Longtime friend and editor of Bookworm, Alan Howard, returns to host this episode, the last of 10 shows to journey through Bookworm’s 33 years and offer a retrospective look at Michael’s accomplishments on behalf of writers and readers. For decades Michael has read almost all of a writer’s work, not just the book which has been most recently published. Howard has watched writers glow as they realize that they’ve been seriously witnessed by the ultimate Bookworm. All of the writers on today’s show have become friends of Michael’s and of Bookworm. We’ll hear from rock band Sparks (brothers Ron and Russell Mael), Art Spiegelman, Françoise Mouly, Ann Beattie, Susan Sontag, and Dennis Cooper.

Longtime friend and editor of Bookworm, Alan Howard, returns to host this episode, the last of 10 shows to journey through Bookworm’s 33 years and offer a retrospective look at Michael’s accomplishments on behalf of writers and readers. For decades Michael has read almost all of a writer’s work, not just the book which has been most recently published. Howard has watched writers glow as they realize that they’ve been seriously witnessed by the ultimate Bookworm. All of the writers on today’s show have become friends of Michael’s and of Bookworm. We’ll hear from rock band Sparks (brothers Ron and Russell Mael), Art Spiegelman, Françoise Mouly, Ann Beattie, Susan Sontag, and Dennis Cooper.

Longtime friend and editor of Bookworm, Alan Howard, returns to host this episode, the last of 10 shows to journey through Bookworm’s 33 years and offer a retrospective look at Michael’s accomplishments on behalf of writers and readers. For decades Michael has read almost all of a writer’s work, not just the book which has been most recently published. Howard has watched writers glow as they realize that they’ve been seriously witnessed by the ultimate Bookworm. All of the&nbsp;writers on today’s show have become friends of Michael’s and of Bookworm. We’ll hear from rock band Sparks (brothers Ron and Russell Mael), Art Spiegelman, Françoise Mouly, Ann Beattie, Susan Sontag, and Dennis Cooper.

Friends of Michael

Acclaimed novelist, poet, and essayist <a href="https://www.taolin.us">Tao Lin</a> (“Taipei,” “Shoplifting from American Apparel”) speaks about growing as a writer, and growing his idea of himself in a book, including his latest, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/547887/leave-society-by-tao-lin/">Leave Society</a>,” about the blurred lines between life and fiction.

Acclaimed novelist, poet, and essayist Tao Lin (“Taipei,” “Shoplifting from American Apparel”) speaks about growing as a writer, and growing his idea of himself in a book, including his latest, “Leave Society,” about the blurred lines between life and fiction.

Acclaimed novelist, poet, and essayist <a href="https://www.taolin.us" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tao Lin</a> (“Taipei,” “Shoplifting from American Apparel”) speaks about growing as a writer, and growing his idea of himself in a book, including his latest, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/547887/leave-society-by-tao-lin/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leave Society</a>,” about the blurred lines between life and fiction.&nbsp;

Tao Lin’s ‘Leave Society’ shifts the author’s perspective to love and kindness

Author Zac Smith speaks about the extreme juxtaposition of the very short, dense, and clipped stories in his new book, “Everything is Totally Fine.” He says that by removing a lot of exposition, he was able to create intense emotions in a small space. His energetic and thoughtful stories of absurdity and minutiae are things that could not be said any other way, and usually don’t get said. Plus, special guest Tao Lin explains why “Everything is Totally Fine” inspired him to reopen his <a href="http://muumuuhouse.com/about.html">Muumuu House</a> imprint after it was closed for more than ten years.

Author Zac Smith speaks about the extreme juxtaposition of the very short, dense, and clipped stories in his new book, “Everything is Totally Fine.” He says that by removing a lot of exposition, he was able to create intense emotions in a small space. His energetic and thoughtful stories of absurdity and minutiae are things that could not be said any other way, and usually don’t get said. Plus, special guest Tao Lin explains why “Everything is Totally Fine” inspired him to reopen his Muumuu House imprint after it was closed for more than ten years.

Author Zac Smith speaks about the extreme juxtaposition of the very short, dense, and clipped stories in his new book, “Everything is Totally Fine.” He says that by removing a lot of exposition, he was able to create intense emotions in a small space. His energetic and thoughtful stories of absurdity and minutiae are things that could not be said any other way, and usually don’t get said. Plus, special guest Tao Lin explains why “Everything is Totally Fine” inspired him to reopen his <a href="http://muumuuhouse.com/about.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">Muumuu House</a> imprint after it was closed for more than ten years.

Zac Smith’s ‘Everything is Totally Fine,’ the book that reopened Tao Lin’s Muumuu House

Aharon Appelfeld, author of The Iron Tracks (Schocken). The Israeli writer reveals the story behind the writing of his newest novel, a fable about the life of a concentration camp survivor who obsessively revisits the scenes of his imprisonment.

Aharon Appelfeld

Alice McDermott's prose captures the suburban Irish-American family. How does her dense, constricted, complex writing-style reflect the lives of these everyday folk?

Alice McDermott's prose captures the suburban Irish-American family. How does her dense, constricted, complex writing-style reflect the lives of these everyday folk?

Alice McDermott: Charming Billy

Jim Crase, author of Quarantine (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). This novel of faith by an atheist follows Jesus through his forty-day fast in the desert. It is a rare accomplishment--a realistic novel about a miracle worker, a farce about devotion.

Jim Crase, author of Quarantine (Farrar, Straus &amp; Giroux). This novel of faith by an atheist follows Jesus through his forty-day fast in the desert. It is a rare accomplishment--a realistic novel about a miracle worker, a farce about devotion.

Jim Crase

Night Train
(Crown)
Suicide is the solution to the mystery in Martin Amis' noir thriller with existentialist undercurrents.

Night Train (Crown) Suicide is the solution to the mystery in Martin Amis' noir thriller with existentialist undercurrents.

Martin Amis: Night Train

The Given and the Made, The Breaking of Style, Soul Says (Harvard) How does a poet change styles? What turns an autobiographical incident into a poem? Helen Vendler on some of the basic issues of modern poetry.

Helen Vendler

Maureen Howard, author of A Lover's Almanac (Viking). The latest from Maureen Howard's over-loaded "data; base" is a new novel about love--and biology, art, destiny, astrology, process, history.

Maureen Howard

David Malouf, author of Conversations at Curlow Creek (Vintage). The award-winning Australian writer searches for a lost child--a search that has mysteriously occupied Malouf for his entire writing life.

David Malouf

Amos Oz, author of Panther in the Basement (Harcourt Brace), reminisces about Israel on the eve of its independence: a portrait of the author as book-loving adolescent.

Amos Oz

Robert Olen Butler The Deep Green Sea (Holt) In this obsessional erotic fantasy about cross-cultural incest, Butler displays the full range of his fictional themes--but does his mythomania bear any relation to truth?

Robert Olen Butler

Jonathan Coe, a young English writer, has the temperament of a dark, experimental, comic novelist, but he chooses to stay within certain acceptable conventions. A conversation about safety and risk.

Jonathan Coe, a young English writer, has the temperament of a dark, experimental, comic novelist, but he chooses to stay within certain acceptable conventions. A conversation about safety and risk.

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