Darkness Ascendant he/him Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 I am doing an Oral History assignment at school where you pick someone to interview, famous or not, and ask them questions and record their answers. I decided to interview Brandon Sanderson (If I can) So. would it be possible to interview the mighty Sanderson, and if so, can anyone tell me how? If I can't I guess I will have to stick with interviewing my dad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 Well I suppose you could just ask him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThirdGen Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 His assistant Peter Ahlstrom, who posts here quite a bit, would be able to answer your question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness Ascendant he/him Posted February 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 ok thanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Bard he/him Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 When is it due? I don't know the response time, but you might be able to get through to him through his contact page. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness Ascendant he/him Posted February 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 When is it due? I don't know the response time, but you might be able to get through to him through his contact page. 2 weeks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ari he/him Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 The contact page has a really slow turnaround, so you likely wouldn't hear back until after your assignment. I'd say tweeting Peter or Brandon might be a good approach if you're on twitter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Titan Arum Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 If it's due in two weeks it may be tough for Brandon since he's currently doing the Calamity tour. As Ari said, your best bet may be to Tweet Peter AND Brandon. However, if I were you I'd have a strong contingency plan and if you don't hear back from Brandon within a few days, begin working on the back up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzy Kandra she/her Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 (edited) I'm going to recommend, as a professional historian, that you chose someone else, actually. It's not only because he's really busy right now, but generally he's only been active for ten years... Making an argument for "historical significance/relevance" can be difficult for something so recent, even though I think he probably will be historically significant in certain circles in the future, it doesn't mean it will fly with your history teacher (but it might not matter, say if you're in high school, but in college, I'd steel clear of really recent events/people in history classes).That being said, another problem you might run into if you don't have a lot of time is transcribing. Since I image you don't have the right equipment, it's actually a pretty hard task with just a computer. You'll need to give yourself enough time to transcribe the interview, since, that's often a requirement for Oral History assignments. All this being said, I think if you can get away with it (depends...on his time and yours), you should do it. Just make sure that you do enough research on him, writing, and epic fantasy (even though you've read his books) to make sure you can ask INTERESTING questions from a historical perspective. Be thoughtful about these questions, don't spend too much time on stuff you already know (like his laws of magic) because you can get that information online and just reference it in your footnotes, etc. Edited February 22, 2016 by Kandra-in-disguise 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkness Ascendant he/him Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 I'm going to recommend, as a professional historian, that you chose someone else, actually. It's not only because he's really busy right now, but generally he's only been active for ten years... Making an argument for "historical significance/relevance" can be difficult for something so recent, even though I think he probably will be historically significant in certain circles in the future, it doesn't mean it will fly with your history teacher (but it might not matter, say if you're in high school, but in college, I'd steel clear of really recent events/people in history classes). That being said, another problem you might run into if you don't have a lot of time is transcribing. Since I image you don't have the right equipment, it's actually a pretty hard task with just a computer. You'll need to give yourself enough time to transcribe the interview, since, that's often a requirement for Oral History assignments. All this being said, I think if you can get away with it (depends...on his time and yours), you should do it. Just make sure that you do enough research on him, writing, and epic fantasy (even though you've read his books) to make sure you can ask INTERESTING questions from a historical perspective. Be thoughtful about these questions, don't spend too much time on stuff you already know (like his laws of magic) because you can get that information online and just reference it in your footnotes, etc. Oh no, you don't have to interview anyone for historical benefits. You see, this assignment is purely for us to learn about interviewing and asking the right sort of questions. In fact most of the kids in my class are interviewing their parents or grandparents. I decided to deviate and interview someone who I regard as one of my "heroes". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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