Catherine Ryan Hyde

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of 11 published and forthcoming books, including the story collection EarthquakeWeather, and the novels Funerals for Horses, Pay it Forward,Electric God, and Walter’s Purple Heart. Pay It Forward wasadapted into a major motion picture, chosen by the American Library Association for its Best Books for Young Adults list, and translated into more than 20 languages for distribution in over 30 countries. The paperback was released in October 2000 by Pocket Books and quickly became a national bestseller. Electric God is also optioned for film and currently in development.

Her newer novels are Becoming Chloe Knopf, March ’06, Love in the Present Tense Doubleday, May’06 and The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance Knopf, Spring ’07, Chasing Windmills Doubleday,March ’08 and The Day I Killed James Knopf, May ’08. Love in the Present Tense enjoyed bestseller status in the UK, where it broke the top ten, spent five weeks on the national bestseller list, was reviewed on a major TV book club, and shortlisted for a Best Read of the Year award at the British Book Awards. Forthcoming is Diary of a Witness.

More than 50 of her short stories have been published in The Antioch Review, Michigan Quarterly Review,The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train and many other journals, and in the anthologies Santa Barbara Stories and California Shorts and the bestselling anthology Dog is my CoPilot. Her stories have been honored in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest and the Tobias Wolff Award and nominated for Best American Short Stories, the O'Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Three have been cited in Best American Short Stories.

She is founder and president of the Pay It Forward Foundation. As a professional public speaker she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with Americorps members at the White House and shared a dais with Bill Clinton.