Donna Tartt facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Donna Tartt
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Tartt in 2015
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| Born | December 23, 1963 Greenwood, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Occupation | Fiction writer |
| Education | University of Mississippi Bennington College (BA) |
| Period | 1992–present |
| Literary movement | Literary fiction |
| Notable works | The Secret History (1992) The Little Friend (2002) The Goldfinch (2013) |
| Notable awards | WH Smith Literary Award 2003 The Little Friend Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2014 The Goldfinch |
Donna Louise Tartt, born on December 23, 1963, is a famous American writer. She is known for her three popular novels: The Secret History (published in 1992), The Little Friend (published in 2002), and The Goldfinch (published in 2013). The Goldfinch won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was later made into a movie in 2019. In 2014, Time magazine recognized her as one of the "100 Most Influential People" in the world.
Early Life and School
Donna Louise Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the southern United States. She grew up in a nearby town called Grenada. Her father was a musician and later a business owner, and her mother worked as a secretary. Both of her parents loved to read, and her mother often read books even while driving. As a child, Donna enjoyed memorizing long poems. She once said she was like a "horrible storage place for silly poems."
Donna wrote her first poem when she was five years old in 1968. Her first work was published when she was 13; a poem she wrote appeared in the Mississippi Review in 1976. In high school, she was a cheerleader and worked at the public library. She won awards for her essays and also wrote short stories.
In 1981, Donna started college at the University of Mississippi. She joined a sorority called Kappa Kappa Gamma and wrote short stories for the school newspaper, The Daily Mississippian. One of her stories was shown to a well-known writer named Willie Morris. He was very impressed and called her "a genius." Because of Morris's recommendation, another writer, Barry Hannah, who taught at the university, allowed 18-year-old Donna to join his advanced writing class. Hannah described her as "deeply literary" and a "literary star."
In 1982, Donna decided to transfer to Bennington College in Vermont, following advice from Morris and others. At Bennington, she studied classic literature and met other future writers like Bret Easton Ellis and Jonathan Lethem. She graduated in 1986 with a degree in Philosophy.
Writing Career
Donna Tartt's first novel, The Secret History, was published in 1992. The story was inspired by her experiences at Bennington College. The book was a huge success, both with critics and financially. Vanity Fair magazine called the 29-year-old Tartt a very talented writer.
Her second novel, The Little Friend, came out in 2002. It was first published in Dutch because her books were very popular in the Netherlands.
In 2006, one of her short stories, "The Ambush," was chosen to be in the book The Best American Short Stories 2006.
Her 2013 novel, The Goldfinch, became a bestseller. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014, which is one of the highest honors for a book in the U.S. Some critics had different opinions about the book, but it was still very popular. The Goldfinch was later made into a movie in 2019.
Donna Tartt is known for taking a long time to write her books. She has spent about ten years writing each of her novels.
Personal Life
Donna Tartt is a private person. She has lived in different places, including Greenwich Village and the Upper East Side in New York City, and on a farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. She is 5 feet tall.
In an interview in 2013, Tartt mentioned that she doesn't enjoy going on book tours or giving speeches because she finds them very tiring. She explained that she likes to keep her privacy, saying that there is "great freedom of American life as the freedom not to participate in the life of the culture, the freedom to shut the door, to close the curtains."
As of 2016, reports stated that Donna Tartt lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, with an art gallery owner named Neal Guma. They bought a property together in 1997. Tartt also dedicated her second novel to someone named Neal.
Donna Tartt is a member of the Catholic Church. She wrote an essay called "The spirit and writing in a secular world" for a book published in 2000. In her essay, she shared that her faith is very important to her writing process and why she feels driven to create her work. However, she also believes that writers should not force their personal beliefs into their novels.
Awards
- 2003 WH Smith Literary Award – The Little Friend
- 2003 Orange Prize for Fiction shortlist – The Little Friend
- 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award (fiction) shortlist – The Goldfinch
- 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist – The Goldfinch
- 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – The Goldfinch
- 2014 Time 100 Most Influential People
- 2014 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence for Fiction – The Goldfinch
- 2014 Vanity Fair International Best Dressed List
See also
In Spanish: Donna Tartt para niños
