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.