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

What I Loved
 (Holt)
A harrowing subject: the child of an artist giving way to crime, drugs and dishonesty. A harrowing conversation with author Siri Hustved: is the child's amorality genetic or did post-modern art corrupt him?

What I Loved (Holt) A harrowing subject: the child of an artist giving way to crime, drugs and dishonesty. A harrowing conversation with author Siri Hustved: is the child's amorality genetic or did post-modern art corrupt him?

Siri Hustvedt

An unusually tender conversation with Alice McDermott about grace, imagined here as the act of putting others before oneself...

Alice McDermott: Child of My Heart

The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin) 
The Vietnamese cook in the famous Paris house of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas narrates Monique Truong's first novel...

The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin) The Vietnamese cook in the famous Paris house of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas narrates Monique Truong's first novel...

The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin) 
The Vietnamese cook in the famous Paris house of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas narrates Monique Truong's first novel...

Monique Truong

Bay of Souls 
(Houghton Mifflin)
Robert Stone's novel that features intrigue, romance, violence and voodoo...

Bay of Souls (Houghton Mifflin) Robert Stone's novel that features intrigue, romance, violence and voodoo...

Robert Stone

Good Faith (Knopf)
An ebullient book about fraud and deception-the eighties, Jane Smiley-style.

Good Faith (Knopf) An ebullient book about fraud and deception-the eighties, Jane Smiley-style.

Jane Smiley

Cosmopolis (Scribner's) and The Body Artist (Scribner's)
In this, the second of a two-part interview, Don DeLillo explores his most enigmatic creation: the weird gnome at the heart of his last novel, The Body Artist.

Cosmopolis (Scribner's) and The Body Artist (Scribner's) In this, the second of a two-part interview, Don DeLillo explores his most enigmatic creation: the weird gnome at the heart of his last novel, The Body Artist.

Don DeLillo: The Body Artist

The deadpan master of post-modern dysfunction-comedy takes an ordinary New York traffic jam and transforms it into a funeral procession that guides his protagonist to defeat and death.

The deadpan master of post-modern dysfunction-comedy takes an ordinary New York traffic jam and transforms it into a funeral procession that guides his protagonist to defeat and death.

The deadpan master of post-modern dysfunction-comedy takes an ordinary New York traffic jam and transforms it into a funeral procession that guides his protagonist to defeat and death.&nbsp;

Don DeLillo: Cosmopolis

A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies
 (Harper Collins)
A young doctor who has worked in developing countries, John Murray has written a collection of stories in which chaos and order wrestle for domination...

A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies (Harper Collins) A young doctor who has worked in developing countries, John Murray has written a collection of stories in which chaos and order wrestle for domination...

John Murray

Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath  (St. Martin-s)  Kate Moses attempts and achieves the impossible: she weaves Sylvia Plath-s imagery and intensity into an interior landscape illuminating the last week of the great poet-s life. In the process, Moses creates a convincing portrait of a hypothetical Plath-one who has earned a mastery of her demons and a place in the Pantheon.

Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath (St. Martin-s) Kate Moses attempts and achieves the impossible: she weaves Sylvia Plath-s imagery and intensity into an interior landscape illuminating the last week of the great poet-s life. In the process, Moses creates a convincing portrait of a hypothetical Plath-one who has earned a mastery of her demons and a place in the Pantheon.

Kate Moses

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (Riverhead)
With her extraordinarily confident language, newcomer ZZ Packer confronts issues of race, class and education that have flummoxed more-experienced writers...

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (Riverhead) With her extraordinarily confident language, newcomer ZZ Packer confronts issues of race, class and education that have flummoxed more-experienced writers...

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