Patrick deWitt was born on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. He has also lived in California, Washington, and Oregon, where he presently resides with his wife and son. In 2007, Teenage Teardrops press published his short book of random writings and bad advice, Help Yourself Help Yourself. He received no formal fiction training and has worked as a laborer, a clerk, a dishwasher, and a bartender. Ablutions is his first novel., and is published by Granta Books, and was selected as part of the Waterstone's New Voices promotion in 2009. Six years spent as a bartender undoubtedly went some way to informing the novel, a redemptive, Bukowski-esque fictional account of one man's relationship with alcohol.