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Amy Tan

Saturday, May 18, 2024
7:30pm Pacific Time
KQED Broadcast: 06/16/2024
Venue: Sydney Goldstein Theater

Amy Tan brings her beloved literary voice and remarkable drawing talents to birding. Along with environmentalist and artist John Muir Laws, Tan will discuss the peace and wisdom found through gentle observation. 

“I think we often write because we feel loneliness, and people read for the same reason, and then they come away feeling a little less lonely.” – Amy Tan

Overwhelmed by hatred, misinformation and an ever more divided world, award-winning author Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter’s Daughter) turned to the birds in her yard. The Backyard Bird Chronicles tracks the thoughts and lessons gathered through birding, mixing memoir with Tan’s own sketches of birds. Tan’s calm focus on watching and drawing the wild birds who visit her home makes for a brilliantly composed breath of fresh air. Tan’s other books include The Kitchen God’s Wife and the memoir The Opposite of Faith

 Environmentalist, teacher, and artist John Muir Laws is known for his gorgeous hiking guides and bird illustrations. The author of Sierra Birds: A Hiker’s Guide and The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds, Laws is currently an Audubon TogetherGreen fellow and a research associate with the California Academy of Sciences.

Tickets include a copy of The Backyard Bird Chronicles.

Photo by Kim Newmoney