Bookworm

Vollmann leads us to the “wall of ill” that separates life from death. We dissect Vollmann’s opening remarks to the reader, brimful of images both dark and sweet.

Tillman says a writer shouldn’t be ahead of one’s time but ‘of’ one’s time. She wishes to open doors, break down barriers, and make us aware of how thoughts are formed.

St. Aubyn’s novel parodies the upsurge of interest in literary prizes: what do these prizes have to do with literature, and are the books that win ones we should read?

Prose’s protagonist, Lou Villars, is based on the athlete and Gestapo interrogator Violette Morris, who was photographed with her lover in a Parisian nightclub in 1932.

The heroine of Alice Notley's noir epic poem is named Ines. This is short for "inessential," which is what Notley says the poet is, and, really, what we all are.

Knausgaard’s third volume focuses on childhood. He says what he knows of people he knows from books. He continues in this tradition of telling with the written word.

Reflecting on his autobiographical novels, Knausgaard says literature should be about life; in writing, he attempts to find meaning within the banality of the everyday.

An exciting first for Bookworm, recently married literary-couple Michael Carroll and Edmund White join us for a double-interview.

Do we have a need for a connection with heaven and hell? Krasznahorkai's novel is a valuation of human life seen from heaven and hell through the eyes of a Taoist goddess.

Intellectual, accessible, and provocative literary conversations.