Monika Paniatowski

Sally Spencer was born in 1946 in New York City. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 1968 with a degree in English. After working as a teacher and a journalist, she published her first novel, "The Salt House," in 1983. "The Salt House" was a critical success and won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. It was followed by "The Apron Maker's Daughter" (1986), "Lark Ascending" (1990), and "A Year of Absence" (1993). Spencer's work has been praised for its lyrical prose, its exploration of family relationships, and its insights into the human condition. She has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a Whiting Award. Spencer currently lives in Vermont with her husband, the writer Geoffrey Wolff.