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David Sedaris

David Sedaris is a stand-up comedian, humorist, and author. He received fame when his essay, Santaland Diaries, was broadcasted by National Public Radio in 1992. The very first collection of his short stories and essays was published in 1994, and it was titled Barrel Fever.

Born in Johnson City, New York, Sedaris grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. They were a total of six siblings, and he was the second eldest of them all. He graduated from Jesse O. Sanderson High School and then transferred to Kent State University, from where he dropped out in 1977.

He then went on to hitchhike around the country, during which he took on numerous odd jobs and also started to keep a diary. Sedaris began to read his diaries at a local club while he attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago between the years 1985 to 1987. His association with the institute became a way to get invited to read his diary entries on the public radio station.

Career and Achievements

Sedaris shifted to New York in 1991. After this appearance on the radio in 1992, his essays began to be showcased in Esquire, The New Yorker, and Harper’s.

Naked, which was a collection of essays he published in 1997, won him the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Non-Fiction from Publishing Triangle in the year 1998.

Some of his other essay collections include Holidays on Ice, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames. They all went on to become New York Times Best Sellers.

Me Talk Pretty One Day, in particular, received rave reviews from readers and critics alike. Published in 2000, it received the Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2001.

Sedaris was featured in a documentary by David Thorpe titled Do I Sound Gay? In 2014. It focused on the stereotypes surrounding the speech patterns of gay men. He has also been seen as a guest in FishCenter Live, an Adult Swim television series.

In December 2008, Binghamton University bestowed Sedaris with an honorary doctorate. He was elected to be a part of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019. Sedaris published Happy Go Lucky in 2022, in which he discussed his relationship with his father, who passed away in the same year.