Photo: Rick Smolan
Amy Tan is a US writer who struck it big with her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, published in 1989. The book - centred on four Chinese immigrant mothers and their four American-born daughters - spent over 40 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.
Her other novels are The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and The Valley of Amazement - all New York Times bestsellers.
She is also the author of a memoir, The Opposite of Fate, two children's books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat and numerous articles for magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, and National Geographic.
Her latest book, Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir, has just been published.