Michael Silverblatt is the host of the nationally syndicated radio interview program Bookworm. If I told you that he’s interviewed more than twelve hundred writers, including John Irving, Tom Wolfe, Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, Kurt Vonnegut, W. G. Sebald, and John Ashbery; or that Norman Mailer called him the best reader in America and Susan Sontag named him a national treasure; or how, on his weekly show, it’s not uncommon for a writer to pause after hearing one of Silverblatt’s characteristically astute observations and say something to the effect of “No one has ever understood my work that well before,” as if he or she just found true love; it would still tell you very little about him. What makes Silverblatt such an exceptional interviewer is not just his intelligence, dedication, and ability to read closely while still holding in mind the long view of any book, but also his humor, tenderness, and love for writers and books.

In October, while on a weeklong visit to the University of Iowa in Iowa City (the biggest literary small town in America), Silverblatt garnered the admiration of creative-writing and English literature students and faculty alike. Part of this has to do with the fact that he has the mind of a writer, reader, editor, and critic. He’s at once fiercely articulate and endearing. While out shopping at one of the many used-book stores in town, one member of the poetry faculty was so taken by Silverblatt he offered to carry his books for him.

Midway through Silverblatt’s visit, he and I sat down in front of about forty students and faculty to discuss the art of the literary interview. After helping himself to a cup of tea and a black and gold glazed doughnut, he told me he was nervous. But once we hit record, he was so loquacious and unassuming he made the art of interviewing look easy.

Bookworm is produced at KCRW public radio in Santa Monica. All twenty years of Bookworm archives can be heard at kcrw.com/bookworm.

—Sarah Fay

THE BELIEVER: Do you consider yourself an interviewer?

MICHAEL SILVERBLATT: I tend to consider myself first and foremost a reader and a conversationalist. I don’t know how to interview people. I never went to journalism school. I don’t know what’s conventionally wanted from an interview, and I know that the things that I hear about it all strike me as wrong. Interviewers are supposed to be neutral and faceless, and I don’t believe in that. I don’t know how to talk to someone who’s neutral and faceless.

BLVR: You get really honest and raw responses from your guests. How...