Poets & Writers Theater

“Some people say fiction is all a lie. To me, fiction is one of the best ways we can learn truth.” In this Unban Coolies interview, Amy Tan talks about the importance of observation in her writing, identity and biodiversity, and how her interest in bird conversation inspired her new book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles (Knopf, 2024), which is featured in “The Written Image” in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The things I discovered about writing were so important to me; it was the notion that you could write and find out what you really believed in.” Amy Tan speaks about her creative process in this video from PBS and American Masters previewing her documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir directed by James Redford.

“Tan speaks to anxieties that plague many immigrants, who often feel both alienated from their homeland and disconnected from their adopted country.” In this TED-Ed animated film, Sheila Marie Orfano breaks down the themes of Amy Tan’s first novel, The Joy Luck Club, and the lessons learned from the intergenerational relationships of the characters.

“Our lives don’t happen chronologically in memory, and a good memoirist has to know how to structure that memoir in a way that you can see the shaping of a life....” Amy Tan, whose second memoir, Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir (Ecco, 2017), is featured in Page One of the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, talks about the genre and about Mary Karr’s memoir writing.