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Michael Silverblatt, host of KCRW’s Bookworm, the nation’s premier literary radio program, has been bringing writers and readers together in close company for more than three decades. Audiences around the world tune in each week to discover new ways of thinking about books through Silverblatt’s compassionate and enthusiastic conversations with contemporary writers, compelled by the surprising range of ideas and feelings that only his legendary close readings can evoke.

Bookworm: Conversations with Michael Silverblatt gathers interviews with some of the most influential luminaries of our time: John Ashbery, John Berger, Octavia Butler, Joan Didion, Carlos Fuentes, William H. Gass, Toni Morrison, Grace Paley, W.G. Sebald, Stephen Sondheim, Susan Sontag, and David Foster Wallace (who notably said to Silverblatt in their first of several conversations, “I feel like I wanna ask you to adopt me.”).

Gathered together for the first time in print, these conversations span years, revealing not only the quality and character of the writers, but also the special relationship that Silverblatt developed with them during their lifetimes. This collection reveals why so many consider Silverblatt to be our greatest reader, as he allows us to see these writers at their most animated and understood.

Michael Silverblatt is the host of KCRW’s Bookworm, a nationally syndicated radio program showcasing writers of fiction and poetry. Describing his interviews as “conversations,” Silverblatt has hosted hundreds of our most celebrated writers. As the guiding spirit of this weekly show, Silverblatt has reinvented the art of literary conversation, introducing listeners to new and emerging authors along with writers of renown. He also regularly hosts literary conversations for Lannan Foundation's "Readings and Conversations" series in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2018, he was the inaugural recipient of A Public Space's Deborah Pease Prize, awarded to a figure who has advanced the art of literature. 

Book cover by Art Spiegelman 

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