Scotiabank Giller Prize Spotlight:
Patrick deWitt

September 29, 2018

Patrick DeWitt was born on Vancouver Island in 1975. He is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: Undermajordomo Minor, Ablutions, and The Sisters Brothers, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Stephen Leacock Medal, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Patrick has been selected for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist for his novel French Exit.

What/who inspires you to write?

A curiosity about the interior lives of strangers; also the happiness that comes with stringing words together.

Where is your favourite place to write?

In my pajamas, in my office, in my home.

Do you have a tradition for every time you finish a book?

The tradition is that I feel peevish for a week, then depressed for two weeks, then I experience a general woodenness for about ten days, and then I start collecting data for the next book.

What are you reading now?

I just started Women Talking by Miriam Toews.

What inspired you to write your Scotiabank Giller Prize nominated book?

I’ve had a mean older woman living in my heart for long years, and I thought I’d let her out to stretch her legs.

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