Christiane Bird

Christiane Bird was born in New York City. She grew up primarily in Storrs, Connecticut, but spent three years of early childhood in Tabriz, Iran, where her father worked as a medical doctor. She has worked as a magazine editor and as a travel writer for the New York Daily News, and has freelanced for many other publications, including The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, and the Chicago Tribune. She holds a BA in literature from Yale University and a master's degree in American Studies from Columbia University.

Bird is the author of five books, all of which involved extensive travel and immersion in other cultures, ranging from the music world to the Middle East. She is a co-author of Below the Line: Living Poor in America, a photography book by Eugene Richards, and the author of two critically acclaimed guidebooks: The Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide to the U.S. and the New York State Handbook. The San Francisco Examiner called Bird's jazz guide "the best work of its kind," and the New York Public Library named her New York guide one of the 25 outstanding reference books of 1997. In Neither East Nor West: One Woman's Journey Through the Islamic Republic of Iran, Bird revisited the country she remembered from early childhood; barnesandnoble.com named the book one of the 10 best books of 2001 and the best travel book of 2001. It was while in Iran that Bird conceived of her latest book, A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistan, which is based on her travels through the Kurdish regions of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria in 2002, shortly before the Iraq war.

Bird lives in New York City with her partner Jerry Brown, their daughter Simone, and two cats.