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Bookworm

A must for the serious reader, Bookworm showcases writers of fiction and poetry - the established, new or emerging - all interviewed with insight and precision by the show's host and guiding spirit, Michael Silverblatt.

After 21 years, Bookworm has a new theme -- two, in fact! Replacing the familiar “You are a Human Animal,” is “I Am A Bookworm,” an original composition by the idiosyncratic rock-pop group, Sparks, At the end of the show, a second Sparks composition, “Where Would We Be Without Books.” Curious? Check out the lyrics!

Photo credit: Marc Goldstein

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TODAY'S SHOW

Paul Muldoon and special guests, Sparks

First, Sparks on Bookworm's new theme songs. Then poet Paul Muldoon (Maggot, from Farrar, Straus & Giroux) on how writing poems differs from writing song lyrics.. more >>

UPCOMING SHOWS

Vendela Vida: The Lovers

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Maile Meloy: Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It

Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It (Riverhead Books) Maile Meloy’s stories go shooting off in such surprising and unpredictable directions that a reader might think, … more >>

RECENT SHOWS

Craig Nova: The Informer

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Martha McPhee: Dear Money

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David Mitchell: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

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D.A. Powell and Linda Gregerson: Chronic

Chronic (Graywolf) The Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award offers an impressive $100,000 prize to a poet entering the major phase of his/her career. We speak to this year's … more >>

Jane Smiley: Private Life

Private Life (Knopf) Jane Smiley explores lives limited by repression, narrow scope and boundless ego, describing the sadness of a genius whose work never catches on, … more >>

Peter Carey

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Aimee Bender

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Favorite Books: John Waters and Elif Batuman

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Isabel Allende

Island Beneath the Sea (Harper) Isabel Allende's historical novel about slavery and the Haitian revolution becomes the springboard for a conversation about global … more >>

Zachary Mason

The Lost Books of the Odyssey (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Higher mathematics and logic problems have long intrigued fiction writers, including Zachary Mason. Both … more >>

Jean-Philippe Toussaint

Self-Portrait Abroad (Dalkey Archive); Running Away (Dalkey Archive) French fiction had become austere and theoretical until Jean-Philippe Toussaint took it in the … more >>

Yann Martel

Beatrice & Virgil (Spiegel & Grau) After recognizing that most holocaust literature is centered on personal testimony, Yann Martel decided to create an allegory … more >>

David Shields and Ander Monson on the New Prose

Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (Knopf) and Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir (Graywolf Press) New web technologies (and the ever-increasing availability of information) have … more >>

Ian McEwan

Solar (Doubleday) Along the way in our conversation about bad morals and good intentions, Ian McEwan dabbles in the background subjects of his new novel... more >>

Anne Carson

Nox (New Directions) Anne Carson's brother ran away, and she never saw him again. After learning of his death some twenty years later, she assembled Nox as a form of … more >>

More Past Shows

Program Details

Host

Michael Silverblatt

Bookworm Michael Silverblatt is the guy authors go to when they want a serious literary conversation about their writing, because Michael reads everything they’ve ever written, often surprising the authors with insights about their work that they themselves hadn’t realized.

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Schedule

Live

Tapes & Transcripts

A CD copy of Bookworm is available by calling 888-600-5279.

Transcripts of Bookworm are not available.

Click the Full Details link to read an excerpt from the featured book.

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