Author from Bozeman fills coveted New York Times column space

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

Bozeman-raised author Sarah Vowell has been writing liberal opinion columns for the New York Times, filling in for three weeks while columnist Maureen Dowd finishes her book.

Vowell, 35, a graduate of Bozeman High School and Montana State University, has been reaching a national and international audience with columns appearing in one of the most coveted spaces in journalism.

In response to an e-mail inquiry, Vowell wrote that most of the letters she's received from readers have been appreciative, but some have been irate.

"I was surprised by the amount of e-mail," she wrote. "(T)he size of the audience is so big it's full of people who think I could not be more wrong. I get a little thrill out of the angry letters from the presidential fan club."

Vowell described herself as a "capital-D Democrat." She first gained a national audience with her wry and quirky commentaries on public radio's "This American Life," and since has written four books, the latest "Assassination Vacation." She also supplied the voice of super-hero daughter Violet in the animated film "The Incredibles."

"I've happily spent most of my career basking in strangers' agreement, preaching to the choir," she wrote in her e-mail. "I love my choir -- they're very clean and polite and some of them have been known to make me Civil War snowglobes from scratch.

"Still the angry letters make me feel like I'm really saying something, even though I'm just saying stuff I would say about, say, how things are so apocalyptically bad I'm actually pining for Jimmy Carter."

Her column published Wednesday, "The Speech the President Should Give," was listed by the Times as today's fourth most popular article e-mailed by readers.

In it, she called the Iraq war a "black hole" and President Bush "the sunniest looker-on-the-bright-side east of Drew Barrymore." She drew a parallel between today and the late 1970s, another era of high gas prices, foreign oil dependency and Middle East crises.

She contrasted Bush with Carter, who urged Americans to sacrifice and car pool in a 1979 presidential speech considered the worst ever.

"These days, there's just something refreshing about reading through Carter's clear-eyed political suicide," her column concluded.

In a July 6 column, "A Pat on the Back," Vowell applauded televangelist Pat Robertson for joining celebrities like Bono, Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the One Campaign against poverty, starvation and AIDS in Africa.

"I got some very lengthy e-mails enumerating Robertson's many splendored questionable accomplishments," she wrote. "But all I was saying was that I've never liked him but I admire the fact that he's standing up to do something about the worst problem in the world and for that I would shake his hand."

Vowell said she has also gotten some "weird random dispatches" from readers, like, "'Hey, did your dad ever write an episode of 'Dragnet'?'"

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