Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of 11 published and forthcoming books,
including the story collection Earthquake Weather, and the novels Funerals for
Horses, Pay it Forward, Electric God, and Walter's Purple Heart. Pay It Forward
was adapted 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 (Knopf, TBA).
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 Co-Pilot . 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.
However simple the idea, the results of Pay It Forward have been amazing.
Catherine's book, speaking engagements and the subsequent film have inspired
people around the world, adding a new idiom to the language. It is likely that
the Pay It Forward idea is already working in a community near you. You do a
big favor for three people. When they ask how to repay you, you tell them to
pay it forward to three more people. Each person is then impelled to pay it
forward to three more. Nine becomes 27, becomes 81, becomes 243. In 14 levels
we reach a group the size of the population of Australia. The exponential math
can be incorporated into your everyday life and will help you achieve real
positive societal change. This is the basis of Ms. Hyde's New York Times
bestselling novel, Pay It Forward, which has been translated into 20 languages
for distribution in more than 30 countries, and made into a major motion
picture starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment. More
surprisingly, a real-life Pay It Forward movement has taken root. In 2000
Catherine founded The Pay It Forward Foundation to inspire young students to
realize they can change the world, and provide them with opportunities to do
so. She has carried the message all over the United States, as well as in
Canada and Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, and India. She has delivered this
message personally to over 40,000 students, addressed the National Conference
on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, been introduced to Americorps
members at the White House and shared a podium with Bill Clinton.
Like the comet on the cover of her book, Catherine is a rising star on the
speaking tour, having addressed corporate and community audiences of all sizes.
One part inspirational speaker and one part stand-up comedian, her presentation
is not what you might expect. It is fast, funny--sometimes irreverent.
Audiences are inspired while having a good time. Catherine's passion is to
share the arc of a once-in-a-lifetime chain of events, beginning with the
dramatic real-life experience that inspired Pay It Forward. She tailors each
address to the individual audience; no two of her speeches are ever exactly the
same. What they all have in common is liveliness, humor, and an audience fully
engaged throughout. Her usual format is a forty-five-minute to one hour speech,
ideally followed by Q & A, a part of public speaking this spontaneous and witty
personality particularly likes. Pay It Forward. It may change your corporation,
your foundation, your community--maybe even your life.
Catherine Ryan Hyde's message is resonant, clear and empowering: One person can
change the world. Maybe not immediately, maybe not completely, but an
individual can effect ripples of positive change. The person can be you. The
time can be now. The power is in your hands. The method is simple--so simple
even a child can do it. Pay It Forward. You have only to make the decision to
try. Catherine tailors each and every address to the individual audience. As a
result, no two of her speeches ever have been or ever will be exactly the same.
What they all have in common is liveliness, humor, and an audience fully awake
and engaged throughout.
Her usual format is a forty-five minute to one hour speech, ideally followed by
question and answer. Though some groups will be too large to effectively
execute the question and answer format, Catherine particularly loves to hear
from an audience where possible, and, like a good improvisational actor, is
energized by talking "off the cuff."
Her most frequently requested speech is slanted to encompass the Pay It Forward
phenomenon--the dramatic and fiery (quite literally) tale of the real-life
experience that gave birth to the idea, followed by the arc of the concept as
it became a bestselling book, then a hit Hollywood movie, then a non-profit
educational foundation, then a real-world international social movement. Many
groups are interested in how to adopt the Pay It Forward philosophy or embark
on a Pay It Forward project or resolution, and how such actions could transform
their corporation, association, nonprofit, school or university, local
community, etc. Catherine will not only clarify but will amuse, awaken and
inspire, making positive change a real possibility.
Catherine is also uniquely suited to address the topic of writing as it relates
to the creative process, publishing, screen adaptation, etc. She has been a
favorite for many years at writers' conferences such as The Santa Barbara
Writers' Conference, Southwest Writers' Conference, La Jolla Writers'
Conference, The East of Eden Conference at the National Steinbeck Center, and
conferences at Cuesta College, Cal State Long Beach and many, many more. She is
known for her irreverent humor, surprising candor, and down-to-earth approach.
Her aim is to provide information the emerging writer can really use, and year
after year, conference after conference, she does just that.
