Sarah Vowell, known to many as the voice of Violet in The Incredibles, has also been, with her unforgettable voice, a regular contributor to Chicago Public Radio's This American Life. She has written five books. Her sharp wit, quirky humor, and intelligence are evident in both sound and print.
"Any writer who can put James A. Garfield and Lou Reed in the same sentence leaves me in slack-jawed awe," wrote Charles Matthews of the San Jose Mercury News. But Vowell does this all the time, as on This American Life in April 2007 when she stated that explorer John Charles Fremont's "iconic moment," climbing what he thought was the highest peak in the Rockies, was "what crossing the Delaware was to Washington, what tripping over the ottoman was to Dick Van Dyke."
(Photo of Sarah Vowell at Powell's Books in Beaverton, OR on October 14, 2009 by MobyD.)
Sarah Vowell Makes History Fun
Sarah Vowell was born into a fundamentalist family in Oklahoma and has a small amount of Cherokee blood from both sides. She grew up in the college town of Bozeman, Montana and got her BA degree from Montana State University in 1993, Her MA degree is from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1996).Vowell is well known to radio listeners of This American Life where she has been a regular contributor. Her essays on radio and in print reflect her lifelong love of American history. She currently lives in New York City. She does not drive, so her travels frequently involve her twin sister Amy and friends for trips to historical sites.
She does not claim to be a real historian; rather she says she's an entertainer. When she was on a panel for historical fiction in Sydney, Australia a few years ago, she heard a panel member criticize a writer by saying, "We must avoid easy entertainments." Her thoughts on that were, "Lady, entertaining is hard. Anybody can bore something up, but making some of this stuff entertaining is the hardest thing there is." She should know; she's succeeded at making some pretty dry facts extremely interesting and sometimes even funny.
Vowell is a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU; a member of the Authors Guild Council; and a member of the board of directors of 826NYC, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center for students aged 6-18 in Brooklyn.
(Photo of Sarah Vowell at Powell's Books in Beaverton, OR on October 14, 2009 by MobyD.)
Sarah Vowell's Newest Book: The Wordy Shipmates
The Wordy Shipmates
Amazon Price: $17.13 (as of 12/20/2009)
Vowell takes a look at the Puritans who settled in Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the effect they've had on American history. Her travels take her from the British Library to the Mohegan Sun Casino, the nation's first synagogue and the Mayflower waterslide. Although Publishers Weekly, in a Starred Review, says this book is less colloquial than her past works, it promises, like them, to be entertainingly informative, or informatively entertaining.
Check out the podcast on Amazon where Sarah talks about her latest book.
Order the audio CD from Amazon.com (US): The Wordy Shipmates
Order the book from Amazon.co.uk: The Wordy Shipmates
Sarah Vowell & David Letterman 10/06/08
VP politics and "The Wordy Shipmates"
Sarah Vowell on Thanksgiving
Two-part audio essay from This American Life - Sarah talks about the Pilgrims, Thanks, a sitcom about Pilgrims, Thanksgiving pageants, Thanksgiving TV shows, and ties it all together in her typically amazing way.
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Sarah Vowell speaks about "The Wordy Shipmates"
Sarah Vowell talking about The Wordy Shipmates
Author Sarah Vowell discusses her new audiobook The Wordy Shipmates. She talks about the Puritans, including John Winthrop and Roger Williams. She also discusses some of the actors who co-narrate this audiobook with her including Campbell Scott and Peter Dinklage as well as musical contributor Michael Giacchino who also created the music for the TV show Lost and the film, The Incredibles. Sarah Vowell is a contributing editor for NPR's This American Life. She was the voice of Violet Parr in the film The Incredibles, and she wrote several bestselling audiobooks including The Partly Cloudy Patriot and Assassination Vacation.
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Sarah Vowell's Books
Assassination Vacation
Originally intended as a book about all presidential assassinations and attempts, the focus was narrowed to those of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley when Vowell learned Robert Todd Lincoln was either present or nearby for all three events.
From the back cover:
"Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult."
Order the audio CD from Amazon.com (US): Assassination Vacation
Order the book from Amazon.co.uk: Assassination Vacation
Amazon Price: $10.80 (as of 12/20/2009)
The Partly Cloudy Patriot
"Vowell's collection of essays explores patriotism and other aspects of contemporary life from the refreshingly contrarian view of a thoughtfully disaffected, wryly outspoken and deeply passionate citizen." - Hartford Courant
Order the audio CD from Amazon.com (US): The Partly Cloudy Patriot
Order the book from Amazon.co.uk: The Partly Cloudy Patriot
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 12/20/2009)
Take the Cannoli : Stories From the New World
From the dust jacket:
"While tackling subjects such as identity, politics, religion, art, and history, these autobiographical tales are written with a biting humor, placing Vowell solidly in the tradition of Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker. Vowell searches the streets of Hoboken for traces of the town's favorite son, Frank Sinatra. She goes under cover of heavy makeup in an investigation of goth culture, blasts cannonballs into a hillside on a father-daughter outing, and maps her family's haunted history on a road trip down the Trail of Tears."
Order the book from Amazon.co.uk: Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World
Amazon Price: $10.56 (as of 12/20/2009)
Radio On: A Listener's Diary
From the Introduction:
"Radio is a landscape, a place inhabited by heroes and villains. And I should know. I spent a year in the broadcast badlands of 1995, which is 325 days longer than Christ suffered in the wilderness (and he didn't have to take notes). But this book is not just a road map of radioland, but of love and hate. My love. My hate. I was twenty-five years old."
Order the book from Amazon.co.uk: Radio on: A Listener's Diary
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 12/20/2009)
Vowellet the Superhero
From deep within her superhero lair
Vowellet: An Essay by Sarah Vowell
Author/cast member Sarah Vowell (NPR's This American Life) talks about her first foray into movie voice-overs--daughter Violet--and the unlikelihood of her being a superhero. The Incredibles is a 2004 American Academy Award-winning computer-animated feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, centering around a family of superheroes.
Runtime: 565
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The Incredibles Movie & Violet Action Figure
The Incredibles (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
"Pixar's new animated action-comedy, about a superhero family stuck in middle-class suburban exile, comes tantalizingly close to greatness."
- A.O. Scott, New York Times
"Provides all the wonder and excitement to be wrought from the superhero genre while making fun of itself in gut-busting ways."
- George Wu - Culturevulture.net
Order DVD from Amazon.co.uk: The Incredibles (Collector's Edition) [2004]
Amazon Price: $14.99 (as of 12/20/2009)
Disney The Incredibles Violet Action Figure
This includes both visible and invisible Violet, which Sarah, in her video essay "Vowellet," thought was pretty cool.
Amazon Price: $74.95 (as of 12/20/2009)
Disney The Incredibles Violet Doll
This doll comes with Violet in her superhero costume and includes a change of outfit for the everyday Violet, high school kid.
Amazon Price: (as of 12/20/2009)
826 National
Sarah Vowell narrates
826 National
826 National is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, with expository and creative writing at five locations across the country. Our mission is based on the beliefs that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. Each chapter offers drop-in tutoring, field trips, workshops, and in-schools programs -- all free of charge -- for children, classes, and schools with particular interest or particular need. 826 is especially committed to supporting teachers, offering services and resources for English language learners, and publishing student work. Several locations offer unique retail experiences as well.
Runtime: 484
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Sarah Vowell Links
- Sarah Vowell's Wikipedia entry
- A good review of her life and work, with links to episodes of This American Life featuring her pieces. It was Episode 81: Guns that led to her becoming the voice of Violet Parr.
- Sarah Vowell ; Steven Barclay Agency
- Sarah Vowell - Steven Barclay Agency represents some of our culture's most important and thought-provoking voices. For lectures, readings, workshops, and conferences.
Many good links here. - This American Life
- This American Life, presented by Chicago Public Radio, is an award-winning radio program as well as a television program on the Showtime network. Hosted by Ira Glass, we feature first-person stories and short fiction pieces that are touching, funny, and surprising.
- Vowell at Powell's
- Dave Welch of Powell's Books in Portland, OR interviews Sarah in 2005.
- Sarah Vowell on LibraryThing | Catalog your books online
- LibraryThing catalogs your books online and lets you see who else has books by Sarah Vowell.
- NPR : Writer Sarah Vowell on Fresh Air
- Writer Sarah Vowell is a contributing editor for public radio's This American Life. She's also the author of the book Take the Cannoli, and the new book of her pieces, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (Simon & Schuster).
Reader Feedback for Sarah Vowell: The Voice of Violet Writes!
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- Margo_Arrowsmith Margo_Arrowsmith Oct 17, 2009 @ 2:06 pm
- I saw her on the Daily Show and was blown away. Then, the day that she was in the Independent book store in my town, I got a flat tire 50 miles away! Arghhh.... oh well, I will get another chance. Thanks for this 5* lens.
The First Woman President?
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- susannaduffy susannaduffy May 6, 2009 @ 10:33 pm
- This lens is a contestant in the Bookworms May Award Contest (squidoo.com/squid-groups). You can vote for yourself! Best of luck
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- cappuccino136 cappuccino136 Oct 14, 2008 @ 6:08 pm
- I love Sarah Vowel's contributions to the great public radio show, "This American Live" edited by Ira Glass. That is where I first learned about her. So nice to find a lens about her. You've done a good job on it, too.
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- koorb koorb May 12, 2008 @ 9:31 pm
- Sarah is great. So is this lens. 8-)
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