Amy Tan

Here's a good start page at Voices From the Gaps, where you'll find a photo, excerpts, a biography, two bibliographies, and some links. It's a great place to start your online research.

This is the entry on Tan from Encarta Online, with a biography and links. How trustworthy do you consider this source? Why?

Here's a photo of Tan with her mother. Describe the photo in as much detail as you can. How can you relate this picture to your reading?

Do you want to know more about Tan's personal history? Here's some info about a rock band Tan plays with. Do you know any of the other authors in the band? Which ones? Does anything here come as a surprise to you?

To help put Tan's work into a historical context, here is a wealth of introductory info about Chinese Immigration to the U.S. How can you relate this to from where your family came from? How can this help you in your writing about Tan?

Did you know that Tan has contributed to films? This is a film review of The Joy Luck Club. Have you seen the movie? Have you read the book? After this review are you interested in either?

Here's a review of The Bonesetter's Daughter. What can you learn about a book just from reading a review of it? Needing what kinds of information would make consulting the book itself necessary?

This is the first chapter of Tan's novel about a Chinese-American woman, The Bonesetter's Daughter. There's also a link there for a New York Times review of the book. (Free registration required.)

Here is Tan's essay "Mother Tongue " in e-text. Do you like reading electronic texts? What advantages do e-texts have over plain paper? Do you think that e-texts have disadvantages compared with more traditional media?

Here's an interview from Salon, in which she discusses her novel The Hundred Secret Senses. What did you learn from this interview that other sources didn't make much mention of?