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

Human Wishes After an analysis of the role that pleasure and pain play in his poetry, our poet laureate discusses contemporary literary criticism.

Robert Hass

Good Benito; Einstein's Dreams Lightman discusses loneliness: the curse of the scientist and the rest of us, as well.

Alan Lightman

The Law of Enclosures A discussion about the strategies of structure--how Peck disassembles chronology to tell the story of an unhappy marriage.

Dale Peck

Mr. Ives' Christmas 
Oscar Hijuelos on the difficulty of writing a contemporary tale of faith.

Mr. Ives' Christmas Oscar Hijuelos on the difficulty of writing a contemporary tale of faith.

Mr. Ives' Christmas 
Oscar Hijuelos on the difficulty of writing a contemporary tale of faith.

Oscar Hijuelos

The Moor's Last Sigh
Part I: The focus is on Salman Rushdie's writing: its themes, structures, techniques and styles. The subjects include mothers, love, cartoons, James Joyce and, only occasionally, the fatwa.
Part II: Rushdie on the art of layering: the organization of the swarms of characters, stories and styles that crawl, teem and fly through The Moor's Last Sigh.

The Moor's Last Sigh Part I: The focus is on Salman Rushdie's writing: its themes, structures, techniques and styles. The subjects include mothers, love, cartoons, James Joyce and, only occasionally, the fatwa. Part II: Rushdie on the art of layering: the organization of the swarms of characters, stories and styles that crawl, teem and fly through The Moor's Last Sigh.

Salman Rushdie: The Moor's Last Sigh

Translators Ron Padgett and Garrett White on the work of the rip-roaring, fire-snorting French poet, Blaise Cendrars.

Translators Ron Padgett and Garrett White on the work of the rip-roaring, fire-snorting French poet, Blaise Cendrars.

Ron Padgett and Garrett White on Blaise Cendrars

Morality Play History and fiction-writing.  The Booker Prize winner talks about how he uses the past as a commentary on the present.

Morality Play History and fiction-writing. The Booker Prize winner talks about how he uses the past as a commentary on the present.

Barry Unsworth

How to Read an Unwritten Language Graham began by writing prose poems, graduated to short stories and has no produced a novel.  It's a special sort of a novel--mystical, philosophical and respectful of the language of inanimate objects.

How to Read an Unwritten Language Graham began by writing prose poems, graduated to short stories and has no produced a novel. It's a special sort of a novel--mystical, philosophical and respectful of the language of inanimate objects.

Philip Graham

The Great Fires:Poems 1982-1992The poet and adult passion: An improvisation on the nature of love, poetry's moral function and the finality of death.

Jack Gilbert

Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man
Norman Mailer's examination of Picasso provokes a discussion of three Mailer obsessions: women, art and crime.

Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man Norman Mailer's examination of Picasso provokes a discussion of three Mailer obsessions: women, art and crime.

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