Kyle, Aryn

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Kyle, Aryn

PERSONAL:

Education: Graduate of University of Montana.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Missoula, MT.

CAREER:

Writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Magazine Award for Fiction, for the short story "The Foaling Season."

WRITINGS:

The God of Animals (novel), Scribner (New York, NY), 2007.

Short stories have appeared in periodicals, including the Atlantic, Georgia Review, and StoryQuarterly; contributor to anthologies, including Best New American Voices 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

In her first novel, The God of Animals, author Aryn Kyle tells the story of twelve-year-old Alice Winston as she deals with a depressed mother who won't leave the bed, her own feelings over her older sister Nona's elopement with a rodeo cowboy, the drowning death of a classmate in a canal, and the potential loss of the family's horse ranch in Colorado. In the meantime, Alice is also conducting a telephone relationship with her male seventh-grade teacher, Mr. Delmar. "Kyle delivers the story in graceful, translucent prose, while the mood of the book is overwhelmingly bleak and steadily focused on the gathering storm," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor.

Other reviewers also praised Kyle's debut. Library Journal reviewer David Doerrer wrote that The God of Animals "brims with a confidence and assuredness atypical of a debut." Booklist contributor Keir Graff called the novel "a powerful tale, from a writer with real promise." In addition, several reviewers noted the author's ability at characterization. Francine Prose, writing in People, commented that the author "has a gift for creating character, for making even the most minor players in Alice's drama come alive." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "Kyle imbues her protagonist with a genuine adolescent voice."