Patty Dann


Patty Dann is an American novelist and nonfiction writer. She studied at the University of Oregon, and later earned an MFA in writing from Columbia University. While working at the A&E in 1986, she revised Mermaids, a coming-of-age novel she had written as her Master's thesis, which was subsequently published by Ticknor and Fields. It was later made into a feature film of the same name in 1990.
Dann is also the author of the novels The Wright Sister, Sweet & Crazy and Starfish, the latter of which is a sequel to Mermaids. She has also written nonfiction works, including The Butterfly Hours: Transforming Memories into Memoir, The Baby Boat: A Memoir of Adoption, focusing on the adoption of her son, and The Goldfish Went on Vacation: A Memoir of Loss, which reflected on the death of her husband.

Biography

Patty Dann was born on October 30, 1953 in New York City to Michael Dann, a comedy writer-turned-television executive at NBC and CBS, and Joanne. She has one brother, Jonathan, and a sister, Priscilla. Dann was raised in Chappaqua, New York.
After graduating high school, Dann enrolled at Bennington College, but left after her freshman year, transferring to the University of Oregon, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history. While attending the University of Oregon, Dann studied under writer Ralph Salisbury, whom she later cited as a major influence on her writing. She subsequently earned an MFA in writing at Columbia University, where she submitted an early draft of Mermaids, a coming-of-age novel about a teenage girl in the 1960s, as her master's thesis.
Patty Dann has published four novels, The Wright Sister, Mermaids, Starfish and Sweet & Crazy. Her work has been translated into French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
Mermaids was made into a movie, starring Cher, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci.
The Butterfly Hours, was chosen as one of the “Best Books for Writers” by Poets & Writers Magazine. The Goldfish Went on Vacation: A Memoir of Loss received a Foreword Indie Gold Award for Family & Relationships.
Dann’s articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Science Monitor, O Magazine, The Oregon Quarterly, Redbook, More, Forbes Woman, Poets & Writers Magazine, The Writers’ Handbook, Dirt: The Quirks, Habits and Passions of Keeping House, and This I Believe: On Motherhood.”
New York Magazine named Dann one of the “Great Teachers of NYC.” She earned an MFA in writing from Columbia University and a B.A. from the University of Oregon. She has taught at the Fairfield County Writers’ Studio, the Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute and the West Side YMCA in NYC.
Dann is married to journalist, Michael Hill and has one son and two stepsons.

Fiction

The Wright Sister Harper Perennial

Nonfiction

The Butterfly Hours: Transforming Memories into Memoir Shambhala