Martin Hyatt
{{short description|American contemporary writer}}
{{Multiple issues|{{update|date=March 2018}}
{{more footnotes|date=March 2018}}
{{BLP sources|date=June 2011}}}}
{{infobox writer
|name=Martin Hyatt
|birth_place=Louisiana, U.S.
|occupation=Writer
|nationality=American
|education=Goddard College
Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts
The New School (MFA)
}}
Martin Hyatt is an American contemporary writer.{{cite news|url=http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=books&article=240|title=Triangle Awards finalists announced|date=29 March 2007|work=Bay Area Reporter|accessdate=21 June 2011}} Born in Louisiana, he later attended Goddard College, Eugene Lang College, and received an MFA in creative writing from The New School. Hyatt's fiction is usually set in the working-class American South. His work is characterized by its lyricism and realism. He has taught writing at a number of colleges and universities, including Hofstra University and Parsons School of Design. He has taught Creative Writing at School of Visual Arts, St. Francis College, and Southern New Hampshire University.
Works
= Books =
== ''A Scarecrow's Bible'' (novel) ==
His critically acclaimed first novel, A Scarecrow's Bible, was published in 2006. The novel, set in the deep south, centers on a closeted, working-class, married Vietnam veteran who comes to terms with his sexuality while battling a drug addiction. For this book, Hyatt won the Edmund White Award for debut fiction in 2007. The American Library Association{{Cite web|url=http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/content/scarecrows-bible|title=A Scarecrow's Bible {{!}} Awards & Grants|website=www.ala.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-09}} named his novel a Stonewall Honor Book.{{cite book|title=MultiCultural review: dedicated to a better understanding of ethnic, racial, and religious diversity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J_crAQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=GP Subscription Publications}} He was also a finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Violet Quill Award. Critic Richard Labonté named A Scarecrow's Bible one of the top ten fiction titles of the year. In 2007, he was named a literary "Star of Tomorrow" by New York Magazine.{{Cite web|url=http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/2007/32395/index3.html|title=The Stars of Tomorrow|website=NYMag.com|access-date=2018-11-09}} Edmund White called the book "a stunning début.". Poet/activist Minnie-Bruce Pratt said the book was a "narrative tour-de-force."
== ''Beautiful Gravity'' (novel) ==
On May 22, 2015, Publishers Marketplace announced that Hyatt's new book, Beautiful Gravity is to be published by AntiBookClub in Spring, 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://antibook.club/books/|title=Books|website=ANTIBOOKCLUB|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-09}}{{Update inline|date=March 2018}} Beautiful Gravity is "set in a small town deep in the Louisiana bayous when the peaceful nothingness that envelops the narrator and his only friend, the anorexic daughter of the Pentecostal preacher, turns emotionally turbulent with the arrival of a beautiful city burnished couple in a red sports car and love affairs of every persuasion change lives forever." In January, the American Library Association announced that Beautiful Gravity had received a 2017 Stonewall Honor Book Award from the American Library Association.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/beautiful-gravity-novel|title=Beautiful gravity: a novel {{!}} Awards & Grants|website=www.ala.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-09}} The book received critical praise in places such as Kirkus{{Cite book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/martin-hyatt/beautiful-gravity/|title=BEAUTIFUL GRAVITY by Martin Hyatt {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|language=en-us}} and New York Journal of Books{{Cite web|url=https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/beautiful-gravity-novel|title=a book review by Vinton Rafe McCabe: Beautiful Gravity: A Novel|website=www.nyjournalofbooks.com|language=en|access-date=2018-11-09}}.
== ''Greyhound Country'' (memoir) and other works ==
Hyatt's work has appeared in a wide range of publications and anthologies. His personal essays, "How To Skin A Deer" (University of Wisconsin Press) and "Greyhound Boy, 1976" (Alyson Books) were featured in Lambda Literary award-winning anthologies and on The Huffington Post {{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-to-skin-a-deer-how-to-be-a-writer-lessons-from_us_5940afe5e4b0d99b4c920fce|title=How to Skin a Deer: What My Father Taught Me About Writing|last=Hyatt|first=Martin|date=2017-06-14|website=Huffington Post|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-09}} Other personal essays, including "In Tongues" (Electric Literature){{Cite news|url=https://electricliterature.com/in-tongues-807d4d38d567|title=In Tongues – Electric Literature|date=2009-11-12|work=Electric Literature|access-date=2018-11-09}} and "My Last Big Addiction" are excerpts from Hyatt's memoir, Greyhound Country. The memoir chronicles the author's struggles with addiction, and his relationship with his southern family, including his developmentally disabled younger brother. His 2016 Huffington Post post-election piece "An Open Letter to Mike Pence: We are Not Doing That Again" was widely read and shared on social media.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/an-open-letter-to-mike-pence-we-are-not-doing-that_us_582b7a08e4b0cfd1bce19f4a|title=An Open Letter To Mike Pence: We Are Not Doing That Again|last=Hyatt|first=Martin|date=2016-11-15|website=Huffington Post|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-09}}
= Essays and stories =
"An Open Letter to Mike Pence" in The Huffington Post. November, 2016.
"How to Skin a Deer." In Who's Yer Daddy. Eds. Elledge and Groff: Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2012.
"My Last Big Addiction." In Love, Christopher Street. Ed. Thomas Keith. New York: Vantage Point Press, 2012.
"In Tongues." Electric Literature, 2009
"Greyhound Boy, 1976." Love, Bourbon Street. Eds. Herren and Willis: New York: Alyson, 2006.
"Grit, My Love." excerpt, New York Magazine, June 4, 2007.
"A Scarecrow's Bible." excerpt, Lodestar Quarterly. Issue 18. (Summer 2006)
"Kissing Montgomery Clift." Blithe House Quarterly, 8.2. (Spring 2004)
"Faded Rooms." Sandbox Magazine, NYC (Spring 1997)
Awards and nominations
2017 - Recipient, Stonewall Honor Book Award, American Library Association
2017 - Finalist, Lambda Literary Award Nomination, Bisexual Fiction
2007 - Recipient, Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction
2007 - Recipient, Stonewall Honor Book Award, American Library Association
2007 - Finalist, Lambda Literary Award
2007 - Finalist, Ferro-Grumley Award
2006 - Finalist, Violet Quill Award, Doubleday/Insight Out Book Club
2003 - Edward F. Albee Writing Fellowship
2002 - New School Chapbook Award (fiction)
References
[http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2017/01/2017-stonewall-book-awards-announced 2017 Stonewall Book Award Winners Announced]
[http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/beautiful-gravity-novel Beautiful Gravity Review NY Journal of Books]
[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/martin-hyatt/beautiful-gravity/ Kirkus Review: Beautiful Gravity by Martin Hyatt]
[http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/2007/32395/index3.html Future Writing Stars New York Magazine]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150705231006/http://antibookclub.com/pages/authors AntiBook Club Authors]
[http://www.kqed.org/arts/profile/index.jsp?essid=8746 Martin Hyatt KQED/NPR San Francisco]
[http://www.jessie-sholl.com/June%202007.html Martin Hyatt Interview with Jessie Sholl]
[http://lodestarquarterly.com/work/389/ Martin Hyatt in Lodestar Quarterly]
[http://electricliterature.com/in-tongues/ Martin Hyatt Electric Literature]
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}[http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bookmediaawards&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=93109 Stonewall Book Award]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyatt, Martin}}
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Novelists from Louisiana
Category:Goddard College alumni
Category:The New School alumni
Category:American LGBTQ novelists
Category:American male novelists
Category:Hofstra University faculty
Category:Parsons School of Design faculty
Category:Southern New Hampshire University faculty