Sarah Vowell

Sara Jane Vowell (born December 27, 1969) is an American author, journalist, and commentator. Often referred to as a "social observer," Vowell has written five nonfiction books on American history and culture, and was a contributing editor for the radio program This American Life on Public Radio International from 1996–2008, where she produced numerous commentaries and documentaries and toured the country in many of the program’s live shows. She was also the voice of Violet in the animated film The Incredibles.

Education and personal life
Vowell was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She has a fraternal twin sister, Amy. She earned a B.A. from Montana State University in 1993 in Modern Languages and Literatures and an M.A. in Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. Vowell received the Music Journalism Award in 1996.

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 the southeastern United States to Oklahoma known as the Trail of Tears with her twin sister Amy. This American Life chronicled her story on July 4, 1998, devoting the entire hour to Sarah's work.

Vowell is the president of the board of 826NYC, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center for students aged 6–18 in Brooklyn.

Published works
Vowell is the New York Times’ bestselling author of five nonfiction books on American history and culture. Her most recent book, The Wordy Shipmates, examines the New England Puritans and their journey to and impact on America. She studies John Winthrop’s 1630 sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” – and the bloody story that resulted from American exceptionalism. And she also traces the relationship of Winthrop, Massachusetts’ first governor, and Roger Williams, the Calvinist minister who founded Rhode Island – an unlikely friendship that was emblematic of the polar extremes of the American foundation. Throughout, she reveals how American history can show up in the most unexpected places in our modern culture, often in unexpected ways.

Her book Assassination Vacation (2005) is a haunting and surprisingly hilarious road trip to tourist sites devoted to the murders of presidents Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. Vowell examines what these acts of political violence reveal about our national character and our contemporary society.

She is also the author of two essay collections, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (2002) and Take the Cannoli (2000). Her first book Radio On (1997), is her year-long diary of listening to the radio in 1995.

Her writing has been published in The Village Voice, Esquire, GQ, Spin, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and the SF Weekly, and she has been a regular contributor to the online magazine Salon. She was one of the original contributors to McSweeney’s, also participating in many of the quarterly’s readings and shows.

In 2005, Vowell served as a guest columnist for the New York Times during several weeks in July, briefly filling in for Maureen Dowd. Vowell also served as a guest columnist in February 2006, and again in April 2006.

For the audio recording of The Partly Cloudy Patriot, 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.

In 2008, Vowell contributed an essay about Montana to the book State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.

Public appearances and lectures
Vowell has made many public appearances and has been on a number of speaking tours, usually discussing her written works as well as cultural and historical events.

She has made appearances on television shows like Nightline, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report and The Late Show with David Letterman. She also made regular appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In April 2006, Vowell served as the keynote speaker at the 27th Annual Kentucky Women Writers Conference.

In August and September 2006, she toured around the United States as part of the Revenge Of The Book Eaters national tour, which benefits the children's literacy centers 826NYC, 826CHI, 826 Valencia, 826LA, 826 Michigan, and 826 Seattle.

Sarah Vowell also provided commentary in Robert Wuhl's 2005 Assume the Position HBO specials.

Voice and acting work
Vowell's first book, which had radio as its central subject, caught the attention of This American Life host Ira Glass, and it led to Vowell becoming a frequent contributor to the show. Many of Vowell's essays have had their genesis as segments on the show.

In 2004, Vowell provided the voice of Violet Parr, the shy teenager in the Brad Bird-directed Pixar animated film The Incredibles and reprised her role for the various related video games and Disney on Ice presentations featuring The Incredibles. The makers of The Incredibles discovered Vowell from episode 81 – Guns 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, which is included on the DVD version of The Incredibles. 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.

Vowell provided commentary in "Murder at the Fair: The Assassination of President McKinley", which is part of the History Channel miniseries, 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America.

Vowell is featured prominently in the They Might Be Giants documentary Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns). She also participated on the DVD commentary for the movie, along with the film's director and They Might Be Giants' John Linnell and John Flansburgh.

In September 2006, Vowell appeared as a minor character in the ABC drama Six Degrees.

She appeared on an episode of HBO's Bored to Death as an interviewer in a bar.

In 2010, Vowell appeared briefly in the film Please Give as a shopper.

Partial bibliography

 * 1997 Radio On: A Listener's Diary ISBN 0-312-18301-1
 * 2000 Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World ISBN 0-7432-0540-5
 * 2002 The Partly Cloudy Patriot ISBN 0-7432-4380-3
 * 2005 Assassination Vacation ISBN 0-7432-6003-1
 * 2008 The Wordy Shipmates ISBN 1-5944-8999-8
 * 2011 Unfamiliar Fishes  ISBN 1594487871

External radio links
Sarah Vowell's writing has been featured on the following episodes of This American Life:
 * 31 – When You Talk About Music
 * 45 – Media Fringe
 * 54 – Sinatra
 * 56 – Name Change
 * 58 – Small Towns
 * 65 – Who's Canadian?
 * 67 – Your Dream, My Nightmare
 * 70 – Other People's Mail
 * 76 – Mob
 * 81 – Guns
 * 90 – Telephone
 * 94 – How To
 * 97 – Death To Wacky
 * 104 – Music Lessons
 * 107 – Trail of Tears
 * 114 – Last Words
 * 118 – What You Lookin' At?
 * 125 – Apocalypse
 * 128 – Four Corners
 * 129 – Advice
 * 141 – Invisible Worlds
 * 148 – The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Suit
 * 151 – Primary
 * 167 – Memo To The People Of The Future
 * 174 – Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Milestones
 * 191 – I Know What You Did This Summer
 * 226 – Reruns
 * 235 – The Balloon Goes Up
 * 239 – Lost in America
 * 244 – MacGyver
 * 247 – What Is This Thing?
 * 256 – Living Without
 * 277 – Apology
 * 291 – Reunited
 * 305 – This American Life Holiday Spectacular
 * 328 – What I Learned From TV
 * 329 – Nice Work If You Can Get It
 * 354 – Mistakes Were Made

External video links

 * Appearance on The Daily Show, 7 October 2008, discussing The Wordy Shipmates and the financial crisis.
 * Appearance on The Daily Show, 5 October 2009, discussing The Wordy Shipmates, again, and religious tolerance