This art is for the birds!

You may be familiar with the name Amy Tan, the woman who wrote the 1989 novel, The Joy Luck Club, which later became a very famous movie. She was only 37 when she wrote this debut novel, and it became a literal phenomenon and Hollywood milestone for Asian American representation. But you may not have known that she is also an incredible artist as well! Her most recent book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, published in 2024, features hundreds of her observations, notes, and drawings of the many birds in her backyard. In 2016, Amy took a nature journaling class with John Muir Laws. Then during the Covid pandemic, she started writing and drawing about the birds in her yard. These notes, along with her brightly colored sketches, became another bestselling book!

Here are a few pages from The Backyard Bird Chronicles you can check out!

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You can click here to watch a short video of Amy Tan creating a sketch of a bird!

You can also learn more about Amy Tan by checking out her website here.