Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

Interview by Nicole Melanson ~

Patricia Wood was born in Seattle, Washington and currently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her debut novel, Lottery, was short-listed for the 2008 Orange Prize for fiction in the UK. She has contributed a short story in the anthology collection Sunset Inn: Tales of the North Shore, which benefits Hawaii Literacy, and her latest novel, Cupidity, was recently released in December.

While Patricia has always considered herself a writer, she has had various careers from being a medical technologist in the US Army, to giving horseback riding lessons, to teaching Science to high-risk students. She has helped crew sailboats across the Pacific, done shark research at Midway Atoll, and competed professionally in horse shows with her jumper Airborne. While working on her PhD at the University of Hawaii, she earned her certificate in Disability Studies.

Patricia now lives on a sailboat with…

The best Arts events inspire controversy . But who would have thought in this age of religious tension, detention and blue ties that a little girl’s toilet break could inspire impassioned letters to the editor? It seems that public urination is a hot topic not just in Paris and Perth but also in Oklahoma . And my parents and husband were close enough to almost feel the splash! They’d perched at a table with a reserved sign amidst people they discovered were from Down South, but the table was actually reserved for Jean-Luc. By the time Karen and I arrived, the controversial moment was over, the asphalt was drying and everyone was enjoying a second drink…

The meeting of The Diver and the Little Girl a few hours later occurred against the impressive backdrop of The Swan River and included Noongar smoke cleansing for purity and cleansing and face painting.

Day Two, Saturday: Mum and Lionel were up early to reclaim their bench.

Meanwhile the rest of the family went to watch The Diver wake up. While waiting near the overpass we noticed people in the multi-storey carpark. We joined them and had a brilliant view of The Diver’s leap, accompanied by a stirring James Bond soundtrack.

The Diver even peered at us as he passed.

We gave him a wave, then raced through the crowd trying to get ahead of the parade so we could take up the amazing offer of being in ‘The Bubble’; a taped off area walking through the street just ahead of Diver. What a great opportunity. We took so many photos…

 We followed The Diver to the park where he had his afternoon nap. The Lilliputians helped Diver remove his helmet then wheeled out a record player and put on a record to help him…