WRITERS' LEAGUE OF TEXAS
formerly the Austin Writers' League
October's
Program
2003
OCTOBER 2003 MONTHLY MEETING
Thursday, October 16, 7pm
Writers League of Texas
Sarah Bird to speak at the League’s October meeting.
One of Austin’s most prolific writers, Sarah Bird,
will be the featured speaker at the Writers’ League of Texas October
16 meeting. 
Bird published The Yokota Officers Club in 2001. The book was named Best Work of Fiction of 2001 by the Texas Institute of Letters BookSense Pick , the Fort Worth Star-Telegram rated it Best Novel of the Year, and AP placed it on the reviewer's list of "Five Novels I'd Read Again."
Having published numerous other award wining novels, including The Mommy Club (Doubleday, 1991), which was named Best Work of Fiction of 1991 by the Texas Institute of Letters and a Violet Crown winner, Bird will have plenty to share.
Born
December 26, 1949 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Bird experienced childhood in
an Air Force family and has lived in Japan, Okinawa, France, Spain, the
Yucatan Peninsula, and most of the western states. Also a screenwriter
and journalist, Bird received a BA in anthropology at the University of
New Mexico in 1973 and an MA in journalism at The University of Texas
at Austin in 1976. Additional books include: Virgin of the Rodeo
(Doubleday, 1993), selected Southwest Book Critics Best Novel of 1993
and the B&N Discover Great New Writers Award; The Boyfriend School
(Doubleday, 1989), one of New York Public Library's Books to Remember
for 1989; The Alamo House (W. W. Norton, 1986), based on her
experience as a graduate student at the University of Texas; and Do
Evil Cheerfully (Avon, 1983).
More than Novels: Bird has written 15 screenplays including the screenplay adaptation of "Boyfriend School," produced in 1990 as "Don't Tell Her It's Me" by Hemdale Studios staring Shelley Long and Steve Guttenberg, and the screenplay for "Yokota Officers Club." he has also published articles and essays in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Mademoiselle, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, MS, Texas Observer, io literary, and O (Oprah) magazine.
Her topics span oceans, religions and culture: “I have written the forbidden world of Mormon gays at Brigham Young University; an Apache coming-of-age ceremony in White Mountain Arizona; the Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial and Rodeo; my surprise wedding; parents kidnapping their own children; women on offshore oil rigs; a nightmare in paradise: hiking Kauai's Napoli Coast with an alcoholic local guide and the winner of a college essay contest….” And the list goes on, including articles covering the disappearance of small-town African-American rodeos; life and death of a society columnist; autism; the Penitentes of Northern New Mexico; the Japanese snow monkeys of southern Texas; a transsexual's spiritual journey; moody men; bloodsucking women; and how to be a popular girl.
Nine to Five Fodder: With such experience to draw from it is no wonder Bird has had the success she so deserves. Her career experience includes selling western wear at J. C. Penney's, working on archeological digs at Taos Pueblo, go-go dancing in Tokyo, working as a psychiatric aide at Mercy Hospital, San Diego, and acting as a receptionist at Albuquerque Paint and Body Shop. All good writers talk about finding one’s characters in the lives of those around them; surely Bird found plenty in these intriguing lines of work. “ I also worked as a clerk at lighting fixture store, a scuba diving instructor on Costa Brava, Spain, au pair for a family in Tignes, France, a botanical garden guide at El Jardin Botanico in Palafrugell, Spain, a lifeguard/swimming instructor at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, and others I've chosen to forget.”
And as though she did not have enough creative fodder, her only “real job” she explains, was work she did photographing and writing Texas Mental Health/Mental Retardation agency publications. Here she traveled throughout Texas to interview and photograph schizophrenics, psychiatrists, Downs Syndrome residents, aides, researchers, autistics, and the people who live in and work at the state's institutions.
The League is excited to welcome Sarah Bird, an inspiring and motivational speaker as our October speaker. Bird is married to George Jones, “not the dipsomaniacal C&W singer,” she adds, and has one son, Gabriel. She lives in Austin, Texas.
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