If you ask Susan Solie Patterson ’79, MFA’82, it was her mother’s intuitive insistence that led her to meet her husband, James Patterson — “Jim,” to Sue. But perhaps there was also a bit of destiny involved when the world’s best-selling author fell in love with a savvy storyteller whose narrative instincts and artistic eye were honed at UW–Madison.
Solie Patterson hails from a long line of Badgers. Her mother, Lorraine Ormson Solie ’46, studied nursing and economics. She was head nurse at Wisconsin General Hospital (predecessor to University Hospital) and a professor in the UW School of Nursing. Solie Patterson’s father, O.B. Solie ’50, MS’51, studied art and English before his successful career as a designer of high-end furniture.
Solie Patterson was an art student in the School of Education during both her undergraduate and graduate careers at the UW, where she was also an all-American swimmer. She studied photography and printmaking, honing her visual-storytelling skills and dreaming of writing children’s books.
Instead, she pursued a career in advertising, where she became a successful art director and senior vice president at some of the world’s top agencies. She was in New York City on business when, at her mother’s urging, she brought her portfolio to J. Walter Thompson (now Wunderman Thompson), where Jim was executive creative director.
“The creative recruiter came out five minutes later and said, ‘You’re exactly what Mr. Patterson has been looking for,’ ” Solie Patterson laughs.
Her path never strayed far from the UW — her New Yorker husband is now a diehard Badger fan — and the UW has certainly never left her. More than 30 years after graduating with her master’s degree, Solie Patterson partnered with Jim to finally write her first children’s book: Big Words for Little Geniuses.
“It was everything that I had studied and loved in college,” she says. “Everything that I did in getting my master’s degree went into that book.”
She, like her husband, is now a New York Times best-selling author. Together, they are not only writing books for children but are also supporting efforts to improve literacy and foster lifelong loves of reading.
“As I’ve gotten older, and then had a child, I’ve realized the incredible value and importance of being a good reader,” Solie Patterson says. “It touches so many different things in your life.”
Here, she shares some of the titles that are close to her heart.
Some of my favorite books include: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
My favorite book of Jim’s is: Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas
“It was sort of inspired, in part, by a diary that I was keeping for [our son], Jack, about all kinds of silly stuff: what he did during a day, or the new words that he was saying.”
My favorite books of mine are:
Big Words for Little Geniuses
“I really researched these words so that it would be a pleasure for the adult reading and the child, as well. I tried to find words that were unusual and big and like you almost didn’t believe they were really words.”
Things I Wish I Told My Mother
“That book was a joy to write. It was a very emotional journey to honor my mom. It’s fiction, but I think she was the book’s real inspiration. She was an amazing lady, and I probably should have told her that more.”
The author I always come back to is: Elin Hilderbrand
“I always joke that Elin Hilderbrand is my second favorite author. I have read all of her books.”
The book I’ve been meaning to get around to is:
The Women by Kristin Hannah
“I have lots of books that I want to get to read, but Jim has perpetual manuscripts coming — I’m not kidding — and I always want to read his.”
