Otto was born and raised in California to a couple who later divorced;[1] her father was an engineer, while her mother worked in advertising.[2] She attended university at the University of the Pacific, San Diego State University, and the University of California, Irvine before graduating.[1] Currently she lives in Portland, Oregon with her family,[3] where they moved from San Francisco.[1] Her first novel, How to Make an American Quilt, was a New York Times bestseller, and was featured on other bestseller lists as well; it was also a New York Times Notable Book, was nominated for the Art Seidenbaum Award, and was adapted into a feature film. Two of her other novels, The Passion Dream Book and Now You See Her, were optioned for films; the first was nominated for an Oregon Book Award, while the latter was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. Her works have been published in fourteen languages.[4] Otto's writing has also been anthologized; some of her pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Oregonian, and The San Francisco Chronicle, as well as in magazines.[5]
As a writer, Otto has been described as a "democrat", choosing to tell her stories using multiple narrative voices.[2] She has taught at a number of writing workshops during her career.[6][7] In 1990 she received an Outstanding Teacher Award from the University of California, Irvine; she has also been awarded a number of other prizes and grants during her career. Otto has also been active as an artist, crafting shadow boxes that have been exhibited at a gallery in Portland.[5] She has also spoken of her love for photography and the creative life; though not a photographer herself, she based her most recent novel on the stories of a number of prominent women photographers whose lives she fictionalized.[8][9]
