5 Fun Facts to Chirp About: Featuring Amy Tan, Author of The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Pausing to look into your backyard and discovering your feeder alive with Red-headed Woodpeckers, sparrows, goldfinches, and juncos can spark joy, connection, and a deeper sense of purpose. Taking the time to truly pause, notice behaviors, and consider the unfolding nature story in your own yard is what many birders do, including acclaimed author and nature journaler Amy Tan. In her latest book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, she shares this same sense of delight.We invite you to join us in getting to know the birder behind the words with the five fun facts below. 

1. Born in the U.S. in 1952 to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.  She attended five colleges: Linfield College, San Jose City College, San Jose State University, University of California at Santa Cruz, and University of California at Berkeley.  She received her B.A. with a double major in English and Linguistics, followed by her M.A. in Linguistics (amytan.net).
2. Amy also wrote the libretto for the opera The Bonesetter’s Daughter, which had its world premiere with the San Francisco Opera in September 2008. Since 1993, she has served as lead rhythm dominatrix, backup singer, and second tambourine with the literary garage band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose members include Stephen King, Dave Barry, and Scott Turow (amytan.net).
3. Amy Tan was a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the International Orange Prize. She is the recipient of many honors, including the Commonwealth Gold Award, the Carl Sandburg Award, the 2024  NYPL Library Lion.  She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2022, and in 2023, President Biden presented her with the National  Humanities Medal (amytan.net).
4. In 1987, Amy went to China for the first time, accompanied by her mother. When she returned home, she learned that she had received several offers based on her submission of three short stories. The resulting book of connected stories, The Joy Luck Club, was hailed as a novel and became a surprise bestseller, spending over forty weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List.  (amytan.net)
5. In 2016, at 65 years old, Amy began taking nature journaling classes with John Muir Laws. During the pandemic shutdown, she spent long hours observing the behavior of wild birds in her backyard. Her editor, Dan Halpern, suggested she turn those pencil sketches, colored portraits, and journal notes into an illustrated book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, published in April 2024 by Knopf, which became an instant #1 bestseller. (amytan.net).

 “To draw portraits of the birds. I had to feel the life within and see what the bird was seeing, feeling, and planning as its next move. I imagined what it thought about me. I thought about survival.” - Amy Tan  

Amy Tan will join with John Muir Laws on stage on March 21 at Rowe Sanctuary’s new event, Braided In Unison. Laws and Tan’s conversation will explore nature journaling and how it can connect us to birds, nature, and the wider world.  Guests can join the event in person or by livestream; registration is now live.

 Purchase tickets here.