Creative Nonfiction (Course Guide / Lisa Heise)

Born in 1969, Sarah Vowell grew up in rural Oklahoma where, as she recalled in a Time article, there were not many female role models: "In 1976, other than my first-grade teacher, every woman of my small-town acquaintance was a homemaker or a widowed homemaker." Vowell idolized the television series "Charlie's Angels" for depicting women with careers. Her own career would take Vowell to the airwaves of public radio, to the Internet, and into publishing and motion pictures. A contributing editor and frequent commentator on the Public Radio International program This American Life, Vowell is known for her distinctive voice and unique delivery. She has also served as a voice actress in film, playing the part of Violet Parr in the animated movie The Incredibles and a number of spin-off audio projects. | Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2016 | Literature Resource Center (Gale) (Library Database)

"I don't know when it was that I stopped learning how to do things--as opposed to learning about things. So I decided to pick up a few new skills, starting with first aid, because lifesaving is the basis for all education. Can't learn when you're dead. " | TIME Magazine. 9/11/2000, Vol. 156 Issue 11, p60. 1p | MasterFILE Complete (EBSCO) (Library Database)

"I consider myself a feminist, which means that I support increased funding for breast-cancer research, cheer at Allison Janney's breakthrough performance on TV's The West Wing and don't mind mentioning that I periodically trounce every male of my acquaintance with the temerity to think he can beat me at the basketball game Pop-a-Shot." | TIME Magazine. 3/13/2000, Vol. 155 Issue 10, p78. 1p | MasterFILE Complete (EBSCO) (Library Databases)

"New York City | November 6, 2000
Dear Congressman Synar,
I've never written to a dead man before. But there's something I always meant to tell you, and I'm not going to let a little fatal cancer stop me. You probably won't remember me. My mother used to do your mother's hair in Muskogee in the '60s. My parents still have one of her paintings, by the way, a brownish still life with flowers. When you were running for the House that first time, in 1978, I handed out some pamphlets for you at my town's rodeo. I'm from Braggs. I was eight. I live in New York City now, and it's been a long time since I've been to a rodeo in Oklahoma (or anywhere else)." Excerpt from the book "Partly Cloudy Patriot." | This Land. Fall2016, Issue 106, p120-123. 4p.| Humanities International (EBSCO) (Library Database)

Audio. Sarah Vowell and her twin sister, Amy, retrace the Trail of Tears. They visit the town in Georgia that was the capital of the Cherokee Nation before the Cherokee were expelled. They enjoy a tourist trap hotel in Chattanooga. (Act 1: 27 min) Sarah Vowell's story continues. She and Amy visit the home of President Andrew Jackson, the villain in the Trail of Tears drama. They drive west to Cherokee graves in Kentucky and a commemorative marker that's been placed, oddly, at an Arkansas high school. (Act 2: 23 min) | This American Life Archives (Website)