Radio producer and author Kate Sweeney says she found encouragement through the creative writing course she took at GPC. (Photo by Kaylinn Gilstrap Photography)

by Kat Friedmann Volzer

Georgia Perimeter College alumna Kate Sweeney loves to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange.

“I’ve always been interested in why we do what we do,” says Sweeney, who studied anthropology at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill before auditing a creative writing class at GPC in 2004.

In her position as a features producer for Atlanta’s National Public Radio station, WABE-FM, Sweeney has won four Edward R. Murrow radio awards. She’s interviewed and uncovered stories from famous Atlanta restaurateur Richard Thomas to the little known artist behind the Doll’s Head Trail. Now after several years of researching strange stories, odd happenings and quirky characters, the alumna recently published her first book that investigates a normal, yet taboo topic: death.

“American Afterlife” is a series of true and sometimes darkly humorous stories about how Americans deal with death. It was published by University of Georgia Press in March.

“It’s something that every single one of us goes through sooner or later, but at the same time it’s not polite to acknowledge in polite society. If you’re at a dinner party and start talking about a funeral or death, we tend to feel the need to apologize and change the subject. I find that fascinating,” says Sweeney about her inspiration for the book.

“American Afterlife” started as a thesis project while Sweeney obtained her Master of Fine Arts degree at UNC Wilmington. She loved the popular HBO television show “Six Feet Under,” a fictional story about a family that runs a funeral home. While in graduate school, Sweeney came across an article mentioning the show. The article was about a California green burial cemetery, something she found fascinating and different.

Sweeney began learning more and more about green burials, as well as traditional and different rituals for memorializing the dead. Although a book about death initially sounded morbid and depressing, she was surprised to find many of the stories optimistic and uplifting. Many of the stories she explored were simply how to memorialize the dead in the way they would have wanted.

Sweeney credits GPC creative writing professor Anna Schachner with encouraging her to go back to school, which eventually led to the idea of the book.

“She really took me under her wing and mentored me and encouraged me to apply for an MFA, which was something I hadn’t really seriously considered,” Sweeney says about Schachner.

Sweeney has returned to GPC multiple times since taking the class here–participating in conferences and lectures and presenting readings along with other local authors. She was The Chattahoochee Review’s guest author in spring 2014, and her latest visit to GPC occurred in October for the Sarah Larson Lecture Series.

“When I first worked with Kate eight years ago in my creative writing class, I knew that she was the real deal and that she’d go on to write great books,” Schachner says. “And, of course, she has, because ‘American Afterlife’ is fantastic. I’m so proud of her, and I’m so proud to call her my friend. I can’t wait to see what she will do next–how many people can you truly say that about?”