Patty Dann
Born
Patty Dann

(1953-10-30) October 30, 1953
New York City, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Oregon (BA)
Columbia University (MFA)
OccupationWriter
Spouses
Willem Nooter
​
​
(m. 1991; died 2000)​
    Michael Hill
    ​
    (m. 2008)​
    [1]
    Children1

    Patty Dann[2] (born October 30, 1953) 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 network 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 (2020), Sweet & Crazy (2003) and Starfish (2013), 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 (1998), focusing on the adoption of her son, and The Goldfish Went on Vacation: A Memoir of Loss (2007), which reflected on the death of her husband.

    Early life and education

    Dann was born on October 30, 1953, in New York City[3] to Michael Dann, a comedy writer-turned-television executive at NBC and CBS,[4][5] and Joanne (née Himmell).[2] She has one brother, Jonathan, and a sister, Priscilla.[2] Dann was raised in Chappaqua, New York.[6]

    After graduating high school, Dann enrolled at Bennington College, but left after her freshman year, transferring to the University of Oregon,[4] where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history.[4][7] While attending the University of Oregon, Dann studied under writer Ralph Salisbury, whom she later cited as a major influence on her writing.[4] She subsequently earned an MFA in writing at Columbia University,[3][8] 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.[4]

    Dann has published four novels: The Wright Sister (a historical novel about the Wright Brothers' sister Katharine Wright), 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, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, O Magazine, The Oregon Quarterly, Redbook, More, Forbes Woman, Poets & Writers Magazine as well as "The Writers’ Handbook Dirt: The Quirks, Habits and Passions of Keeping House" and "This I Believe: On Motherhood.”

    She has taught at the Fairfield County Writers’ Studio[9] and the West Side YMCA in NYC.[10]

    Dann is married to journalist Michael Hill,[11] and has one son and two stepsons.[12]

    Bibliography

    Fiction

    • Mermaids (1986), Ticknor and Fields[3]
    • Sweet & Crazy (2008), St. Martin's Press[3]
    • Starfish (2013), Greenpoint Press[4]
    • The Wright Sister: A Novel (2020), Harper Perennial[13]

    Nonfiction

    • The Baby Boat: A Memoir of Adoption (1998), Hyperion[3]
    • The Goldfish Went on Vacation: A Memoir of Loss (2007), Trumpeter[4]
    • The Butterfly Hours: Transforming Memories into Memoir (2016), Shambhala

    References

    1. ↑ "Patty Dann, Michael Hill". The New York Times. July 13, 2008. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020.
    2. 1 2 3 Newcomb, Horace, ed. (3 February 2014). Encyclopedia of Television (2nd ed.). New York City, New York: Routledge. p. 656. ISBN 978-1-135-19479-6.
    3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Dann, Patty (1953–)". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020.
    4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alger, Derek (October 2013). "Patty Dann Interview". PIF Magazine. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020.
    5. ↑ Grimes, William (May 30, 2016). "Michael Dann, TV Programmer Who Scheduled Horowitz and Hillbillies, Dies at 94". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016.
    6. ↑ Hudson, Kathy (March 4, 2014). "There's a bittersweet love story behind author Patty Dann's sequel to 'Mermaids'". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020.
    7. ↑ "The Wright Sister". Around the O. University of Oregon. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
    8. ↑ "Alumni Newsletter" (PDF). Columbia University School of the Arts. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
    9. ↑ "Patty Dann". Faculty. Fairfield County Writers' Studio. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
    10. ↑ Crow, Kelly (May 13, 2001). "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: UPPER WEST SIDE; Writers Are Halted Mid-Sentence as a Y Cancels Classes". New York Times. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
    11. ↑ "Patty Dann, Michael Hill". New York Times. July 13, 2008. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
    12. ↑ Dann, Patty (May 11, 2018). "A mother discovers she may be related to her adopted son". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
    13. ↑ "The Wright Sister: A Novel by Patty Dann".
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