Kevin Hyde, 26, was a philosophy major at the College of William and Mary and works in a temporary position with Wachovia Securities. Born in Pottstown, Pa., Hyde is living in Richmond in order to apply to a nearby master of fine arts writing program.
He’s been published in McSweeney’s online magazine and in issue five of the locally based publication Drama. Hyde first heard about Style Weekly’s Fiction Contest from last year’s third-place winner, William and Mary graduate Eva Langston.
The story “Luzerne” was inspired by the visits he made to his grandfather’s small hometown of Luzerne, Pa. He tried to imagine what it must have been like when his grandfather was growing up around the coal mines during the ’30s and ’40s.
Because much of Hyde’s writing has been focused on analytical philosophy, he enjoys branching out and experimenting in his short stories. “I was trying to keep the story under control and simple,” he says, “but the end is a verbal explosion. I definitely didn’t want a straightforward ending; that’s why I had all those conditionals.”
