Catherine Ryan Hyde

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of the novel Funerals for Horses (Russian Hill Press 1997), a collection of short fiction, Earthquake Weather (Russian Hill Press 1998), the novels Pay it Forward (Simon & Schuster Feb. 2000), Electric God (Simon & Schuster Nov. 2000), and Walter’s Purple Heart (Simon & Schuster 2002). 

Pay It Forward was made into a by Warner Brothers staring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, with Haley Joel Osment as Trevor. The book has been translated into 20 languages for publication in more than 30 countries, and was chosen among the Best Books for Young Adults 2001 by the American Library Association. The mass market paperback was released in October 2000 by Pocket Books and quickly became a national bestseller. Forthcoming is a second collection, Subway Dancer and Other Stories. Electric God and Walter’s Purple Heart are also optioned for film and currently in development, with Hyde retained to adapt Walter’s Purple Heart to screenplay.

More than 45 of her short stories have been published in Bottomfish, The Illinois Review, Aura, Hayden's Ferry Review, Pearl, South Dakota Review, Vignette, The Amherst Review, Descant, Eureka Literary Magazine, The Crescent Review, The Laurel Review, Literal Latte, River Styx, High Plains Literary Review, Bellingham Review, Pangolin Papers, Red Cedar Review, The Antioch Review, Puerto del Sol, Quarterly West, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Manoa, New Letters, Ploughshares and other journals, and in the anthology Santa Barbara Stories (John Daniel & Co., 1998) and the anthology California Shorts (Heyday Books, 1999). Her story "Bloodlines" will be reprinted in the anthology Dog is my Co-Pilot (Crown, 2003).

Two of her stories have been honored in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, "Love is Always Running Away" in 1994 and "Dante" in 1996. Her story "Red Texas Sky" was nominated for Best American Short Stories, the O'Henry Award, and a Pushcart Prize, and her story "Wednesday Man" was also nominated for Pushcart Prize XXII. She had six stories in consideration for Pushcart Prize XXIV: "The Last Younger Man," nominated by Eureka Literary Magazine; "Five Singing Gardeners and One Dead Stranger," nominated by Literal Latte; and four stories from Earthquake Weather, nominated by Russian Hill Press. She received second place in the 1997 Bellingham Review Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction for "Breakage," an excerpt from her novel "Turtle Park." Her story "Castration Humor" was cited as one of the 100 Other Distinguished Stories of 1998 in Best American Short Stories 1999. Her story "Requiem for a Flamer" was nominated for Pushcart Prize XXVI by Quarterly West. Her stories "Bloodlines" and "The Man Who Found You in the Woods" were cited as two of the 100 Other Distinguished Stories of 2001 in Best American Short Stories 2002.

She has served on the administrative staff of the Santa Barbara Writers' Conference, the 1998 fiction fellowship panel of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and on the editorial staff of the Santa Barbara Review. Each fall she teaches fiction workshops at the Cuesta College Writers' Conference, and has recently joined the Santa Barbara Writers Conference teaching staff. She is fiction editor of Central Coast Magazine, and currently writes full-time.

Interview with Catherine Ryan Hyde

How did you come to write the Book, "Pay it Forward"? What particular message were you hoping your readers to have understood?

The inspiration for the Pay It Forward idea is a fairly long, involved story, and any who are interested can read it at http://www.cryanhyde.com/interviews/conversation.htm  . But it sounds like  what you're asking is a little different. More about what I was attempting to say. As an author, every time I sit down to write a novel, there is a burning question  involved. The novel doesn't answer the question, really. It can't. The question is always too complex for that. That's why it inspires a whole novel. But it's a kind of deep grappling with the question that I hope will cause others to think hard on the same score. Here was the question that made me write Pay It Forward: We all want to live in a kinder world. I've asked a lot of people, and no one thinks we're being altogether too nice to each other. And it's not hard to be kinder. I don't mean a black-to-white change, I just mean waking up in the morning and vowing to do about 10% more for others that day. Easy. So if we all want it, and it's easy enough to do, why aren't we doing it? The novel Pay It Forward is the  closest I could come to an answer.

What changes are you aware of that have come about as a result of people finding out  about your philosophy? Has there been any particular story that has touched you personally?

It started slowly. I'd get newspaper clippings in the mail. Like the woman in Buffalo who lost her car payment, and it was found by a couple who had just seen the Pay It Forward movie the night before. They opened it for the purpose of identification, found she was able to make only a partial payment, and decided to write a check for the $247 she was short. Or Denny Bellesi, the Orange County, CA pastor who gave away $100 bills to his  congregation, trusting them to use the money to change the lives of others.

In time the stories grew so numerous I put them all up on a website, www.payitforwardmovement.org  But I think the one that touched me most deeply was a second grader in Birmingham, AL who wrote me to say he was going to go talk to people in nursing homes because he thought they were lonely. Out of the mouths of babes, as they say.

How did the Pay it Forward Movement begin and what is your role in it?

I don't really know how the Pay It Forward movement began, because I wasn't there when it happened. It happened in neighborhoods all over, often with no witnesses but the two or more individuals involved. But here and there people would bring me the stories. It seems that after reading the book or seeing the movie, people decided to try this on their own. It's a very grass-roots phenomenon. There is no sign-up sheet, no way of knowing where it will appear next or how many people are involved. I see my role as just to chronicle as many of the stories as I can. I also work to keep the idea out in front of the public. For example, I often speak on behalf of the Pay It Forward Foundation, and I hope in doing so I will inspire  someone, and add fuel to the movement. But I don't give myself too much  power. I can only inspire inspired people, and the work belongs to them.

Do you see yourself as a leader in giving rise to such a following?

I think Pay It Forward is a leaderless movement, and I think that is as it should be. I'm just an author who wrote a book. I don't really know more about kindness, or the way the world should be, than anyone else.  Sometimes people write to me and say they want to arrange a meeting or a conference call to discuss their idea. I have to find a supportive way to say, "You don't need me. If you have an idea, do it." I don't want people looking to me as though I hold some kind of key or answer. We all do. 

What are your perceptions about society today and the inequality between the haves and have-nots?

I don't know the answer to the problem of our very poor distribution of resources. It's definitely a problem. My observation is that, though it appears to serve those with the most resources, I don't think it makes them any happier. If anything, those hoarding wealth strike me as less happy. For example, it seems a bizarre irony that, while people die all over the world from starvation, Americans are dying in record numbers from obesity and its related illnesses. I think everyone would be happier in a more equitable world. Not just the have-nots.

As a writer do you find yourself writing about particular themes about the human condition?

It seems there are two recurring human themes in my work. One is that no one is beyond redemption. There is no such thing as a throw-away human being. The other is that we are not as different as we like to believe.  Our differences are so shallow, while our shared humanity runs so deep. 

 What difficulties did you encounter in your journey to become a writer and how did you overcome them?

Being a writer is one of the more difficult jobs in the world. The hurdles to publishing are enormous. What most people don't realize is that they continue for me. They don't magically disappear after the big novel and movie adaptation. From the beginning, I have handled them the same way, by asking myself the following question: "Do you believe in yourself?" If the answer is no, I shouldn't have dug myself in so deep to begin with. If it's yes, the hurdles are irrelevant. Fortunately, so far the answer has been yes.

What are your thoughts about women being agents of change?

I think anyone can be an agent of change, male or female. I do think women have a unique slant and special gifts. For example, the reason I made Trevor a boy was something of an attempt to go "against type." I thought it would be nice if a boy could be the peacemaker. Because women seem, to me, more likely to create the changes involving kindness, peace and harmony. And I think these are the changes we need to see in the world. I hope we see much more of such changes soon.