Public Radio Commentator Sarah Vowell Coming to UB Nov. 10

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Center for the Arts will present author and social observer Sarah Vowell at 8 p.m. Nov. 10 in the Mainstage theater of the Center for the Arts on the North (Amherst) Campus. The event is sponsored by WBFO 88.7 FM, the National Public Radio affiliate operated by UB.

Vowell is best known for her monologues and documentaries for public radio's "This American Life." A contributing editor for the program since 1996, she has written about everything from her father's homemade cannon and her obsession with the "Godfather" films to the New Hampshire primary and her Cherokee ancestors' forced march on the Trail of Tears. Thanks to her first book, "Radio On: A Listener's Diary" (St. Martin's Press), Newsweek made her its Rookie of the Year for nonfiction in 1997, calling her "a cranky stylist with talent to burn." Reviewing her second book, the essay collection "Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World" (Simon & Schuster), People Magazine said, "Wise, witty and refreshingly warm-hearted, Vowell's essays on American history, pop culture and her own family reveal the bonds holding together a great, if occasionally weird, nation."

As a critic and reporter, Vowell's writing has appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, including Esquire, GQ, Artforum, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Spin and Sweeney'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. She has taught writing and art history at Sarah Lawrence College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago respectively.

Tickets for Sarah Vowell are $15 for the general public and $10 for UB students. Tickets are available from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday in the Center for the Arts Box Office and at all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's and Movies Plus. To charge tickets, call 852-5000; in Canada, call 416-870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771. For more information call 645-ARTS.