M.J. Hyland was born in London to Irish parents in 1968 and spent her early childhood in Dublin. She studied English and law at the University of Melbourne and achieved an honours degree in both.

How the Light Gets In, her first novel, was published in 2003 and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (2004), the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award (2004) and was equal winner of the Best Young Australian Novelist Award (2004). Hyland’s second novel, Carry Me Down, published in 2006, was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and won both the Hawthornden and Encore Prizes in 2007 and was also longlisted for The Orange Prize in 2007.

Her third novel This is How, published in 2009, has received widespread critical acclaim, has been published in more than ten countries and, in March 2010, This is How was longlisted for both the Orange Prize and the International Dublin IMPAC Prize. M.J Hyland has also published non–fiction in the London Review of Books (2004), the Irish Independent on Sunday (2005), the Scottish Herald (2010), Best Australian Essays (2006 and 2011), the Financial Times (2011), and elsewhere. Her short fiction has been published in Zoetrope: All Story (USA: 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008), BlackBook Magazine (USA – 2004 and 2006), Best Australian Short Stories (2006), and elsewhere.

In September 2011, she was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. As well as lecturing in the Centre for New Writing, Hyland teaches intensive fiction masterclasses at the Faber Academy, London and takes fiction workshops when appearing at major literary festivals in Edinburgh, Dublin, Hay–on–Wye, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, London, Paris, Rome & elsewhere.

Links

• mjhyland.com
• BBC nationla Story Award
• Amazon