David Sedaris
March 5–6, 2001
- Reading: Streaming video, MP3 Audio
- Discussion: Complete MP3 Audio, segmented discussion
- Introduction by Tim Donza: MP3
- See the Kelly Writers House calendar entry for more about this event
- 2001 Fellows seminar notes
- 2001 Fellows print brochure
Bio
David Sedaris is the author of Barrel Fever, Naked,
Holidays on Ice, and most recently of Me Talk Pretty One
Day, and is a regular contributor to Public Radio International's
"This American Life." Sedaris made his comic debut recounting his
reading his "SantaLand Diaries" on National Public Radio's Morning
Edition. Sedaris' sardonic humor and social critique have since made
him one of NPR's most popular commentators. At the end of each of these
commentaries, Sedaris was identified as an apartment cleaner in New York
City. But Sedaris isn't "just a working Joe who happens to put out these
perfectly constructed pieces of prose," as Ira Glass has put it. The great
skill with which Sedaris sliches through euphemisms shows that he is
becoming a master of satire. Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have
collaborated under the name The Talent Family and written several several
plays which have been produced at La Mama and at Lincoln Center in New
York City. These plays include Stump the Host, Stitches,
One Woman Shoe, which received an Obie Award, and Incident at
Cobbler's Knob. Sedaris has taught writing at the Art Institute of
Chicago, and his essays appear regularly in the New Yorker. He
lives in Paris.
Segmented Discussion
- introduction (2:59): MP3
- on teachers and wanting attention (3:12): MP3
- money talk (2:51): MP3
- political readings (7:37): MP3
- working a day job (3:17): MP3
- the surrounding language (4:10): MP3
- on cirics and criticism (7:46): MP3
- on editors and writing (1:03): MP3
- the importance of anger (6:35): MP3
- the international audience (4:26): MP3
- being a playwright (5:16): MP3
- reactions while writing (4:01): MP3
- inhabiting voices (5:24): MP3
- on smoking (4:30): MP3
- middle america (2:55): MP3
- on schooling (6:31): MP3