Donna Tartt began her literary career at age five, penning her inaugural poem in 1968 before gaining wider attention with a sonnet published in the Mississippi Review when she was thirteen. The American author maintains a deliberate ten-year cycle for her major novels, consistently producing prose that explores the intersections of faith, tragedy, and aesthetic obsession.
Formative Years in Mississippi
Born in 1963 in Greenwood, Mississippi, Tartt spent her youth in Grenada. Her father, Don, worked as a service station owner and local politician, while her mother, Taylor, was a secretary. During her high school years at Kirk Academy, she served as a basketball cheerleader and authored essays on topics ranging from patriotism to alcoholism. She enrolled at the University of Mississippi in 1981, where she wrote for The Daily Mississippian and caught the attention of writer-in-residence Barry Hannah.
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In 1982, Tartt transferred to Bennington College, where she focused on classics under Claude Fredericks and associated with contemporaries including Bret Easton Ellis. She graduated in 1986 with a philosophy degree. Her debut novel, The Secret History, published in 1992, emerged from her experiences at Bennington. The book achieved significant financial and critical momentum, establishing a distinct dark academia aesthetic.
Literary Output and Recognition
Tartt followed her debut with The Little Friend in 2002, a work notably released first in the Netherlands. Her third novel, The Goldfinch, was published in 2013. It earned her the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Despite the critical and commercial failure of its 2019 film adaptation, the novel remains a cornerstone of her bibliography. She has also contributed numerous essays and short stories to publications like Harper's Magazine and The New Yorker.
Privacy and Religious Perspectives
A convert to the Catholic Church, Tartt addressed the role of belief in her craft within her essay The Spirit and Writing in a Secular World. She views faith as an essential component of her creative process but advocates against writers imposing direct moral convictions on their fiction. Known for her preference for seclusion, she maintains a private life, residing on a property in Charlottesville, Virginia, while continuing her work on future literary projects.
Fast facts
- Born: 1963, Greenwood, Mississippi
- Education: Bennington College, Kirk Academy
- Major Novels: The Secret History, The Little Friend, The Goldfinch
- Primary Awards: Mecca Prize (1994), Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2014)
- Citizenship: United States
- Literary Field: Prose, essay, literary criticism
Questions readers ask
How long does Donna Tartt typically take to write a novel?
She has spent approximately ten years writing each of her three novels.
Did Donna Tartt write the screenplay for The Goldfinch film?
No, she was not permitted to write the screenplay or serve as a producer for the 2019 adaptation.
Achievements
- Mecca Prize — 1994
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — 2014
- Notable work: The Secret History
- Notable work: The Little Friend
- Notable work: The Goldfinch
