Hynes, Joel 1976–

PERSONAL: Born 1976, in Newfoundland, Canada.

ADDRESSES: Home—St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Agent—Transatlantic Literary Agency, 72 Glengowan Rd., Toronto, Ontario M4N 1G4, Canada.

CAREER: Writer, playwright, and actor. Actor on television series Hatching, Matching, and Dispatching, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

AWARDS, HONORS: Percy Janes First Novel Award, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Association, for Down in the Dirt; Best Dramatic Script Award, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Association, 2005, for Say Nothing, Saw Wood.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Down to the Dirt, Killick Press (St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada), 2004.

Right Away Monday, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Author of stage plays, including The Devil You Don't Know, with Sherry White, 2003; and Say Nothing, Saw Wood, 2005. Contributing writer to television shows, including Hatching, Matching, and Dispatching, CBC. Author of screenplays, including The Black Headed Monster, produced by NIFCO (Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Cooperative), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Joel Hynes is an award-winning writer of novels, screenplays, and stage productions. Several of his stories are set in Newfoundland, Canada, where he was born. Aside from winning awards for his writing, Hynes is also an accomplished actor, winning the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Actor at the Yorkton Film Festival in Saskatchewan, Canada. In addition to theater and film, Hynes acts on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series called Hatching, Matching, and Dispatching.

Hynes's first novel, Down to the Dirt, highlights the life of a pair of teens in Newfoundland whose lifestyle of flaunting drugs, sex, and violence disrupts the lives of everyone involved, including their own. Reviewers were pleased with this debut novel and its striking story line. A critic writing in Kirkus Reviews summed up the book as: "Violent rock music rendered in prose." In a Library Journal review, Prudence Peiffer noted that "while typically dark and dank, [it] is well written [and] fervently paced." "Readers … will find themselves yanked between sympathy and revulsion," stated Jennifer Mattson in her review for Booklist. Several reviewers also noted that each chapter reads like a short story. Overall, a Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that this "raunchy, humorous, and energetic" first novel is really a "gritty, moving portrait of growing up."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Atlantic Books Today, summer, 2004, Paul Butler, review of Down to the Dirt, p. 18.

Booklist, September 15, 2005, Jennifer Mattson, review of Down to the Dirt, p. 32.

Canadian Book Review Annual, 2003, R. Gordon Moyles, review of Down to the Dirt, p. 169.

Fiddlehead, summer, 2005, Janet D. Fraser, review of Down to the Dirt, p. 180.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2005, review of Down to the Dirt, p. 873.

Library Journal, September 1, 2005, Prudence Peiffer, review of Down to the Dirt, p. 131.

Newfoundland Quarterly, summer, 2004, Jon Whalen, "Writer Profile—Joel Hynes," p. 57.

Publishers Weekly, August 8, 2005, review of Down to the Dirt, p. 214.

ONLINE

IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Web site, http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/ (April 14, 2006), profile of Hynes.

Transatlantic Literary Agency Web site, http://www.tlal.com/ (April 14, 2006), profile of Hynes.