Bookworm

Blum on publishing his first book, and the riddle of a moral contained in its inscrutable 13-year-old antihero, a Bartlebian computer whiz with a vengeful streak.

Shteyngart wrote his memoir when he realized that his life story mirrored that of the 20th century, the saga of one failed superpower giving way to another failing one.

Ben Estes, Alan Felsenthal and Amanda Nadelberg read poems from Alfred Starr Hamlton's "Dreambox" and reflect on their experience editing this unsung enchanter.

Esteemed German literary critic Denis Scheck joins us for a special international "meeting of the minds" to appraise the state of book criticism today.

James McCourt's novelistic memoir collages together vignettes of personal and queer community history in the New York City of mid-century.

Our master of seductive street-slang on seduction and its relation to fiction. Can a writer seduce you?  Junot Díaz describes what he calls "the shock of representation."

A trenchant "comic journalist" depicting the horrors of human conflicts, Joe Sacco's latest work is an astonishing panorama of the Battle of the Somme...

On

Self’s striking novel about loss, language, and perception after the First World War -- and a bold departure from the satirical mode he is best known for.

After the deaths of husband and daughter, Joan Didion wrote the most personal and poetic book of her impressive career...