Bookworm (KCRW)

Bookworm is an interview-format literary program produced by KCRW in Santa Monica, built on the archive of conversations Michael Silverblatt conducted as host across roughly three decades. Many of the sampled episodes are retrospective compilations, narrated by a Bookworm editor, that re-air two to four archival interviews grouped under a single theme, such as poetry, Nobel Prize winners, or literary friendship. Guests are working writers: novelists such as Anne Beattie and Toni Morrison, poets such as John Ashbery and Lucille Clifton, memoirists such as Tobias Wolff, and translators such as Forrest Gander. Conversations dwell on craft specifics — word choice, revision history, translation difficulty, manuscript editing — rather than promotional talking points, and Silverblatt is characterized as reading closely and preparing extensively on the text itself. Recurring subject matter includes Southern literary memoir and 'grit lit' (Harry Crews), posthumous or unfinished manuscripts (John Ashbery's late unpublished works discovered after his death), and the experience of literary translation and international readership (Orhan Pamuk, Coral Bracho). Some episodes also document the show's own production history, such as the band Sparks composing its theme music. The intended listener is someone interested in sustained, book-specific conversation with literary authors rather than broad cultural commentary or book-club-style discussion. Episodes run roughly 30 to 55 minutes and are structured as either a single extended interview or several shorter archival segments stitched together around a theme. There is no panel format, call-in segment, or co-host; it is consistently one host interviewing one or more literary guests. The program airs on KCRW and has received support from the Lannan Foundation.