Anniina's Amy Tan Page
Amy Tan was born February 19, 1952 in Oakland, California. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, graduated from high school in Montreux, Switzerland, and received her master's degree in Linguistics from San Jose State University.

Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. For her first book, The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan won The National Book Award and the L.A. Times Book Award in 1989.

She has been married for the past twenty-some years to Lou DeMattei. They live in San Francisco and New York with their little dogs, Yorkshire terriers Bubba and Lilli.

Amy Tan enjoys hiking, which is probably how she contracted Lyme disease in 1999. For a long time, it was debilitating, hindering her ability to write, and to tour with the literary garage band, Rock Bottom Remainders, of which she is a key member, belting out rock tunes in daring costumes, alongside other American writers, such as Stephen King and Dave Barry. Nothing can keep Amy Tan down for long, though, and she has avidly sought to bring better awareness of Lyme disease, as well as supported efforts for more research, and helped found LymeAid 4 Kids.

To find out more about Amy Tan, the fascinating person behind the books, I recommend reading her wonderful book of autobiographical essays, The Opposite of Fate.

Amy Tan and her Yorkie



 






















































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