Domenica Ruta is an American author. Her first book, the memoir ''With or Without You,'' was a ''New York Times'' Best Seller.

Early life

Ruta was born in

Danvers, Massachusetts Danvers is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the Danvers River near the northeastern coast of Massachusetts. The suburb is a fairly short ride from Boston and is also in close proximity to the renowned beaches of Glo ...

to unwed teenage parents. She attended

Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

and

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

. Ruta holds a Master of Fine Arts from the

Michener Center for Writers The Michener Center for Writers is an interdisciplinary Masters of Fine Arts program in fiction, poetry, playwriting, and screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. It is widely regarded as one of the top creative writing programs in the wo ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

Career

Ruta's memoir, ''With or Without You,'' was published on February 26, 2013. It chronicles Ruta's difficult relationship with her drug-addicted mother, as well as Ruta's own struggle with alcoholism. She currently teaches memoir writing and creative nonfiction for

Gotham Writers Workshop Gotham Writers Workshop is the United States's largest adult-education writing school. It was founded in New York City in 1993 by writers Jeff Fligelman and David Grae. It was one of the first schools to offer online education, launching its onl ...

in New York City.

References

Writers from Massachusetts 21st-century American memoirists Phillips Academy alumni Oberlin College alumni Michener Center for Writers alumni Living people American women memoirists 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-nonfiction-writer-stub