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

Did Stephen Crane attempt to write a gay companion piece to his Maggie: A Girl of the Streets? Literary rumor says he tried. At any rate, now Edmund White has written it for him.

Did Stephen Crane attempt to write a gay companion piece to his Maggie: A Girl of the Streets? Literary rumor says he tried. At any rate, now Edmund White has written it for him.

Did Stephen Crane attempt to write a gay companion piece to his Maggie: A Girl of the Streets? Literary rumor says he tried. At any rate, now Edmund White has written it for him.&nbsp;

Edmund White: Hotel de Dream

This big, hilarious and joyful book has been twenty-five years in the making. Fran Lebowitz called it "The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization set to music."

This big, hilarious and joyful book has been twenty-five years in the making. Fran Lebowitz called it "The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization set to music."

James McCourt: Now Voyagers

ABC (Pantheon) 
In this novel, a series of unlinked personal, familial and global catastrophes leads unrelated victims to search for order. Mysteriously, the "order" they discover is alphabetical order. So many cultures begin their alphabets with ABC. Why? What revelation is concealed in the alphabet's code?

ABC (Pantheon) In this novel, a series of unlinked personal, familial and global catastrophes leads unrelated victims to search for order. Mysteriously, the "order" they discover is alphabetical order. So many cultures begin their alphabets with ABC. Why? What revelation is concealed in the alphabet's code?

ABC (Pantheon) 
In this novel, a series of unlinked personal, familial and global catastrophes leads unrelated victims to search for order. Mysteriously, the "order" they discover is alphabetical order. So many cultures begin their alphabets with ABC. Why? What revelation is concealed in the alphabet's code?

David Plante

The family in Ann Patchett's Run unites rich with poor, black with white. The novel is a thriller—but the mystery at its heart is the mystery of spiritual grace...

The family in Ann Patchett's Run unites rich with poor, black with white. The novel is a thriller—but the mystery at its heart is the mystery of spiritual grace...

Ann Patchett: Run

This conversation provides a mini-course in short-story writing, George Saunders-style and explores the construction of short fiction from the ground up.

This conversation provides a mini-course in short-story writing, George Saunders-style and explores the construction of short fiction from the ground up.

This conversation provides a mini-course in short-story writing, George Saunders-style and explores the construction of short fiction from the ground up.

George Saunders: The Braindead Megaphone

Channeling Mark Twain (Random House) This novel revives the belief that poetry has a close connection to personal and political liberation.

Channeling Mark Twain (Random House)This novel revives the belief that poetry has a close connection to personal and political liberation.

Channeling Mark Twain (Random House) This novel revives the belief that poetry has a close connection to personal and political liberation.

Carol Muske-Dukes

Steve Erickson's breakthrough novel Zeroville is about the The Movies — not the movie business, not the wheels and deals— but The Movies themselves.

Steve Erickson's breakthrough novel Zeroville is about the The Movies — not the movie business, not the wheels and deals— but The Movies themselves.

Steve Erickson: Zeroville

The Bad Girl (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) We take the occasion of the publication of Mario Vargas Llosa's new novel, The Bad Girl, to air this previously unheard interview in which the great Peruvian novelist describes the effects of "El Boom" –- magic realism and its relatives -- on the literature of Latin America...

The Bad Girl (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)We take the occasion of the publication of Mario Vargas Llosa's new novel, The Bad Girl, to air this previously unheard interview in which the great Peruvian novelist describes the effects of "El Boom" –- magic realism and its relatives -- on the literature of Latin America...

The Bad Girl (Farrar, Straus &amp; Giroux) We take the occasion of the publication of Mario Vargas Llosa's new novel, The Bad Girl, to air this previously unheard interview in which the great Peruvian novelist describes the effects of "El Boom" –- magic realism and its relatives -- on the literature of Latin America...

Mario Vargas Llosa

Bowl of Cherries (McSweeney's) 
Millard Kaufman has written a classic comic novel that belongs in the tradition that runs from Charles Dickens to Evelyn Waugh.

Bowl of Cherries (McSweeney's) Millard Kaufman has written a classic comic novel that belongs in the tradition that runs from Charles Dickens to Evelyn Waugh.

Bowl of Cherries (McSweeney's) 
Millard Kaufman has written a classic comic novel that belongs in the tradition that runs from Charles Dickens to Evelyn Waugh.

Millard Kaufman

Joe is Ron Padgett's intimate and affectionate biography-memoir of his friend of four decades, artist-poet Joe Brainard.

Joe is Ron Padgett's intimate and affectionate biography-memoir of his friend of four decades, artist-poet Joe Brainard.

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