Michael Silverblatt
Michael Silverblatt | |
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| Born | Michael Philip Silverblatt August 6, 1952 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | February 14, 2026 (aged 73) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
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Michael Philip Silverblatt (August 6, 1952 – February 14, 2026) was an American literary critic and broadcaster who hosted Bookworm, a nationally syndicated radio program focusing on books and literature, from 1989 to 2022.[1] He recorded over 1,600 interviews with authors and other literary figures, including Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Joan Didion, Susan Sontag, David Foster Wallace, William H. Gass, W. G. Sebald, and John Ashbery.
Bookworm was broadcast by Los Angeles public radio station KCRW.
Early life
A lifelong voracious reader, Silverblatt was born into a Jewish family in New York City, attended SUNY Buffalo, majored in English, then entered postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University but dropped out.[2][3]
Later, he moved to Los Angeles with the intention of becoming a screenwriter. But after impressing KCRW's general manager during a discussion of Russian poetry at a dinner party, he was offered his own radio show.[4]
KCRW Bookworm
On Bookworm, Silverblatt interviewed a variety of writers, including W. G. Sebald, David Foster Wallace, William Gass, Zadie Smith, Lorrie Moore, Joy Williams, Joshua Cohen, Maggie Nelson, and Richard Powers. He called his interviews "conversations" and did not use prompts or question sheets. Critics and interviewees noted Silverblatt's preparedness; he always read his interviewee's work in advance.[3]
Underwritten by the Lannan Foundation, Bookworm was distributed free of charge to around 50 U.S. radio stations.[5] Silverblatt worked on the show unpaid for its first five years.[6]
Literary critic
Silverblatt coined the term transgressive fiction.[7]
Silverblatt's Los Angeles Times review of William Gass's The Tunnel was blurbed on the cover of its paperback release: "The most beautiful, most complex, most disturbing novel to be published in my lifetime".[8]
He wrote an introduction to a reissue of Kenward Elmslie's The Orchid Stories.[9]
In 2018, Silverblatt was the inaugural recipient of the Deborah Pease Prize, awarded by A Public Space magazine for being a "figure who has advanced the art of literature".[10]
In 2023, The Song Cave published Bookworm: Conversations with Michael Silverblatt, a selection of notable interviews by Silverblatt.[11]
Death
Silverblatt died in Los Angeles on February 14, 2026, at the age of 73.[12]
References
- ^ George, Lynell (April 20, 1997). "The Reader". Los Angeles Times. p. E1. Retrieved March 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ George, Lynell (April 20, 1997). "The Reader". Los Angeles Times. p. E4. Retrieved May 9, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Roberts, Sam (February 20, 2026). "Michael Silverblatt, NPR's 'Bookworm' Who Interviewed Authors, Dies at 73". The New York Times. Retrieved February 21, 2026.
- ^ Canto, Minerva (October 23, 1999). "Bookworm". The Item (Sumter, SC). Associated Press. p. E4. Retrieved May 9, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Meisler, Andy (1999). "'Bookworm': For Serious Writers and Their Readers, an Oasis on the Air". Nrcdxas.
- ^ Davis, Kristy (October 2009). "The Consummate Reader". O, The Oprah Magazine.
- ^ Word Watch — December 1996 from The Atlantic Monthly
- ^ Silverblatt, Michael (March 19, 1995). "A Small Apartment in Hell : William Gass' magnum opus shoehorns us into a most claustrophobic space: the mind of a bigot : The Tunnel, By William H. Gass (Alfred A. Knopf: $30; 652 pp.)". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2026.
- ^ Silverblatt, Michael (October 25, 2016). "Kenward Elmslie and The Orchid Stories". The Paris Review. Retrieved February 21, 2026.
- ^ "Silverblatt Wins Inaugural Pease Prize". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
- ^ "Bookworm: Conversations with Michael Silverblatt". Kirkus Reviews. January 11, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2026.
- ^ "Remembering KCRW's Bookworm Michael Silverblatt". KCRW. 16 February 2026. Retrieved 16 February 2026.