Michael Silverblatt
{{Short description|American broadcaster and literary critic}}
{{BLP sources|date=April 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Michael Silverblatt
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|8|6}}
| birth_place = Queens, New York, United States
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| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation = Broadcaster, radio personality
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Michael Silverblatt (born August 6, 1952) is a literary critic and American broadcaster who hosted Bookworm, a nationally syndicated radio program focusing on books and literature, from 1989 to 2022.{{Cite news|first=Lynell|last=George|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/101512832/lynell-george-the-reader-la/|title=The Reader|date=April 20, 1997|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=March 7, 2022|page=E1|via=Newspapers.com}} He recorded over 1,600 interviews with authors and other literary figures, including 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 in Queens, New York, into a Jewish family, attended SUNY Buffalo, majored in English, then entered postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University but dropped out.{{Cite news|first=Lynell|last=George|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/101513645/lynell-george-the-reader-continued/|title=The Reader|date=April 20, 1997|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=May 9, 2022|page=E4|via=Newspapers.com}}
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.{{Cite news|first=Minerva|last=Canto|agency=Associated Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/101514220/minerva-canto-bookworm-ap-the-item/|title=Bookworm|date=October 23, 1999|work=The Item (Sumter, SC)|access-date=May 9, 2022|page=E4|via=Newspapers.com}}
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.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}
Underwritten by the Lannan Foundation, Bookworm was distributed free of charge to around 50 U.S. radio stations.{{cite web|title=Bookworm|website=Nrcdxas.org|url=http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/bookworm.html}} Silverblatt worked on the show unpaid for its first five years.{{cite journal|url=http://www.oprah.com/spirit/KCRWs-Bookworm-Michael-Silverblatt/print/1|title=The Consummate Reader|date=October 2009|author=Davis, Kristy|journal=O, The Oprah Magazine}}
Literary critic
Silverblatt coined the term transgressive fiction.[https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/96dec/wrdwatch/wrdwatch.htm Word Watch — December 1996] from The Atlantic Monthly
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."[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-03-19-bk-44339-story.html; March 1995] from Los Angeles Times
Silverblatt wrote an introduction to a reissue of Kenward Elmslie's The Orchid Stories.[https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/10/25/kenward-elmslie-orchid-stories/; October 25 2016] from The Paris Review
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".{{Cite web |title=Silverblatt Wins Inaugural Pease Prize |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/newsbrief/index.html?record=2025 |access-date=2023-11-16 |website=PublishersWeekly.com |language=en}}
In 2023, The Song Cave published Bookworm: Conversations with Michael Silverblatt,[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/michael-silverblatt/bookworm-silverblatt March 31 2023] from Kirkus Reviews a selection of notable interviews by Silverblatt.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw KCRW Bookworm webpage and audio archive]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silverblatt, Michael}}
Category:American radio personalities
Category:Mass media people from Queens, New York
Category:University at Buffalo alumni
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:American literary critics
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