize (2009). 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, is story of the week in Narrative Magazine, US.

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."