Authors+Talk+Show

Author Talk Show

Host: Welcome to Author Talk Show! I am your host Sally Partridge. Here today on our show we are having the Asian-American author Amy Tan! Also later on we will have the author Nikki Giovanni. Host: Now welcome to the show Amy Tan! Host: Welcome to our show Amy. How are you today? Amy: I’m doing great. Starting my new novel. What about you? Host: Doing good, just glad to have you on our show. So how’s this new novel coming along? Amy: It’s going good, just another novel dealing with something personal, but I can’t quite give it away. Host: That’s fine, so I have read about you and what has happened in the past, how did you feel when your brother and father died around the same time, if you don’t mind me asking. Amy: Well, it was a very hard time for me with only being 15 years old. My brother and father died from a brain tumor, it lead to me being very rebellious and wild. My friends were drug dealers & I almost married a mental patient. That was a rough time in my life. Host: awww I am very sorry about that. Now, about school, what schools did you attend? Amy: I completed high school in Switzerland. Whenever we moved to Oregon my mother chose a college and planned a per-med curriculum. I changed my major to English. Then when I wanted to be closer to my boyfriend I moved to California. I transferred to San Jose State University and I graduated in 1973 when I was 21. Host: Wow, you have had a successful life. Did you marry this “boyfriend” of yours? Amy: Yes, actually I did. We got married in 1976. I love him very dearly. Host: That’s great! Which one of your novels went the farthest? Amy: My novel //The Joy Luck Club// was published in 1989. It was on the New York Times bestseller list for nine months. It also received the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Best Fiction & the American Library Association’s Best Book for Young Adult Readers Award that same year. This novel was one of the finalists for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1993 They made it into a film. Host: I might just have to go read that book. Now for the little time we have, just give us the names of your work for the viewers in case they want to purchase them. Amy: The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Moon Lady, The Chinese Siamese Cat, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings, & Saving Fish from Drowning. Host: Thank you Amy for coming to the show. Amy: Thanks for having me. Host: After break we are bringing out the author Nikki Giovanni. We’ll be right back.