Best-selling Author and "Incredible" Entertainer Sarah Vowell to Speak at UNCW
10/17/2005 9:28:05 AM
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Wilmington, NC– Celebrated author and social observer Sarah Vowell brings her wry, insightful commentary to University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her reading at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5 in Kenan Auditorium marks the second event of UNCW Presents’ Arts in Action Performance Series. Vowell is best known for her monologues and documentaries for public radio’s “This American Life,” and most recently, as the voice of Violet in the animated film The Incredibles.
Vowell has written on topics ranging from her father’s homemade, life-size cannon and her obsession with the Godfather trilogy, to the New Hampshire primary and her Cherokee ancestors’ forced march on the Trail of Tears. Her latest book, Assassination Vacation, is a wacky, weirdly enthralling exploration of the first three presidential assassinations. An expert tour guide, Vowell brings into sharp focus not only the figures involved in the assassinations, but the social and political circumstances that led to each assassination, and she does so in the witty, sometimes irreverent manner that her fans have come to expect. “My love for this country is unconditional, but that doesn’t mean that I’m blind. It’s the greatest country in the world, but it’s also the dumbest,” said Vowell.
“Sarah Vowell has the kind of voice that people instantly perk up to,” said Shannon Hooker, assistant director of UNCW Presents. “She makes her audiences laugh out loud with her comic observations on everything from political matters to pop culture.”
Thanks to her first book, Radio On: A Listener’s Diary, Newsweek named her its “Rookie of the Year” for nonfiction in 1997, calling her “a cranky stylist with talent to burn.” Vowell’s other books include, Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World and The Partly Cloudy Patriot, which was a national best-seller.
As a critic and reporter, Vowell has contributed to numerous newspapers and magazines, including Esquire, GQ, Artforum, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Spin and McSweeney’s. As a columnist, she has covered education for Time; American culture for Salon.com; and pop music for the San Francisco Weekly, for which she won a 1996 Music Journalism Award.
Vowell will host an informal question and answer session at 4:30 pm on Saturday before her talk in the Warwick Center Ballroom. This event is free and open to the public but registration is required. Please RSVP to Tammi Berry at 910.962.7972 or berryt@uncw.edu. The Q&A session is sponsored by the UNCW department of creative writing.
BOX OFFICE AND TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets are $6 for university and area students, $14 for UNCW faculty/staff and senior citizens, and $18 for all others. Arts in Action Choose-Your-Own subscriptions may be purchased at a savings of up to 10% off ticket prices until February 21, 2006. For tickets, call Kenan Box Office at 910.962.3500 or 800.732.3643 outside the Wilmington area. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday
ABOUT UNCW ARTS IN ACTION PERFORMANCE SERIES
Sponsored by the University Union at UNC Wilmington, the Arts in Action Performance Series seeks to culturally enrich, educate and entertain both students and the general public through the presentation of diverse programs featuring professional, high-quality performing artists. For more information, please visit the Arts in Action web site at http://www.uncw.edu/arts.
UNCW Arts in Action is a member of the NC Presenters Consortium and the US National Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The 150 member venues of the NC Presenters Consortium may be visited at http://www.presenters.org.
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