Sarah Vowell
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Sarah Vowell (born December 27, 1969) is an author, journalist, and regular contributor to the radio program This American Life on Public Radio International.
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Background
Vowell was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She earned a B.A. from Montana State University in 1993 and an M.A. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. Vowell received the Music Journalism Award in 1996.
Deemed a social observer, Vowell has made public appearances in Amsterdam, Seattle, Aspen, and has made appearances on television shows like Nightline, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Late Show with David Letterman. She also makes regular appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Her writing has been published in The Village Voice, Esquire, GQ, Spin, The Los Angeles Times and The San Francisco Weekly, and she has been a regular contributor to the online magazine Salon.
Vowell lives in New York City, cannot swim, is afraid of heights, and does not drive a car. She usually enlists the aid of her friends and family to drive her to plaques and graves when doing research.
Vowell is part Cherokee (about 1/8th on her mother’s side and 1/16th on her father’s side). According to Vowell, “Being at least a little Cherokee in northeastern Oklahoma is about as rare and remarkable as being a Michael Jordan fan in Chicago.” She retraced the path of the forced removal of the Cherokee from Southeast to Oklahoma known as the Trail of Tears with her twin sister Amy. This was chronicled on the July 4th episode of This American Life in 1998, which was devoted entirely to the story. [1] (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/98/107.html)
Vowell’s twin sister Amy gave her a hair of abolitionist guerilla warrior John Brown for Christmas, which now decorates her wall.
For the audio recording of her 2002 book, Vowell was able to call upon such friends as Conan O'Brien, Seth Green, Stephen Colbert, David Cross, Paul Begala, Michael Chabon, Norman Lear, and They Might Be Giants to contribute to the reading. The resulting excerpts were posted in McSweeney's Internet Tendency.[2] (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/vowell/)
Vowell had friends Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, Stephen King, Dave Eggers, Brad Bird, and Catherine Keener assist her to record the audiobook version of her 2005 book Assassination Vacation.
In 2004, Vowell appeared as shy teenager Violet for the Brad Bird-directed Pixar animation film The Incredibles and reprised her role for the various related video games. The makers of The Incredibles discovered Vowell from an episode of This American Life where she and her father fire a homemade cannon. Pixar made a test animation for Violet using audio from that sequence.
She also wrote and was featured in Vowellet: An Essay by Sarah Vowell included on the DVD version of The Incredibles, where she reflects on the differences between being super hero Violet and being an author of history books on the subject of assassinated presidents, and what it means to her nephew Owen.
Bibliography
- 1997 Radio On: A Listener's Diary ISBN 0-312-18301-1
- 2000 Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World ISBN 0-743-20540-5
- 2002 The Partly Cloudy Patriot ISBN 0-743-24380-3
- 2005 Assassination Vacation ISBN 0-743-26003-1
Radio
Sarah Vowell has pieces featured on the following episodes of This American Life:
- 31 – When you talk about music (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/96/31.html)
- 45 – Media fringe (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/96/45.html)
- 54 – Sinatra (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/97/54.html)
- 56 – Name change (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/97/56.html)
- 58 – Small towns (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/97/58.html)
- 65 – Who's Canadian? (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/97/65.html)
- 67 – Your dream, my nightmare (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/97/67.html)
- 70 – Other people's mail (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/97/70.html)
- 76 – Mob (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/97/76.html)
- 81 – Guns (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/97/81.html)
- 90 – Telephone (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/98/90.html)
- 94 – How to (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/98/94.html)
- 97 – Death to wacky (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/98/97.html)
- 104 – Music lessons (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/98/104.html)
- 107 – Trail of tears (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/98/107.html), devoted entirely to Sarah Vowell's story about the Trail of Tears
- 114 – Last words (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/98/114.html)
- 118 – What you lookin' at? (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/98/118.html)
- 125 – Apocalypse (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/99/125.html)
- 128 – Four corners (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/99/128.html)
- 129 – Advice (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/99/129.html)
- 141 – Invisible worlds (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/99/141.html)
- 148 – The angels wanna wear my red suit (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/99/148.html)
- 151 – Primary (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/00/151.html)
- 167 – Memo to the people of the future (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/00/167.html)
- 174 – Birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/00/174.html)
- 191 – I know what you did this summer (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/01/191.html)
- 226 – Reruns (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/02/226.html)
- 235 – The balloon goes up (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/03/235.html)
- 239 – Lost in America (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/03/239.html), including a story about The Battle Hymn of the Republic and John Brown
- 244 – MacGyver (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/03/244.html)
- 247 – What is this thing? (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/03/247.html)
- 256 – Living without (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/04/256.html)
- 277 – Apology (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/04/277.html)
External links
- Steven Barclay Agency, Sarah Vowell page (http://www.barclayagency.com/vowell.html)
- They Might Be Giants wiki, Sarah Vowell page (http://www.tmbw.net/wiki/index.php/Sarah_Vowell)