From International Herald Tribune:

At 40, Spiotta is a generation away from the fugitive radicals of the early '70s. She grew up in many different places, she said. Her father, Robert, an oil company executive, often had to relocate because of his work. He eventually became president of Francis Ford Coppola's studio, American Zoetrope.

Spiotta came east to go to Columbia University. But during a difficult period in her sophomore year, when her parents were divorcing, she dropped out and returned to the West Coast, to Washington State.

She began participating in political protests, including a demonstration against U.S. involvement in Central America, an experience she called "very empowering." She supported herself by waiting tables in restaurants.

In 1992 she graduated from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, a center of counterculture activity, and moved to New York. She kept on waitressing and also got a job as co-managing editor for The Quarterly, a literary magazine.