Amy Tan and Stewart Wallace: The Bonesetter's Daughter

Amy Tan

Amy Tan is the author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, The Opposite of Fate, and Saving Fish from Drowning. She has also written two children's books, The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat. The latter became a children's television series for PBS called "Sagwa."

Amy is a member of the literary garage band, The Rock Bottom Remainders, for which she sings the Nancy Sinatra classic, "These Boots Are Made for Walking" to raise money for after-school literacy programs for inner city kids. Tan's rendition of the pop culture classic can be heard on the CD Stranger than Fiction, which benefits the PEN Writers Fund.

Stewart Wallace

Composer Stewart Wallace grew up in Texas, both playing in a rock and roll band, and singing as a cantor in his synagogue. He describes himself as an entirely self-taught composer; he began writing music when he was eight-years old, and wrote his first opera as his thesis for an interdisciplinary honors program at the University of Texas at Austin. His major breakthrough came with his fifth opera, Harvey Milk, which he wrote with long-time collaborator, librettist Michael Korie. The hugely successful Harvey Milk debuted in Houston before traveling to New York, San Francisco and Germany. In addition to his work with opera, Wallace has composed several film scores and a popular ballet of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan.