Just after Susan Pile graduated from high school in June, 1966, she went to a Chicago performance of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable and met Gerard Malanga, who encouraged her to come to the Factory. Moving to New York, she went to Barnard, and after her classes she worked at the Factory, transcribing the tapes for a: a novel and typing poems for Gerard Malanga; in early 1968 she moved to California.