The LA Times has posted an obituary for Michael Silverblatt, the legendary interviewer of authors on the Santa Monica-based radio station KCRW. The article stated that Michael died yesterday, at age 73.
Born in Brooklyn, and educated at the State University of New York, Buffalo, he arrived in Los Angeles around 1977. I first met him when he was living in Santa Monica in an apartment just north of Wilshire Blvd., and about halfway between Intellectuals & Liars Bookstore and the Palisades Park. Michael frequented that store and its reading series throughout the summer and fall of 1978, during which time I was running the reading series and putting together an anthology of Los Angeles poets entitled THE STREETS INSIDE. I held a New Year’s Eve party to celebrate the book’s publication at my apartment in Ocean Park and invited Michael to it, at which point he had his first extended conversation with Jim Krusoe. Michael began visiting Jim’s apartment, which was barely more than a hundred yards from my place, on a regular basis, and quickly found himself to be a rising star in a literary firmament that was by that time attracting the attention of a younger generation of poets such as Dennis Cooper and Amy Gerstler.
Michael, however, was forced to recognize eventually that his most passionate identity — that of an extraordinarily close reader of novels and poems — was the way that he would best be able to make a memorable contribution to the Republic of Literature. The last time I saw him was at Beyond Baroque, speaking with great fondness for his memories of those early years as he addressed a gathering in honor of the late Kate Braverman.
R.I.P., Michael. I still remember you at the part on Hill Street, New Year’s Eve, looking like someone for whom the new year meant that you had finally begun to find your niche.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-02-15/michael-silverblatt-dead-kcrw-bookworm-host-73?sfmc_id=6532a4c325b3640666c6aaca&utm_id=44142765&skey_id=37c43a5c3a11da12bdc55f9c622d0baf0ec7493490d9327a7099d22dd53e6a5e&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ALERT-Email-List-Michael%20Silverblatt%2C%20%27genius%27%20host%20of%20KCRW%20literary%20show%20%27Bookworm%2C%27%20dies%20at%2073-20260215&utm_term=Alert%20-%20News%20and%20Entertainment
I would then recommend you turn to KCRW’s special show on Michael’s tenure as their resident professional reader.
https://www.kcrw.com/shows/bookworm/stories/remebering-kcrws-bookworm-michael-silverblatt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookworm_(radio_show)
About Bill Mohr