Gary Hyland is a Saskatchewan teacher, writer, cultural activist, consultant and editor. He has previously published two chapbooks and six full-length books of poetry – Just Off Main (Thistledown, 1982), Street of Dreams (Coteau Books, 1984), After Atlantis (Thistledown, 1991), White Crane Spreads Wings  (Coteau Books, 1996), The Work of Snow (Thistledown, 2003), and Hands Reaching in Water (Hagios, 2007). He has co-edited the humour anthologies 100% Cracked Wheat and 200% Cracked Wheat and the poetry collections Number One Northern and A Sudden Radiance. Gary has received many awards for his work, was a finalist for the Milton Acorn People’s Poet Award for White Crane Spreads Wings, and was a finalist for the National Magazine Gold Medal Poetry Award in 1993. In 2007, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Saskatchewan Book Awards organization. He was named a member of the order of Canada in 2005.

Known as an activist and builder, Hyland was a founding member of CJUS-FM radio (Saskatoon), Thunder Creek Publishing Co-operative/Coteau Books, the Moose Jaw Community Hockey School, Moose Jaw Kinsmen Rink Action Committee, Sage Hill Writing Experience, ArtSchool Saskatchewan, CineView Saskatchewan, LiveMusicCity, Great Plains School of the Arts, the Saskatchewan Festival of Words (Artistic Coordinator), Moose Jaw Arts in Motion (Executive Director) and Wide Skies Film Festival (Executive Director). He also served as chairperson of the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre Builders and the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre Board of Directors. He is a former director of Saskatchewan Film and Video Development Corporation, the City of Moose Jaw Ad Hoc Committee for a Cultural Centre, and the Moose Jaw Centennial Committee.

Gary Hyland resides in his birthplace of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where he was named lifetime Poet Laureate (with Robert Currie) in 1991 and Citizen of the Year in 1998 and 2006. In 2007 he was named one of the 100 most influential graduates of the University of Saskatchewan in the last one hundred years.