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

The Saskiad (Houghton Mifflin) Brian Hall, the author of one of the great novels of adolescence, speaks about the sexual awakening of his narrator.

Brian Hall

How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not A Novel (Pantheon) The "Stendhal; of the dating scene" Alain de Botton talks about French literature, the virtues of moderation - and happiness.

Alain de Botton

Poet Ron Padgett discusses his selected poems.

Poet Ron Padgett discusses his selected poems.

Ron Padgett: New & Selected Poems

Steve Erickson's novels dramatize the disintegration of the American dream, using a prose style that is itself dreamlike.

Steve Erickson's novels dramatize the disintegration of the American dream, using a prose style that is itself dreamlike.

Steve Erickson: Amnesiascope and American Nomad

The Nature of Blood (Knopf) In her latest novel, Caryl Phillips contrasts slavery and genocide in the lives of Jews and Africans over several centuries. A discussion about the parallel history of prejudice.

Caryl Phillips

Guide (Grove). With an aesthetic reflective of hallucinogenic disorientation and the sensory overload of rock and roll, Dennis Cooper talks about the transformation of chaos into art.

Dennis Cooper

Blessed Is the Fruit (Holt) Robert Antoni, the Caribbean novelist on place, aesthetics and gender, plus a spellbinding reading from his novel.

Robert Antoni

Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism (Random House) 
The ever-provocative Alice Walker discusses the nature of a writer's social responsibilities.

Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism (Random House) The ever-provocative Alice Walker discusses the nature of a writer's social responsibilities.

Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism (Random House) 
The ever-provocative Alice Walker discusses the nature of a writer's social responsibilities.

Alice Walker

Van Gogh's Bad Cafe (Morrow) Frederic Tuten, the author of Adventures of Chairman Mao on the Long March talks about his Pop Art novel of the sixties and the history of the Art novel through the nineties.

Frederic Tuten

Plain Water (Knopf); Glass, Irony and God (New Directions)
A truly intimate interview about the value of intelligence in the face of passion. Canadian poet Anne Carson has found a new boundary for poetry to explore.

Plain Water (Knopf); Glass, Irony and God (New Directions) A truly intimate interview about the value of intelligence in the face of passion. Canadian poet Anne Carson has found a new boundary for poetry to explore.

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