Dr Tyler Keevil

BA MA PhD

Publication

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Research

Tyler’s creative work consists of novels, short fiction and non-fiction, and screenplays.  His debut novel, Fireball (Parthian, 2010), is a coming-of-age story set on the West Coast of Canada.  The novel was nominated for the Wales Book of the Year and the Guardian Not-the-Booker Prize, and received the Wales Book of the Year People’s Prize.  His follow-up, The Drive, is a road novel that seeks to explore, question, and subvert the tradition made famous by Kerouac. The Drive formed the creative portion of Tyler’s PhD thesis.  The novel was published in 2013 by Myriad Editions and, like Fireball, was subsequently nominated for the Wales Book of the Year and received the People’s Prize that year.  His latest novel, No Good Brother, will be published by The Borough Press / HarperCollins in 2018.

In addition to novels, Tyler writes short form fiction and creative non-fiction, and his work has appeared in a wide range of magazines and anthologies in Britain, Canada, and the US; these include The Missouri Review, New Welsh Review, and PRISM: International, among many others.  His piece of creative non-fiction ‘Swarf’, won The Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize, and his story, ‘Sealskin,’ won the Writers’ Trust of Canada / McClelland and Stewart Journey Prize.  In 2014 Parthian released his first short story collection, Burrard Inlet, which explores themes of labour, masculinity, and human interactions with the environment.  The book was nominated for numerous awards including the Edge Hill Story Prize, the Frank O’Connor Award, and the Wales Book of the Year People’s Prize; it also won an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) in America.

Tyler has also written for the screen, and short films developed from his screenplays have shown at festivals in Canada and Britain.  One of his films, ‘Pitch’, which he co-wrote and co-directed, received the Welsh Dragon award at Newport Film Festival, and another, ‘Running Pains’ was produced and screened on ITV Wales.  His short story, ‘The Herd’, has been optioned for feature film adaptation by director Jeremy Ball, and Tyler and Jeremy recently received development funding to co-write the screenplay.

Tyler’s critical interests are closely aligned with his creative work.  Among other topics, he has published articles on the coming-of-age tradition, Canadian short fiction, Kerouac’s concept of the ‘bookmovie’, and bringing a fresh perspective to the modern road story.  He has also published articles on Creative Writing pedagogy and exploring the Anthropocene through science and art collaborations.  He is particularly interested in supervising postgraduate creative-critical projects focused on journey narratives and coming-of-age stories.

Biography

Tyler was born in Edmonton, grew up in Vancouver, and in his mid-twenties moved to Wales.  He completed his BA in English (Literature emphasis) at the University of British Columbia, and after time out to focus on his writing he returned to education to study for his MA in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, where he went on to do his PhD under the supervision of Matthew Francis.

Before coming to academia Tyler worked in a wide range of occupations, including as a landscaper, treeplanter, and icebarge deckhand, as well as in factories, restaurants, and boatyards. These varied experiences have informed much of his creative work, in particular his story collection Burrard Inlet (Parthian, 2014), which explores themes of labour, masculinity, and human interactions with the environment.

Upon arriving in Wales, Tyler worked with Theatr Powys, the Welsh community theatre and Theatre in Education (TIE) company, where his partner was a resident practitioner. The company championed an ethos of outreach and engagement, and Tyler aims to carry that forward through his participation in reading events, literary festivals, mentoring, and writing workshops with the public.