Donna Louise Tartt was born December 23, 1963, in Greenwood, Mississippi, the eldest of two daughters of Don Tartt, a politician, and Taylor, a secretary. She grew up in Grenada, Mississippi. Tartt started keeping a notebook at the age of four before writing her first poem at the age of five. When Tartt was thirteen years old, she published her first poem in a Mississippi literary journal. As a child, Tartt also loved to read, especially enjoying classic books such as Peter Pan and Treasure Island.

In 1981, Tartt entered the University of Mississippi at Oxford. When she was a freshman at the university, the influential author-in-residence Willie Morris read her work and declared her a genius. Morris helped get Tartt admitted to a graduate writing class taught by Barry Hannah, though Tartt was only a freshman. Finding that the university did not meet her needs, Tartt transferred to...