This recording is a reading, by writer Amy Tan, of her 1996 essay "Required Reading & Other Dangerous Subjects" - originally printed in the Three Penny Review (No.67 - Autumn, 1996). The piece is commentary on her work becoming part of educational curriculum, and how by becoming “Required Reading” it was subjected to more literary criticism. Not just literary criticism as a female writer, but also an Asian American writer, a writer of “color,” and also a minority writer. The piece is a statement of how she strives to become an American Novelist – the sum of all her pieces.
