Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen (Bird) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Aka—Tory Cates
• Birth—1949
• Where—Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.A., University of New Mexico; M.A., University of Texas-Austin
• Awards—Texas Literary Hall of Fame; Texas Writer of the Year
• Currently—lives in Austin, Texas


Sarah Bird is a screenwriter and the author of some 10 books, most recently, the 2018 historical novel, Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen. Her previous novel, Above the East China Sea (2014) was long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award.

Although born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Bird's was an air force family, so she and her five siblings moved frequently around the U.S. and overseas to countries including Japan, France, Spain, and the Yucatan Peninsula. A number of her works draw on that part of her life, specifically The Yakoto Officer's Club (2001) and The East China Sea (2014).

Bird attended the University of New Mexico, earning a B.A., and then headed to the University of Texas for her M.A.

In the mid-1980s, Bird co-founded Austin's Third Coast magazine, where she was a contributing editor and feature/humor writer. It was also at this time that Bird she turned to writing fiction: from 1983-1991 she released four novels. An eight-year hiatus followed until 1999, when she began releasing novels every two to four years up to the present. (Bird has also written several Western romances under the pen name Tory Cates.)

Part of Bird's novel writing hiatus was due to the 10 years she spent as a screenwriter for Paramount, CBS, Warner Bros, National Geographic, ABC, TNT, and independent producers. She wrote the screenplay for the 1990 film Don't Tell Her It's Me (starring Shelley Long and Steve Guttenberg), a film based on her own 1989 novel, The Boyfriend School.

In all, Bird turned out a dozen or so film and television scripts—some making it into projects, some not. A real coup, however, came in 2015 when she was selected for the Meryl Streep/Oprah Winfrey Screenwriters’ Lab.

Bird was also chosen for the B&N Discover Great Writers program, NPR's Moth Radio series, the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and New York Libraries Books to Remember list.

Bird is married. She lives with her husband and their son in Austin, Texas. (Adapted from various online sources. Retrieved 10/16/2018.)