David Sedaris

Tweaking the familiar until it warps, David Sedaris mines poignant comedy from his peculiar childhood in North Carolina, his bizarre career path, and his move with his lover to France. In his New York Times bestselling books, When You Are Engulfed in Flames and Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, David Sedaris's wickedly witty observations of the ordinary-bizarre deliver insights and laughs. One of six children in a second-generation Greek family, he grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Sedaris made his comic debut recounting his strange-but-true experiences of being a Macy's elf, reading his Santaland Diaries on National Public Radio's Morning Edition in 1992. His sardonic humor and incisive social critique have made him one of NPR's most popular and humorous commentators. In 2001, he was named Humorist of the Year by Time magazine and received the Thurber Prize for American Humor.