Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of 14 published and forthcoming books.

Her newer novels are Becoming Chloe (Knopf, March ’06), Love in the Present Tense (Doubleday, May ’06), The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance (Knopf, Spring ’07), Chasing Windmills (Doubleday, March ’08) and The Day I Killed James (Knopf, May ’08), Diary of a Witness (Knopf, Summer 2009), When I Found You (Transworld UK, Summer 2009).  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.  

Electric God , Love in the Present Tense and Chasing Windmills are also optioned for film and currently in development.

Forthcoming is Jumpstart the World (Knopf, Fall 2010) and Second Hand Heart (Transworld UK, Fall 2010). 

Older works include 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 23 languages for distribution in over 30 countries.  The paperback was released in October 2000 by Pocket Books and quickly became a national bestseller.  In Spring of 2010, it will be released in a new trade paperback edition to commemorate its decade in print.

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.

She is founder and former president (2000-2009) of the Pay It Forward Foundation. As a professional public speaker she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with Americorps members at the White House and shared a dais with Bill Clinton.