Get Your Head In Summer Reading: An Interview With Patricia Wood

“I don’t want to be paraded as an expert,” says Patricia Wood, author of the novel Lottery. “An expert is a mother or father who work day-to-day to understand their kid and to get the world ready to welcome him.” Wood knows a thing or two about the challenges of special needs children and adults. As a special education teacher, her hands-on experience was invaluable in creating her protagonist, Perry L. Crandall, a mentally challenged man who transcends all expectations in this debut novel. And indeed, it was the authenticity of Perry that both won the notice of fans, and even the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, which short listed it this year. (Last night, 3-time nominee Rose Tremain, author of The Road Home was named the winner in the UK).

Read the rest on:
Get Lost With Easy-Writer: Windfall: An Interview With Patricia Wood