Dana Spiotta

Dana Spiotta
Spiotta in 2012
Spiotta at the National Book Critics Circle Awards in March 2012.
Born1966 (age 58–59)
New Jersey, US
Alma materEvergreen State College
Columbia University
OccupationNovelist
EmployerSyracuse University
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
Rome Prize (2009)
Websitedanaspiotta.com

Dana Spiotta (born 1966) is an American author. She was a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature,[1] a Guggenheim Fellowship, the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

She is the author of five novels. Innocents and Others (2016) won the St. Francis College Literary Prize. Stone Arabia (2011) was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.[2] Eat the Document (2006) was a National Book Award finalist[3] and won the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[4] Lightning Field (2001) was a New York Times Notable Book of the year.[5]

In 2021, Spiotta published Wayward, which concerns four women: Sam Raymond, a perimenopausal woman; Ally Raymond, Sam's daughter; Lily, Sam's mother; and Clara Loomis, a fictitious 19th Century suffragette who ran away to the Oneida Community as a young woman. Wayward was a New York Times Critics' Top Pick of 2021[6] and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.[7]

Biography

Spiotta was born in 1966 in New Jersey. 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.[8] In 1979, her father began running Coppola's Zoetrope Studios.[9] She attended Crossroads School and went on to Columbia University, but dropped out at the end of her sophomore year. 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.[11]

Works

  • Lightning Field. Scribner. 2001. ISBN 978-0743212618.
  • Eat the Document. Scribner. 2006. ISBN 9780743272988.[12][13]
  • Stone Arabia. Scribner. 2011. ISBN 9781451617962.[14][15][16]
  • Innocents and Others. Scribner. 2016. ISBN 9781501122729.
  • Wayward. Knopf. 2021. ISBN 9780593318737.[17][18]

References

  1. ^ "American Academy of Arts and Letters – Award Winners". Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  2. ^ "2011 Winners & Finalists". National Book Critics Circle Award. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  3. ^ "National Book Awards 2006". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  4. ^ "American Academy of Arts and Letters – Award Winners". Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  5. ^ "NOTABLE BOOKS". The New York Times. 2001-12-02. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  6. ^ "Times Critics' Top Books of 2021". The New York Times. 2021-12-15. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  7. ^ "100 Notable Books of 2021". The New York Times. 2021-11-22. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  8. ^ Wasson, Sam (2024). The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story. Harper. ISBN 978-0063037847.
  9. ^ a b Burton, Susan (16 February 2016). "The Quietly Subversive Fictions of Dana Spiotta". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  10. ^ "ABOUT – DANA SPIOTTA". Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  11. ^ Eisenstadt, Marnie (12 September 2017). "Jonathan Dee, a Pulitzer-nominated author, will write his next novel in Syracuse". syracuse.com. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  12. ^ Varvogli, Aliki (November 2010). "Radical Motherhood: Narcissism and Empathy in Russell Banks's The Darling and Dana Spiotta's Eat the Document". Journal of American Studies. 44 (4): 657–673. doi:10.1017/S0021875810001313. ISSN 1469-5154. S2CID 143760803. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  13. ^ Kelly, Adam Maxwell (18 July 2012). ""Who is Responsible?": Revisiting the Radical Years in Dana Spiotta's Eat the Document". In Coleman, Philip; Matterson, Stephen (eds.). 'Forever Young'?. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter. pp. 219–30. ISBN 978-3-8253-5967-6. Archived from the original on 10 April 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  14. ^ Szalay, Michael (10 July 2012). "The Incorporation Artist". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  15. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (11 July 2011). "A Rock-Star Life Imagined, but Never Actually Achieved". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  16. ^ "Myers, D. G. "Where Things Are Allowed to Have Complexity." Commentary (17 August 2011)". Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  17. ^ Corrigan, Maureen (July 27, 2021). "One Woman Takes A 'Wayward' Approach To Menopause In This Smart New Novel". Fresh Air on NPR. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  18. ^ Lee, Joe (September 1, 2021). "Wayward by Dana Spiotta". Pop Life on WAER (Podcast). Retrieved 10 April 2022.
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