Donna Tartt was born 1963 in Greenwood, Mississippi. to Taylor and Don Tartt. She was raised in Grenada, Mississippi, with her sister. Today she lives in New York with her dogs.

She wrote her first poem at the young age of 5 and by the time she was 13 she published her first sonnet in the Mississippi Literary Review. In 1981 she went to the University of Mississippi but  soon after  she was encouraged to transferred to Bennington College in Vermont. That is where she began writing her first book.

In 1986 as a graduate of Bennington College, she met her soon to be literary agent, Amanda Urban "Binkly. "

In 1991 her agent   started a war among publishing companies over her manuscript "The Secret History." The publishing company Knopf won the bidding war. Knopf paid her $450,000 for the rights of it. The book was finally published in 1992 and she got an additional $500,000 dollars for foreign rights Her book was on the best sellers list for 13 weeks in a row at the #2 spot. She sold well over 75,000 copies. Later her book was turn in to a movie that was directed by Scott Hick.

"The Little Friend" published in 2002 became her second well received novel.