I’m a poet—editor—teacher—publisher—artist—collaborator

I connect people to audiences—ideas—opportunities—each other

New Book! Release date: April 1, 2025

The Dead &
The Living &
The Bridge

In the tradition of Montaigne’s Essais and Anne Carson’s Short Talks, MC Hyland’s poem-essays weave together the conceptual and the material, leaving a trace of thought-in-flight. Originating from a moment (pre- and mid-pandemic) when Hyland taught canonical British literature as a contingent university worker, the essays in The Dead and the Living and the Bridge take up the topics of grief, gender, art materials, capitalism, and close reading. “What I loved,” Hyland writes, “was the dead and the living and the bridge my voice sometimes made between the two.” This voice casts spells to summon clarity against institutional failures and personal and global losses, while placing thinking in its proper context: conversation, shared worldbuilding, and a love that touches both the living and the dead.

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Work with me.

Manuscript Consultations

I love working with poets and creative nonfiction writers to find the heart of a book project. I work with people at all stages of manuscript development, but I especially like supporting those who are trying to identify and dig deeper into their central themes and approaches.

My approach to critique is informed by the Critical Response Process, which makes significant space for your questions about your work. For that reason, consultations include two meetings: a 20-30 minute initial meeting to talk about your ideas and where to focus in our work together, and, 1-2 weeks later, a 1-hour meeting to discuss the work, after which I’ll send you a detailed reader report.

For chapbook-length, essay, or artist book manuscripts (10-30 pages), my sliding scale rate is $300-450. For book-length manuscripts (45-80 pages of poetry), my sliding scale rate is $500-800. I’m also willing to work on longer book projects—please reach out through my contact form with a note about your needs!

If you’d like to feel out how we might work together, I recommend signing up for an Office Hours meeting (see below), in which we’ll discuss up to five pages of poetry or up to three pages of prose.

Editing, Writing, & Research

Need help with writing or research? I’m happy to support you. Here are some ways I’ve worked with people in the past:

  • Grant writing and artist residency application support for visual artists

  • Helping academics tailor their writing for non-specialist publications

  • Fine-tuning MFA and humanities PhD applications

  • Shaping cover letters for academic job applications

  • Refining website text, especially bios and artist statements

  • Project descriptions for academic monographs and public art projects

  • Class descriptions and curriculum design for community education courses

  • Fundraising research and creating an applications calendar for a social impact startup

  • Researching potential community partners for art and social impact projects

My rates for editing, writing, and research support are $75 an hour. If you’d like to work together, please reach out through my contact form or schedule an initial meeting through my office hours (below).

Teaching

I've worked with students of almost every background and age, from adults preparing to take the GED to K-2 students learning conflict resolution strategies to college English majors taking literature surveys. Mostly I teach classes and workshops in book arts, literature, and creative writing.

College-level courses I've taught include: creative writing workshops from the introductory to the thesis level, British Literature surveys, “Reading as a Writer,” "Copyright, Commerce, and Culture,” ‘Environment and the Novel,” “Major Poets,” and freshman composition.

I regularly teach classes for adult artists and writers on zoom and in person, like these past classes:

If you’d like to be kept in the loop about future classes, or to invite me to teach at your institution, please reach out through my contact form.

Upcoming events

March 20, 2025: Online reading for Emily Brandt’s 40 Days workshop

March 27, 2025: Meek Future Switch AWP off-site reading (Los Angeles, CA)

April 5, 2025: Tabling at the bookfair at Mission Creek Festival (Iowa City, IA)

April 12-13, 2025: New Orleans Poetry Festival (New Orleans, LA)

April 16, 2025: Milkweed Presents discussion with Rebecca Lehmann, Christopher Santiago, Kathryn Nuernberger (Minneapolis, MN)

April 21, 2025: Reading at Francie & Finch bookstore with Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Luis Othoniel Rosa, and Katie Marya (Lincoln, NE)

April 22, 2025: Supremed Reading with Elizabeth Clark Wessel and Luis Othoniel Rosa (Omaha, NE)

April 25, 2025: Spectra Series with Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Rock Island, IL)

May 18, 2025: Reading at Amanda Degener’s Vanishing Flora gallery show, Northside Artspace Lofts Gallery, 3:30pm (Minneapolis, MN)

May 30-June 1, 2025: First annual Bison Writer’s Retreat with Kithship Collective (Bison, SD)

July 10, 2025: Book Launch for The Dead & the Living & the Bridge (Brooklyn, NY)

July 17, 2025: Field Trip at Book Suey (Hamtramck, MI)

July 18, 2025: Poetry & Biscuits (Chicago, IL)

DoubleCross Press

I founded DoubleCross Press in 2008 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as a student in the Book Arts and Creative Writing MFA programs at the University of Alabama. In the past 17 years, the press has moved with me, and I and my co-editors Jeff Peterson (2009-present) and Anna Gurton-Wachter (2014-2023) have made books at Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the Center for Book Arts in New York, and Swayspace.

With an eye toward artist book studio practices and spaces, and toward the materials and structures of contemporary and historic hand-bookmaking, DoubleCross Press produces physical manifestations of our writers' language.  We publish poetry chapbooks, essays on book arts and book culture, and poetry journals. We plan to sunset the press by the end of 2026 to make room for new projects.

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