Patricia Wood

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Patricia Wood is an American writer. Her first novel, Lottery, was published in 2007 and was shortlisted for the 2008 Orange Prize for Fiction. In December 2014 she published another novel, Cupidity.

Wood was born in Seattle, Washington. Her father, Ray "R.J." Dahl, worked at Boeing and won $6 million in the Washington State Lottery in 1993. She has several siblings, including a twin and older sisters. Wood began writing when she was 8 years old and finished Shoreline High School in 1971.

In 1972 she joined the United States Army and worked as a medical technologist. After the military she studied at Northern Illinois University and later earned a PhD from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She worked as a special education teacher and taught marine science and horseback riding.

Lottery tells the story of Peter Crandall, a man with a mild intellectual disability who wins the Washington State Lottery. The book was shortlisted for the 2008 Orange Prize for Fiction.

Wood lives with her husband, Gordon, on a sailboat in Hawaii. They have a son named Andrew.