A warm celebration of creativity and the writing life.
Writers talk about their craft.
From over 30 years of the nationally syndicated radio program Bookworm, the show’s host Silverblatt and editor Felsenthal have selected conversations with 12 acclaimed writers, including poet John Ashbery; novelists Joan Didion, Toni Morrison, and Octavia Butler; short fiction writer Grace Paley; and composer Stephen Sondheim. As Felsenthal notes in the introduction, Silverblatt went into each conversation without an agenda, deftly pivoting to wherever the talk went, and the conversations attest to the writers’ trust and respect for their interviewer. As John Berger remarked to Silverblatt, “you’re an incredible expert—but I don’t like the word expert—inhabitant, hunter about books, about written text, about mad literature that you cross and live in and relate to what is outside that forest, which is life.” The occasion for each interview could be the publication of a new book (W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz, in 2001), an anniversary (the 25th for Octavia Butler’s Kindred, in 2004), or a notable book-related event (1998, when Morrison’s Beloved was made into a movie). Some entries include more than one interview: Didion, in 1996, for the publication of The Last Thing He Wanted, and 2013, for Blue Nights. Sondheim appeared when a recording of Road Show was released in 2009 and again in 2010 when he published Finishing the Hat, which Silverblatt describes as “a combination of collected lyrics, attendant comments, principles, heresies, grudges, whines, and anecdotes.” David Foster Wallace was a frequent guest, from 1996, after Infinite Jest, until 2006, with the publication of Consider the Lobster. Each interview ranged far from the precipitating occasion as Silverblatt brought his considerable curiosity to questions of style, tone, language, structure, aspirations, and inspiration. Widely read, knowledgeable, and thoughtful, he elicited candid, detailed responses from his guests. The interviews can be heard online in the Bookworm archive at kcrw.com.
A warm celebration of creativity and the writing life.Pub Date: March 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781737277583
Page Count: 432
Publisher: The Song Cave
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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