Amy Tan

In 1988, Amy Tan was earning an excellent living writing speeches for business executives. She worked around the clock to meet the demands from her many high-priced clients, but she took no joy in the work, and felt frustrated and unfulfilled. In her mid-thirties, she took up writing fiction. A year later her first book, a collection of interrelated stories called The Joy Luck Club was an international best-seller, and Amy Tan's life was changed forever. Only 20 years ago, a list of well-known American authors would have included virtually no Asian-Americans. Today Amy Tan is one of America's most popular novelists. Her subsequent books, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses have been best-sellers, and the film of The Joy Luck Club was an unprecedented success. Although they are primarily concerned with the lives and concerns of Asian-American women, her stories have found an enthusiastic audience among Americans of all backgrounds, and have already been translated into 23 languages.