[1][2] Ruta was born in Danvers, Massachusetts to unwed teenage parents.
She attended Phillips Academy and Oberlin College.
Ruta holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.
[3] She currently teaches memoir writing and creative nonfiction for Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City.
[4] This article about a United States writer of non-fiction is a stub.