KCRW's 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.
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Matthew Dickman
All-American Poem (American Poetry Review)Kate Tufts Discovery Award-winner Matthew Dickman writes emotional and accessible poetry...
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Geoff Dyer
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi (Pantheon) Geoff Dyer on the secrets that structure his new novel (which might, on the surface, seem like two novellas)....
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Mary Gaitskill
Donât Cry (Pantheon)The extraordinary levels of empathy and sadness in Mary Gaitskillâs new stories provide the basis for this intense discussion of the emotional subtexts of her fiction.
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An Oulipo Mini-Anthology
Jacques Roubaud, Ian Monk, Daniel Levin Becker, Marcel Bénabou, Anne F. Garréta and Hervé Le Tellier When members of the Oulipo convened in New York, Bookworm was there to record this mini-anthology of the transcendentally witty, sometimes hilarious goings-on.
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Jacques Roubaud
The Loop (Dalkey Archive) Jacques Roubaud describes the mesh of image and memory that makes up his fascinating, newly translated, unclassifiable book.
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John Ashbery
...on his translation of Pierre Martory's The Landscapist (The Sheep Meadow Press) As John Ashbery remembers his early years in Paris, he reflects on French poetry and about the very special case of his long-time friend, Pierre Martory.
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Gary Indiana
The Shanghai Gesture (Two Dollar Radio) Out of fantasias of the past (Fu Manchu novels, exotic Hollywood films, documents of "friendly" imperialism from the twenties to the forties), Gary Indiana concocts the nightmare present of The Shanghai Gesture..
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Elizabeth Alexander
Praise Song for the Day: A Poem for Barack Obamaâs Presidential Inauguration (Graywolf); American Sublime (Graywolf) When Elizabeth Alexander presented Barack Obama's inaugural poem, few of us had considered that in the history of the United States there had been only three previous inaugural p …
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Yusef Komunyakaa
Warhorses: Poems (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)The extraordinary part of this interview is the opportunity to hear Komunyakaa's voice as he reads his poetry. These poems are about love and war simultaneously, traumatic upheavals that may often be conjoined in this poet's vision of life.
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Joanna Scott
Follow Me (Little, Brown)It has been said that life is like a river, and the river in this novel twists and turns, changes direction and may even be inhabited by river fairies...
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Abdellah Taia
Salvation Army (Semiotext(e)) In Abdellah Taïa's family and in his native country, homosexuality is surrounded by silence. All sorts of behaviors are tolerated if they are not spoken of, an intolerable circumstance for a writer...
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T.C. Boyle
The Women (Viking)This richly layered conversation with T.C. Boyle centers on the subjects of art and arrogance. The Women is a biographical novel, a fiction derived from the life of Frank Lloyd Wright, focused particularly on Wright's up-and-down experiences with women.
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A Whitman Tribute
Eamon Grennan: Matter of Fact (Graywolf)Major Jackson: Hoops (Norton)Pattiann Rogers: Wayfare (Penguin) Three poets join us on Bookworm to celebrate Walt Whitman. They read from Leaves of Grass, describe Whitman's influence on their work, read their own poems, and, in general, paint a raucous, fr …
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Robin Romm
The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks (Scribner) Fact and fiction. Robin Romm has written a book of short stories and now a memoir arising from one central event: her motherâs gradual death by cancer...
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Frank Bidart, Part II
Watching the Spring Festival: Poems (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) For Frank Bidart, the act of reading poetry aloud involves the entire body... (Part I of this interview aired March 12.)
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Frank Bidart, Part I
Watching the Spring Festival: Poems (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) The word most frequently used to describe Frank Bidartâs poetry is âintense.â (Part II of this interview airs on March 19.)
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John Haskell
Out of My Skin (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) An existential novel (think Camusâ The Stranger) LA-style. When a celebrity impersonator trains the hero in the art of impersonation, identity confusion ensues...
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Rae Armantrout
Versed (Wesleyan University Press)Rae Armantrout has been associated with the Language-centered poets of the eighties, a group often accused of overly cerebral poetry derived from theory. Now, her work is found in the most widely read magazines that publish poetry...
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Micheline Aharonian Marcom
The Mirror in the Well (Dalkey Archive) Micheline Marcom's works squeeze themselves between uncomfortable alternatives: Is her new novel, The Mirror in the Well, erotic or pornographic?
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Sparks: The Art of the Popular Song
Kimono My House (Island Def Jam); Exotic Creatures of the Deep (Lil' Beethoven)After years of yearning, Bookworm talks with his favorite rock band about the art of writing pop songs. Join us in this celebration of their 21st album, Exotic Creatures of the Deep.
KCRW's Bookworm
