J.L. Carrell was born in 1962, in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Arizona. She have a Ph.D. in English from Harvard, along with undergraduate degrees from Oxford and Stanford. Before she began to write books full time, she taught literature and writing at Harvard. Later, she was the classical music critic for the Arizona Daily Star. She's also written a number of pieces for the Smithsonian Magazine. Carrell lives in Tucson, Arizona.