Background
William B. Patrick was born on October 3, 1949 in Troy, New York, United States. He is the son of James K. Patrick and Elizabeth B. Patrick.
Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
William B. Patrick received a Bachelor in Creative Writing and Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
900 South Crouse Ave, Syracuse, NY 13244, United States
William B. Patrick got a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Syracuse University in 1973.
William B. Patrick was born on October 3, 1949 in Troy, New York, United States. He is the son of James K. Patrick and Elizabeth B. Patrick.
William B. Patrick received a Bachelor in Creative Writing and Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. He also got a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Syracuse University.
For William B. Patrick's first book of poems, Letter to the Ghosts, he drew upon historical texts such as letters and diaries concerning slavery, witch hunts, and Jesuit martyrdom. In 1995 William published the book These Upraised Hands.
In his first novel, Roxa: Voices of the Culver Family, Patrick blends poetry and spectacle in a story set on a Vermont farm in the middle of the nineteenth century. There is Samuel, the family patriarch; his son, Jonathan, who speaks only in prose, while his brother speaks entirely in verse. Jonathan’s wife, Margaret, is going mad, and eventually kills herself and her daughter, the youngest Culver, Roxa, who speaks in sing-song nursery rhymes about her life. In the background of the story is a cholera epidemic that lends credence to the dire forebodings of the religious fanatics among them.
Patrick’s own family is the subject of We Didn't Come Here for This, a collection of prose-poems that recounts the history of his family of origin. Each poem takes as its subject a particular incident in the life of the Patrick family, and each is paired with a family photo documenting the event. Together the poems tell of a family marred by the inheritances of the father, whose own alcoholic father abused him, and the tragedies of the present, specifically the death of one son, the illness of another, and the emotional wedge these incidents drive between the parents. His most recent book The Call of Nursing was published in 2013.
In 2005 William Patrick published Saving Troy, a creative nonfiction chronicle of a year spent living with the professional firefighters and paramedics of the Troy, NY Fire Department’s 1st Platoon and accompanying them to emergency medical calls, rescues, and fires. He also wrote a screenplay, Fire Ground, as well as a radio play, Rescue. It was commissioned by the BBC for their Season of American Thirty Minute Plays and aired world-wide on BBC 3 in 1997.
Patrick wrote a teleplay, Rachel’s Dinner, starring Olympia Dukakis and Peter Gerety. It was aired nationally on ABC-TV in 1991. His third feature-length screenplay, Brand New Me, was optioned by Force Ten Productions of Los Angeles and used as the basis for the remake of The Nutty Professor. William's latest screenplay, Wild Turkey, is a feature-length sports/romantic comedy about two female jockeys and a down-on-his-luck thoroughbred horse trainer.
Patrick is a former teacher of screenplay, poetry, and fiction writing at the State University of New York—Albany, Old Dominion University, Onondaga Community College, and Salem State College; former leader of workshops in screen writing and playwriting at Blue Ridge Writers Conference. He also taught Alternative Literary Programs and Writer’s Voice, in Silver Bay, working with elementary, middle, and high school students throughout New York State. William is currently on the faculty of Fairfield University, where he is a writing instructor in the MFA program.
William B. Patrick married Holly A. Patrick on June 13, 1970. They divorced in 1983. For years later he married Stacey L. Pfeifer. Their marriage produced two children - Tarin and Caleb and ended in 1997. On November 25, 2000 William married Carmel Rose Patrick.