Sarah Vowell#Short film

Sarah Vowell was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on December 27, 1969. Her family moved to Bozeman, Montana when she was eleven.{{cite book| title=Take the Cannoli| last=Vowell| first=Sarah| date=April 3, 2001| publisher=Simon & Schuster| isbn=978-0743205405| url=https://archive.org/details/takecannolistori00vowe_0}} She has a fraternal twin sister, Amy. Vowell graduated from Bozeman High School.{{cite web | url=http://www.montana.edu/news/mountainsandminds/article.html?id=8470 | title=Vowell's constant }} She earned a B.A. from Montana State University in 1993 in Modern Languages and Literature,{{cite web| url=http://www.montana.edu/news/mountainsandminds/article.html?id=8470| title=Vowell's constant| first=Carol| last=Schmidt| date=April 30, 2010| publisher=Montana State University| access-date=July 3, 2015}} and an M.A. in Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999.{{cite web |title=Sarah Vowell Visits SAIC as Distinguished Alumni Lecturer |url=https://www.saic.edu/press/sarah-vowell-visits-saic-distinguished-alumni-lecturer |website=School of the Art Institute of Chicago |access-date=29 July 2020 |language=en}}

Vowell's articles have been published in The Village Voice, Esquire, Spin Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, SF Weekly, and The Washington Post.{{Cite web|title=Sarah Vowell {{!}} Authors {{!}} The Village Voice|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/author/sarahvowell/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=www.villagevoice.com}}{{Cite web|last=VOWELL|first=SARAH|title=How to Get Ketchup Out of a Bottle {{!}} Esquire {{!}} NOVEMBER 2000|url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/2000/11/1/how-to-get-ketchup-out-of-a-bottle|access-date=2020-07-29|website=Esquire {{!}} The Complete Archive|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Wilco, Summerteeth (Reprise) SPIN|url=https://www.spin.com/1999/12/20-best-albums-1999/140312-wilco-summerteeth/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=www.spin.com}}{{Cite news|last=Vowell|first=Sarah|date=2020-05-17|title=Opinion {{!}} How Democrats Win in My Red State (and They Do Win)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/17/opinion/montana-democrats.html|access-date=2020-07-29|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|last=Vowell|first=Sarah|date=1999-01-10|title=The Incredible Vanishing Act of an American Icon|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-10-bk-62008-story.html|access-date=2020-07-29|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Vowell|first=Sarah|date=1996-08-28|title=Suspicious Minds|url=https://www.sfweekly.com/music/suspicious-minds-17/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=SF Weekly|language=en-US}}Sarah Vowell. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2024/sarah-vowell-national-archives-digitization-records-smartphones/?itid=co_opicymi_1%20The%20Equalizer https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2024/sarah-vowell-national-archives-digitization-records-smartphones/?itid=co_opicymi_1 The Equalizer] The Washington Post, October 8, 2024. She has been a regular contributor to the online magazine Salon.com,{{cite web| url=http://www.salon.com/writer/sarah_vowell/ | title=Sarah Vowell | work=Salon.com | access-date=July 3, 2015}} and was one of the original contributors to McSweeney's, participating in many of the quarterly's readings and shows.

Vowell's first book, Radio On: A Listener's Diary (1997), which featured her year-long diary of listening to the radio in 1995, caught the attention of This American Life host Ira Glass, and it led to Vowell becoming a frequent contributor to the show.{{citation needed| date = February 2020}} Thereafter, segments on the show became the subjects for many of her subsequent published essays.{{citation needed| date = February 2020}} Vowell's first essay collection was Take the Cannoli (2000), which was followed by The Partly Cloudy Patriot (2002).

In 2005, Vowell served as a guest columnist for The New York Times during several weeks in July, briefly filling in for Maureen Dowd.{{cite web |last1=Vowell |first1=Sarah |title=Lock and Load |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/23/opinion/lock-and-load.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=29 July 2020 |date=23 July 2005}} She again served as a guest columnist in February 2006.{{cite web |title=Sarah Vowell, Guest Columnist |url=https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/1194817114980/sarah-vowell-guest-columnist.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=29 July 2020 |date=3 February 2006}} Her book Assassination Vacation (2005) describes a road trip to tourist sites devoted to the murders of presidents Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley.{{cite web |last1=Woodward |first1=Richard B. |title='Assassination Vacation' by Sarah Vowell |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/travel/assassination-vacation-by-sarah-vowell.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=29 July 2020 |date=15 May 2005}} Vowell's book, The Wordy Shipmates (2008), analyzes the settlement of the New England Puritans in America and their contributions to American history.{{Cite news|last=Heffernan|first=Virginia|date=2008-11-28|title=Mayflower Power|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/books/review/Heffernan-t.html|access-date=2020-07-29|issn=0362-4331}} Also in 2008, Vowell's essay about Montana appeared in the book State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.

Vowell wrote Unfamiliar Fishes (2011), which discusses the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the Newlands Resolution. In April 2011, the book became a New York Times Bestseller.{{cite web |title=Hardcover Nonfiction Books - Best Sellers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2011/04/10/hardcover-nonfiction/ |website=The New York Times |access-date=29 July 2020 |date=10 April 2011}} In her Los Angeles Times review, Susan Salter Reynolds wrote that Vowell's "cleverness is gorgeously American: She collects facts and stores them like a nervous chipmunk, digesting them only for the sake of argument."{{cite news|last=Salter Reynolds|first=Susan|title=Book review: 'Unfamiliar Fishes' by Sarah Vowell: The 'Partly Cloudy Patriot' author takes on American imperialism and exceptionalism.|url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-xpm-2011-mar-26-la-et-book-20110326-story.html|access-date=September 21, 2011|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=March 26, 2011}} Allegra Goodman, writing in The Washington Post, describes the work as "a big gulp of a book, printed as an extended essay... Lacking section or chapter breaks, Vowell's quirky history lurches from one anecdote to the next. These are often entertaining, but in the aggregate they begin to sound the same...", adding that "Vowell tells a good tale" with "shrewd observations", but that "the narrative wears thin where casual turns cute and cute threatens to turn glib."{{cite news|last=Goodman |first=Allegra |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/sarah-vowells-unfamiliar-fishes/2011/03/15/AFxWs5GC_story.html |title=Sarah Vowell's 'Unfamiliar Fishes,' a quirky history of Hawaii |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=April 1, 2011 |access-date=February 19, 2020}}

Her most recent book is Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (2015), an account of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat who became George Washington's trusted officer and friend, and afterward an American celebrity. In a review for The New York Times, Charles P. Pierce wrote, "Vowell wanders through the history of the American Revolution and its immediate aftermath, using Lafayette's involvement in the war as a map, and bringing us all along in her perambulations… and doing it with a wink."{{Cite news|title = Sarah Vowell's 'Lafayette in the Somewhat United States'|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/books/review/sarah-vowells-lafayette-in-the-somewhat-united-states.html|newspaper = The New York Times|date = November 17, 2015|access-date = February 7, 2016|issn = 0362-4331|first = Charles P.|last = Pierce}} NPR reviewer Colin Dwyer wrote, "It's awfully refreshing to see Vowell bring our founders down from their lofty pedestals. In her telling, they're just men again, not the gods we've long since made of them."{{cite web|title = 'Somewhat United' Brings Lafayette Down From His Pedestal|url = https://www.npr.org/2015/10/21/448932918/somewhat-united-brings-lafayette-down-from-his-pedestal|website = NPR.org|access-date = February 7, 2016|first = Colin|last = Dwyer| date=October 21, 2015 }}

File:Sarah Vowell at Lamar University 6 April 2010.jpg, Beaumont, Texas, 2010]]

Vowell has appeared on television shows including Nightline, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,{{cite web

| url=http://jezebel.com/5375372/sarah-vowell-jon-stewart-and-the-freedom-of-the-bowl-haircut

| title=Sarah Vowell, Jon Stewart, And The Freedom of the Bowl Haircut

| first=Anna

| last=North

| date=October 6, 2009

| publisher=Jezebel

| access-date=July 3, 2015}} The Colbert Report, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Show with David Letterman, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.{{cite web

| url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=988751

| title=Barnes & Noble Biography: Meet the writers - Sarah Vowell

| work=Steven Barclay Agency

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022113005/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=988751

| archive-date=October 22, 2012

| url-status=dead}}{{better source needed| date = February 2020}}

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

| url=http://news.uky.edu/news/display_article.php?category=8&artid=655

| title=Women Writers Conference Announces Creative Nonfiction Contest

| date=October 11, 2005

| publisher=University of Kentucky

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220022707/http://news.uky.edu/news/display_article.php?category=8&artid=655

| archive-date=February 20, 2012

| url-status=dead}} In August and September 2006, she toured the United States as part of the Revenge of the Book Eaters national tour, which benefited the children's literacy centers 826NYC, 826CHI, 826 Valencia, 826LA, 826 Michigan, and 826 Seattle.{{citation needed| date = February 2020}}

Vowell provided commentary in Robert Wuhl’s 2005 Assume the Position with Mr. Wuhl HBO specials.{{cite web |last1=Sandomir |first1=Richard |title=Robert Wuhl Is a Teacher on HBO's 'Assume the Position With Mr. Wuhl' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/arts/television/robert-wuhl-is-a-teacher-on-hbos-assume-the-position-with.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=29 July 2020 |date=1 April 2006}}

Vowell provided the voice of Violet Parr, a shy teenager, in the 2004 Pixar animated film The Incredibles, and returned to her role for the film's sequel, Incredibles 2, in 2018.{{cite web

| url=http://insidethemagic.net/2018/06/interview-acclaimed-author-and-incredibles-2-star-sarah-vowell-on-superheroes-disney-parks-and-america/

| title=INTERVIEW: Acclaimed author and "Incredibles 2" star Sarah Vowell on superheroes, Disney, and America

| first=Mike

| last=Celestino

| date=June 11, 2018

| publisher=Inside The Magic

| access-date=April 6, 2020}}{{cite web | author = Ching, Albert | date = July 14, 2017 | title=D23 Expo: Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios—The Upcoming Films | work = CBR.com | url=http://www.cbr.com/d23-expo-pixar-walt-disney-animation-studios-upcoming-films/ | access-date=July 14, 2017}} She voiced the character in related video games, and for Disney on Ice presentations.{{Cite web|last=mwoulfe@nwitimes.com 219.852.4329|first=MOLLY WOULFE|title=Disney on Ice unmasks 'Incredibles' ice show|url=https://www.nwitimes.com/lifestyles/disney-on-ice-unmasks-incredibles-ice-show/article_8986404c-616d-5a6f-9e93-b81ec67755f0.html|access-date=2020-07-29|website=nwitimes.com|date=January 24, 2006 |language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Sarah Vowell|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1102970/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=IMDb}} Director Brad Bird heard Vowell on This American Life, "Guns",{{Cite web|last=Litman|first=Juliet|date=2018-06-14|title=The Making of Violet Parr in 'The Incredibles'|url=https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/6/14/17462664/the-incredibles-2-violet-parr-sarah-vowell|access-date=2020-07-29|website=The Ringer|language=en}} (in which she and her father fire a homemade cannon) and determined that Vowell’s voice fit the character.{{cite AV media |people= Glass, Ira (host, exec. prod.), Vowell, Sarah (guest writer/presenter) |display-authors=etal |date= October 24, 1997 |title= This American Life |trans-title= "Guns" (episode 81) |medium= archived audio |language= en |url= http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/81/guns |access-date= July 3, 2015 |time= unknown time |location= Chicago, IL |publisher= Chicago Public Media |ref= episode 81 }} Pixar made a test animation for Violet using audio from that sequence, which was included on the DVD of The Incredibles.{{Cite web|title=The Incredibles DVD Review|url=https://www.dvdizzy.com/theincredibles.html|access-date=2020-07-29|website=www.dvdizzy.com}} Vowell wrote and was featured in a documentary included on the same DVD, entitled "Vowellett—An Essay by Sarah Vowell", in which she reflects on the difference between being an author of history books on assassinated presidents and voicing the superhero Violet, and on what the role meant to her nephew.

Vowell featured prominently in the 2002 documentary about the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, entitled Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns, and she appeared with band members John Linnell and John Flansburgh in the DVD commentary for the movie.{{Cite web|title=Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)|url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/8237/gigantic-a-tale-of-two-johns/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=DVD Talk|language=en}} She provided commentary for the April 2006 episode "Murder at the Fair: The Assassination of President McKinley," one of ten in the History Channel miniseries 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America.{{Citation|title="Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America" Murder at the Fair: The Assassination of President McKinley (TV Episode 2006) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0783596/fullcredits|access-date=2020-07-29}}

In September 2006, Vowell appeared as a minor character in the ABC drama Six Degrees.{{Citation|title=Six Degrees (TV Series 2006–2008) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0801427/fullcredits|access-date=2020-07-29}} She appeared in an episode of HBO's Bored to Death, as an interviewer in a bar, and in 2010, appeared briefly in the film Please Give, as a shopper.{{Citation|title=Bored to Death (TV Series 2009–2011) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1255913/fullcredits|access-date=2020-07-29}}{{Citation|title=Please Give (2010) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878835/fullcredits|access-date=2020-07-29}} Vowell appeared on The Daily Show as a Senior Historical Context Correspondent.{{Cite web|date=2012-03-09|title=Sarah Vowell comes back to WBEZ|url=https://www.wbez.org/stories/sarah-vowell-comes-back-to-wbez/809828d2-18bd-4fd2-a05d-2e4e9d2d66af|access-date=2020-07-29|website=WBEZ Chicago|language=en}}

Vowell writes that she has a small amount of Cherokee Nation ancestry (about 1/8 on her mother's side and 1/16 on her father's side). She is not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation or any other tribe. 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. In 1998, This American Life chronicled her story, devoting the entire hour to her work.{{cite web

| url=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/107/trail-of-tears

| title=107: Trail of Tears

| date=July 3, 1998

| work=This American Life

| access-date=July 3, 2015}}

Vowell spent many vacations with her sister and nephew visiting historical sites. As a child she attended church three times a week and seldom travelled.

She has described herself as a “culturally Christian atheist”.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/opinion/21vowell.html | title=Sarah Vowell - Freedom from Religion Foundation | work=The New York Times | date=January 21, 2008 | last1=Vowell | first1=Sarah }}

Vowell lives in Manhattan, New York. She is on the advisory board of 826NYC, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center for students aged 6–18 in Brooklyn.{{Cite web|title=826NYC About|url=https://826nyc.org/about/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=826nyc.org}}

• 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|1-59448-999-8}}.
• 2011—Unfamiliar Fishes, {{ISBN|1-59448-787-1}}.
• 2015—Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, {{ISBN|1-59463-174-3}}.

{{Reflist}}

{{external media

|audio1= [http://www.hearingvoices.com/webwork/vowell/ Consonant Vowells:] Sarah Vowell on This American Life and Hearing Voices

|audio2 = [http://kuow.org/post/how-french-teenager-helped-save-us-fatal-tendency-disunion How A French Teenager Helped Save Us From 'The Fatal Tendency Of Disunion'], John O'Brien, KUOW, November 12, 2015

}}

{{Commons category|Sarah Vowell}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Sarah-Vowell/1558688 Sarah Vowell author page]
• [http://www.thisamericanlife.org/contributors/sarah-vowell Sarah Vowell page at This American Life]
• [http://barclayagency.com/vowell.html Steven Barclay Agency, Sarah Vowell page]
• {{IMDb name|1102970|Sarah Vowell}}
• {{cite web

|url = http://chicagoist.com/2008/10/21/interview_sarah_vowell.php

|title = Interview: Sarah Vowell

|first = Marcus

|last = Gilmer

|date = October 21, 2008

|publisher = Chicagoist

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100608122206/http://chicagoist.com/2008/10/21/interview_sarah_vowell.php

|archive-date = June 8, 2010

|df = mdy-all

}}

• {{C-SPAN|1003860}}

{{Sarah Vowell|state=expanded}}

{{This American Life}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vowell, Sarah}}

Category:1969 births

Category:Actresses from Oklahoma

Category:American atheists

Category:American columnists

Category:American essayists

Category:American travel writers

Category:American women travel writers

Category:American voice actresses

Category:Living people

Category:Montana State University alumni

Category:Writers from Muskogee, Oklahoma

Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni

Category:This American Life people

Category:American twins

Category:21st-century American historians

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American women historians

Category:American women columnists

Category:American people of Cherokee Nation descent

Category:Actresses from Montana

Category:Writers from Bozeman, Montana

Category:Historians from Montana

Category:Historians from Oklahoma