Sarah Bird (born 1949) is an American novelist, screenwriter, and journalist.

Biography

She was born in 1949 in

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Her father was an officer in the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

, and her family (a "Catholic family of eight"), including her mother, Colista Bird, travelled with him around the US and the world during her childhood. Sarah's mother recognized signs of her daughter's creative storytelling talent as young as kindergarten. She attended the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

, earning a BA there in 1973. Moving to the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, she went on to receive an MA in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

there in 1976. She is married to George Jones, and has one son, Gabriel Bird-Jones, born in 1989. The family lives in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. During the mid-1980s, Bird was a founding contributing-editor to Austin's ''Third Coast Magazine'', for which she wrote numerous feature and humor articles. Bird's first published novel was ''Do Evil Cheerfully'', a mystery (as Sarah McCabe Bird). In 1986, her comic novel ''Alamo House'' was published based on her experience as a graduate student at the University of Texas. She published five contemporary romance novels with Silhouette under the pseudonym "Tory Cates". Bird wrote the

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

for the movie ''

Don't Tell Her It's Me ''Don't Tell Her It's Me'' (alternately titled ''The Boyfriend School'') is a 1990 comedy film starring Steve Guttenberg, Shelley Long, Jami Gertz and Kyle MacLachlan. The film was directed by Malcolm Mowbray and written by Sarah Bird (adapted fr ...

'' (1990, starring

Shelley Long Shelley Long (born August 23, 1949) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. For her role as Diane Chambers on the sitcom ''Cheers'', Long received five Emmy nominations, winning in 1983 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. S ...

and

Steve Guttenberg Steven Robert Guttenberg (born August 24, 1958) is an American actor, author, businessman, producer, and director. He is known for playing Carey Mahoney in the '' Police Academy'' films from 1984 to 1987. He also acted in '' Three Men and a Baby ...

), adapting the ''Boyfriend School'' novel. '' The Boyfriend School'' and ''The Mommy Club'', published by Ballantine in 1989 and 1991, respectively, were both humorous novels drawing on Bird's life experiences. In addition to novels, Bird has written screenplays for television and magazine articles for national women's magazines. She writes a column for ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. Founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, ''Texas Monthly'' chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the Natura ...

''. ''Virgin of the Rodeo'' was published in 1999. Bird was named Austin's best author in 2001 by the ''

Austin Chronicle Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

'', the year she also published ''The Yokota Officers Club'', a novel that draws on her experiences as

military brat A military brat (colloquial or military slang) is a child of serving or retired military personnel. Military brats are associated with a unique subcultureDavid C. Pollock, Ruth E. van Reken. ''Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds'', Revise ...

. She has also written screenplays for the

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

and

Hallmark A hallmark is an official Mark (sign), mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''Wikti ...

, as well as the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

movie ''Yesterday's Children''. Another novel, ''The Flamenco Academy'', came out in 2006. A new novel, ''How Perfect Is That'', was published by Knopf in June 2008.

Bibliography

Novels

*''Do Evil Cheerfully'', 1983 (as Sarah McCabe Bird) *''Alamo House'', 1986 *''The Boyfriend School'', 1989, Doubleday *''The Mommy Club'', 1991 *''Virgin of the Rodeo'', 1999 *''The Yokota Officers Club'', 2001 *''The Flamenco Academy'', 2006 *''How Perfect Is That'', 2008 *''The Gap Year'', 2011 *''Above the East China Sea'', 2014 *''Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen'', 2018 *''Last Dance on the Starlight Pier'', 2022

Nonfiction

*''A Love Letter to Texas Women'', 2016, University of Texas Press

References

External links

Sarah Bird - and interview with author

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bird, Sarah 1949 births Living people 20th-century American novelists American women novelists Novelists from Texas University of New Mexico alumni Moody College of Communication alumni Screenwriters from Texas 21st-century American novelists American women journalists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers