Assassination Vacation

Sarah Vowell is a native of Oklahoma, born on December 27th, 1969. She received a BA from Montana State University in Modern Languages and Literature and an MA from the Art Institute of Chicago in Art History. Vowell first came to prominence as an editor, producer, and contributor of the long-running NPR (National Public Radio) program This American Life. She had also written essays, articles, and opinion columns for various national publications, including The New York Times, SF Weekly, McSweeney’s, The Village Voice, and Spin Magazine. Outside writing, she is also known for voicing the character of Violet in the films The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018).

Vowell’s essays have been collected in the books Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World (2000) and The Partly Cloudy Patriot (2002). She has also written an essay about Montana for the collection State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America (2008). Vowell has written other works of book-length historical non-fiction in a similar tone and vein to Assassination Vacation. These include The Wordy Shipmates (2008), about the Puritans of New England; Unfamiliar Fishes (2011), which concerns the annexation of Hawaii by the United States; and Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (2015), following the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution who came from France.