Sanderson Interview

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

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.

[natc]

Well I suppose you could just ask him.

[ThirdGen]

His assistant Peter Ahlstrom, who posts here quite a bit, would be able to answer your question.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

ok thanks guys

[Young Bard he/him]

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.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

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

[Ari he/him]

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.

[Titan Arum]

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. 

[Jazzy Kandra she/her]

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

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

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".