Her father, son of Italian immigrants, worked for Mobil Oil, and his constant moving made Spiotta a perennial "new-kid".

Her parents met at Hofstra University while acting in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire directed by fellow student Francis Ford Coppola.

She moved to Seattle and eventually enrolled at Evergreen State College and studied labor history and creative writing.

[9] She teaches in the Syracuse University MFA creative writing program along with George Saunders, Mary Karr.

[10] Spiotta lives in Syracuse, New York with her daughter and her husband, writer Jonathan Dee.