Describe your latest book.
I was raised in the mountains of Idaho by a father who opposed many of the institutions that most people take for granted — public education, doctors and hospitals, the government. As a result I was never put in school, never visited a doctor or nurse, and was not given a birth certificate until age nine. I was 17 the first time I set foot in a classroom, but 10 years later I would graduate from Cambridge with a PhD.
Educated is the story of how I came by my education. It is also the story of how I lost my family.
When did you know you were a writer?
I never did. I wrote this whole book, and never once thought of myself as a writer. The situation was very simple: I wanted to write this one thing, and because it was my life and it mattered deeply to me and to other people, I didn’t want the writing to be bad...