Author Amy Tan drew a capacity crowd to the campus Sept. 21

Fort Worth, TX

8/23/2010

Writer Amy Tan, whose legendary bestsellers have become “required reading” for high school and university students, addressed a sell-out crowd in Ed Landreth Auditorium at this year’s Fogelson Honors Forum Tuesday.

Born in the U.S. to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan rejected her mother’s expectations that she become a doctor and concert pianist. She chose to write fiction instead. Her novels are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and Saving Fish from Drowning, all New York Times bestsellers and the recipient of various awards. 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.

Ms. Tan wrote the libretto for The Bonesetter’s Daughter which had its world premiere with the San Francisco Opera in September 2008. Her other musical work for the stage is limited to serving as lead rhythm dominatrix, backup singer, and second tambourine with the literary garage band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose members include Stephen King, Dave Barry and Scott Turow. In spite of their dubious talent, their yearly gigs have managed to raise over a million dollars for literacy programs.

The Fogelson Honors Forum, now in its 12th year, is made possible by a $1 million gift from the estates of E. E. “Buddy” Fogelson and his wife, the actress Greer Garson. A successful Texas oilman and rancher, Buddy Fogelson attended TCU in 1919 and 1920. Previous lecturers in this series have included CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, economist/actor Ben Stein, political insiders James Carville and Mary Matalin, statesman George Mitchell, politicians Jeb Bush and Bill Bradley, and historians David McCullough and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

The John V. Roach Honors College, with admission by invitation, offers a challenging interdisciplinary curriculum in a wide variety of classes, as well as opportunities for traditional and experiential learning and co-curricular activities. For the first time in the history of the program, Honors College students now have special housing available in newly renovated Milton Daniel Hall.