Learn about Amy Tan’s path to becoming a writer in this video from the American Masters film Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir. Before Amy Tan became a writer of fiction, she had a career as a business writer. At five different colleges—Linfield College, San Jose City College, San Jose State University, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and University of California at Berkeley—Tan studied English and linguistics. 

Her academic and professional training in language prepared her to produce a wide variety of texts: Tan composed astrological profiles and technical guides, including the best-seller, Telecommunications and You for the computing giant, IBM. Though Tan was a successful and sought-after technical writer, she was writing about subjects in which she did not have a personal investment. In 1985, at the age of 35 years old, Tan began to experiment with writing fiction.

This educational resource includes discussion questions and writing activities for students.