Patricia Wood is a PhD student at the University of Hawaii, focusing on education, disability and diversity. Lottery is inspired by her work, as well as by a number of events in her life, including her father winning the Washington State Lottery. She lives with her husband aboard a sailboat moored in Ko' Olina, Hawaii. Lottery is her first novel and was shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008. Patricia has one son, Andrew, who lives in Everett, where Lottery takes place.

What I love about Lottery is that it is much more than a novel about a windfall affecting a simple soul - it's a book about a stupendous event affecting a great number of people, especially the reader.