Michael Silverblatt

Who is Michael Silverblatt?

Michael Silverblatt is a broadcaster who has been the host of Bookworm, a nationally syndicated radio program focusing on books and literature, since 1989. He broadcasts from Los Angeles public radio station KCRW.

Born in Queens, New York, into a Jewish family, he attended SUNY Buffalo, where he majored in mathematics. He entered postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University but dropped out. He moved to Los Angeles with the intention of becoming a screenwriter. After impressing a KCRW executive during a discussion of Russian poetry at a dinner party, he was offered his own show.

Silverblatt describes his interviews as "conversations", and he does not use prompts or question sheets. Underwritten by the Lannan Foundation, Bookworm is distributed for free to around fifty radio stations across the United States. Silverblatt worked on the show unpaid for its first five years.