{{short description|American novelist}} {{Multiple issues| {{BLP sources|date=January 2018}} {{COI|date=March 2015}} }} {{infobox writer |name=Sarah Bird |image=Sarah Bird 2022 Texas Book Festival.jpg |caption=Bird at the 2022 Texas Book Festival |birth_date={{birth year and age|1949}} |birth_place=Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. |pseudonym=Tory Cates |occupation={{flatlist| *Novelist *screenwriter *journalist }} |nationality=American |education=University of New Mexico (BA)<br>University of Texas at Austin (MA) |spouse=George Jones |children=1 }} '''Sarah Bird''' (born 1949) is an American novelist, screenwriter, and journalist.

==Biography== She was born in 1949 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her father was an officer in the US Air Force, and her family (a "Catholic family of eight"<ref>[http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A82110] ''Austin Chronicle'', June 22, 2001</ref>), including her mother, Colista Bird, travelled with him around the US and the world during her childhood. Bird's mother recognized signs of her daughter's creative storytelling talent as young as kindergarten.

She attended the University of New Mexico, earning a BA there in 1973. Moving to the University of Texas at Austin, she went on to receive an MA in journalism there in 1976.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://alkek.library.txstate.edu/swwc/archives/writers/bird.html |title=The Wittliff Collections: Sarah Bird |accessdate=2011-03-02 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120708040430/http://alkek.library.txstate.edu/swwc/archives/writers/bird.html |archivedate=2012-07-08 }} Texas State University Library, Southwestern Authors Collection</ref> She is married to George Jones, and has one son, Gabriel Bird-Jones, born in 1989. The family lives in Austin, Texas.

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".<ref>[http://sarahbirdbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Passion.pdf] Texas Monthly May 2005</ref>

Bird wrote the screenplay for the movie ''Don't Tell Her It's Me'' (1990, starring Shelley Long and Steve Guttenberg), 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''. ''Virgin of the Rodeo'' was published in 1999.

Bird was named Austin's best author in 2001 by the ''Austin Chronicle'', the year she also published ''The Yokota Officers Club'', a novel that draws on her experiences as military brat. She has also written screenplays for the National Geographic Channel and Hallmark, as well as the CBS 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.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/How-Perfect-That-Sarah-Bird/dp/0307268284/] Amazon.com</ref>

==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<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/bird-love-letter-to-texas-women|title = A Love Letter to Texas Women by Sarah Bird|date = 2 October 2016}}</ref>

==References== <references/>

==External links== {{Commons category|Sarah Bird}} {{Archival records | qid=Q7422102 | title=Sarah Bird Papers, 1985-1992 | fetchwikidata=all | description_URL=https://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/research/a-z/bird.html}}

* [http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=841 Sarah Bird - and interview with author] * [http://www.caller2.com/2001/july/26/today/fea-ente/6259.html Military brat calls a truce] * [http://www.moxiemag.com/moxie/articles/profiles/bird.html Bird's Words]

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