Bookworm

Two brilliant writers talk about a brilliant writer: Ann Beattie and Richard Bausch discuss the haunted dreamscapes of the short fiction of Peter Taylor.

For The Monk of Mokha, Dave Eggers writes the story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali bridging the country of his ancestors with the country where he lives. This is a conversation about the fate of immigrant life in America.

André Aciman takes the intensity, complexity, and variety of his Call Me by Your Name still further in his new novel, Enigma Variations.

Scott McClanahan discusses two of his close-to- the-bone and personal novels: The Sarah Book and Crapalachia: A Biography of Place.

Víctor Terán and David Shook discuss the music of Isthmus Zapotec and poetry translated for Like A New Sun.

Matthew McIntosh’s theMystery.doc asks a reader to consider what a book is, while exploring how a book can be like life.

Jane Gillette describes the wicked writing of her first book, The Trail of the Demon and Other Stories.

Revisiting Ursula LeGuin, the immensely popular author who changed science fiction and fantasy for millions of readers. She died this month at the age of 88.

Storytelling queen Isabel Allende wrote a time-crossing, culture-hopping chamber piece that gives faces to immigration during these dark times for literature, In the Midst of Winter.

In her stunning After Kathy Acker: A Literary Biography, Chris Kraus wrote not of theory but of writing, creativity, and the depth a writer has to go to form an identity.

In Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine, Joe Hagan explores the countercultural rise of the late-60s rock and roll teen society.

Morgan Parker says that the poems in her book There Are Things More Beautiful than Beyoncé take a stand against the clichés of the dominant culture.

Anne Fadiman discusses topics from The Wine Lover’s Daughter: wine, literature, and her father Clifton.

The great novelist, essayist and prose stylist William H. Gass died last week at 93. This tribute show is composed of excerpts from previous Bookworm conversations with Gass.

A moody historical novel, Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig explores history as it is inscribed in the souls of a rather special Burmese family.

Without spoilers, we discuss the intricate surprises and complex modes of disclosure in Jennifer Egan's new novel Manhattan Beach.

This show features a dramatic and emotional reading by writer/actor Wallace Shawn of an excerpt from Night Thoughts, his book-length essay. (REPEAT)

The Familiar, Volume 5: Redwood, by Mark Danielewski, closes Season One of a serial novel imagined as a vast TV series.

The second conversation with brothers Ron and Russell Mael of the band Sparks, along with stripped-down versions of two songs from their new album Hippopotamus.

Sparks plays stripped-down acoustic versions of art rock songs off their new album Hippopotamus, along with a classic song, and the theme to Bookworm, Where Would We Be without Books.