An Evening with Amy Tan: The Backyard Birding Chronicles

About the Speakers

Amy Tan, acclaimed author of The Joy Luck Club, was born in 1952 to Chinese immigrant parents and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. After studying English and linguistics, she worked in special education before becoming a freelance writer, and later attended a fiction workshop that led to her literary debut. Her first book, The Joy Luck Club, became a bestseller, followed by The Kitchen God’s Wife and several others, all New York Times bestsellers. Her work, translated into 35 languages, spans novels, children’s books, essays, and memoirs. She also co-produced the film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club and served as a creative consultant for the PBS series Sagwa. Honored with numerous awards, including the National Humanities Medal, Tan is active on several literary and conservation boards. Her latest work, Backyard Birding Chronicles, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, blending her love of nature with her artistic and literary talents. Amy serves on the board of American Bird Conservancy, the National Poetry Series, and The Community of Writers.  She lives with her husband and their dog in California and New York.

Alexis Madrigal is a journalist in Oakland, California. He’s the co-host of KQED’s current affairs show, Forum, and a contributing writer at The Atlantic, where he co-founded The COVID Tracking Project. Previously, he was the editor-in-chief of Fusion and and a staff writer at Wired. He’s been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Information School and UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Technology, Science, and Medicine as well as an affiliate with Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. He was born in Mexico City, grew up in rural Washington State, and went to Harvard.