Joel Thomas Hynes/ Winter 2025 - Writer-in-Residence

The Department of English and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences are delighted to welcome Joel Thomas Hynes as Memorial University’s 2025 Writer-in-Residence. He will be in residence throughout the Winter term. 

Joel Thomas Hynes is a multidisciplinary writer and performer from Calvert, Newfoundland.

He has authored numerous books, stage plays and feature films and is the creator of the award-winning CBC TV comedy series Little Dog. His essays and stories have been published across various periodicals and media outlets such as the Globe and Mail, the Independent and CBC.

His published works include Down to the Dirt (winner of the Percy Janes First Novel Award), Right Away Monday, God Help Thee: A Manifesto, Straight Razor Days and The Devil You Don’t Know (cowritten w/Sherry White). His 2017 novel, We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night, won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, The BMO Winterset Award and the NL Writer’s Alliance Award for Fiction. Cast No Shadow, the feature film adaptation of his novella Say Nothing Saw Wood won Hynes the award for Best Atlantic Screenwriter at FINN and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

As an actor, JTH has held lead and principal roles for many films and TV series including Down to the Dirt, Republic of Doyle, Cast No Shadow, A Small Fortune, Orphan Black, Little Dog, Book of Negros, Purgatory Jack, Trickster, and Sullivan’s Crossing.

He is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Screenwriter’s Lab and holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College, Halifax.

Also a musician, Hynes’s music is available across all online platforms including Apple Music and Spotify. Hynes lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Photo Credit: Kaila Mintz