Short answers, pulled from the story.
Murasaki Shikibu was born in the year 973 into the northern Fujiwara clan in Heian-kyō. Her father, Fujiwara no Tametoki, was a scholar of Chinese classics who attended the State Academy.
Murasaki Shikibu married Fujiwara no Nobutaka around 998 to serve at the Ministry of Ceremonials. Her husband died during a cholera epidemic two years later while they were living together in Kyoto.
Murasaki Shikibu served as a lady-in-waiting to Empress Shōshi from approximately 1005 until about 1021. She taught Chinese to the empress secretly despite the language being considered unladylike for women at that time.
Murasaki Shikibu spent approximately ten years composing The Tale of Genji between 1000 and 1012. The novel spans 1100 pages across fifty-four chapters with themes of time, romantic love, and human sorrow.
Murasaki Shikibu wrote disparagingly of Izumi Shikibu and Sei Shōnagon in her diary entries covering events from 1008 to 1010. She called Izumi Shikibu an amusing letter writer but not a real poet while criticizing Sei Shōnagon for being conceited.