Which author (still living or deceased) would you love to meet?
Which author (still living or deceased) would you love to meet?
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Anton Chekhov
Pat Conroy
Maya Angelou
I got to meet her! She was wonderful!
Stephen King, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Mark Twain
Robert B. Parker
C.S. Lewis
H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen KIng
Pat Conroy or Nelson Demille. Or John Irving.
Salman Rushdie.
Julia Child. Didn’t even have to think about that.
Elie Wiesel
Hemmingway
Shakespeare…I’d love to know if he wrote everything
Alice Walker and Viktor Frankl. <3 And I almost forgot JK Rowling!!!
Harper Lee
Two please…. Toni Morrison and John Irving
Mark Twain
Joyce Carol Oates.
Somerset Maugham.
He was extremely important in the 30’s but he didn’t believe in God. I would love to debate with him knowing the history of WW1, the 20’s, 30’s, and beyond.
Pat Conroy
Nietzsche or Salinger…I’d love to be able to ask them questions about writing, bringing about truth and love of life through character and plot. I feel they’re my top two favourite authors.
Austen and Tolkien
David Sadaris
Just take a book along to one of his readings and stand in line. Make sure to check out what’s in his f***-it-bucket.
Well, since I already met Wally Lamb, I’d like to meet Elizabeth Berg
I love Elizabeth Berg books
@Joy Me too! She will be in New England in August. Working on taking a few days off for a road trip
Take notes ?.. I’ve read about 10 of her books.. so interesting
Diana Gabaldon, and E.E. Holmes
John Irving and Margaret Atwood
Michael Connelly
Adrianna Trigiani
She went to my college!
@Kate did you read her Shoemakers Wife?
@Marie I have not.
So many, but I would especially like to meet Jane Austen and Sharon Creech.
Stephen King!
Michael Connolley
And Salinger
Maeve Binchy ~
Oh and Nick Hornsby and Anita Shreve ?
Shakespeare and Chaucer…and Dante….and Marilynne Robinson…and maybe…David McCullough…and ….oh, gee, I’d better stop now! LOL
Truman Capote
I met Truman Capote by coincidence at JFK airport . I was escorting my brother to a flight and he wanted a drink. We sat at the bar and my brother turns to the man sitting next to him and says, “Aren’t you Truman Capote”…then my brother introduces me and starts a casual conversation. This was many years ago and my teenaged brother is the type of character Truman would write about.
@Mary Wow!!!
Daphne du Maurier and Tara Westover
Too many to name. Tolkien, Toole, Wilde …
Stephen King Barbara Kingsolver Zora N” Hurston. Sorry to break the rules.
Stephen King!!
Belva Plain, Naomi Regan..
Edith Wharton, Mark Twain, E.M. Forster.
Wow- what a hard question! David Baldacci or John Grisham or ….
Harper Lee and Willa Cather
Virginia Woolf or James Joyce – ironically they were best friends, until she and her husband wouldn’t publish Ulysses. I would try to get them back together again.
I did not know that!
That’s a really good one if you get to go to their time and place to meet them – would be so amazing to hang in a literary community
Milan Saha All those Lost Generation folks are my favs.
@Sara mine too! Do u know of any good non-fiction books about them ?
Ken Follett, Elizabeth Strout, and Hillary Clinton.
J.R. Ward!!! I love all of her books! They are so well written!
Mark Twain and any of the Inklings.
Paulo Coelho & Stephej King, i can just imagine that conversation
Margaret Atwood
Maya Angelou, Agatha Christie
Kurt Vonnegut.
Louise Penny
Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien
John Grisham
Kurt Vonnegut
Laura ingalls wilder!
Ruth Rendell (aka, Barbara Vine)
Rainbow Rowell because she is also from the Midwest like me and I think that is why I feel such a strong kinship with her novels, short stories, and comics.
Dick Francis.
James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Elin Hilderbrand, and Agatha Christie
Maya Angelou, Frank McCourt.
John Sanford as I have already had the great pleasure of meeting Kwame Alexander. I only picked from living as it would have been too difficult otherwise.
I agree with many of your favorites. Jane Hamilton’s “Map of the World” and “Book of Ruth” both made me bawl. That’s power.
Stephen King
Judy Blume and Janet Evanovich.
Charlotte Brontë or Jane Austen
Kristin Hannah, Kelly Corrigan
Maeve Binchy.
george Bernard Shaw
Mark Twain
Mitch Albom Tuesday with Morrie
Wallace Stegner or Michael Connelly.
Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Margaret Atwood!!!
Madeleine L’Engle
Judy Blume.
Virginia Woolf! ❤️
C. S. Lewis
Jane Austin
Diana Gabaldon
Dorothy Parker ?
Diana Gabaldon!
Erma Bombeck
John Irving
Barbara Kingsolver
C. S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis. First, because he wrote my favorite books of all time, the Chronicles of Narnia. Second, because he seems like a very wise and analytical person with a Christian viewpoint, and I feel like I could get some wise guidance/advice from him.
Robert A Heinlein
J.R.R Tolkien
Stephen King.
I would also say Ken Kesey but I had met him several times. My late husband was very good friends with him and Ed McClanahan. I could listen to Ken talk for hours. What a great story teller.
J K Rowling
JK Rowling, Louisa May Alcott, Maya Angelou, CS Lewis, Tolkein and Janet Evonovich
JK Rowling!!! I am editing mine to add her, too. 🙂
Toni Morrison and Octavia Butler for starters.
Yes! Can I come?
@Beth we can have a party! ?
@Sandee, I’ll bring Alice Walker as my guest!
Pat Conroy
Great question. Fulfilled for me as I met Louise Penny. God, so lovely and gracious.
Pearl S. Buck
Gillian Flynn so I can beg her to write more twisted books
Where did she go?!
She’s been adapting her current stuff to television and movies, plus she’s working on an Amazon series. It sounds like she’s keeping busy, but she is writing a new book ?
JK Rowling, Jane Austen, CS Lewis, the Bronte sisters. Zora Neal Hurston, Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maude Montgomery.
I also would. AA Milne. And Tolkien
Diana Gabaldon
Try to get to a book signing one day. She’s very good with her fans.
Fred Rogers ?
I wrote to him as a grown-up, thanking him for his show.
He wrote back after a couple of months. True to form, the letter began “you sound like a very special person.”
May Sarton
Neil Gaiman, Tom Robbins, Stephen King
Deceased- Leonard Cohen. I was in deep mourning when he died, having read his books, poetry and listened to his music for 50 years.
now I have Suzanne in my head-thank you
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Saroyan.
Agatha Christie
Maya Angelou ?
Wilkie Collins or Oscar Wilde or Jane Austen
Oh yes on all three!!!
Louisa May Alcott, Stephen King, Jasper Fforde, Brad Meltzer
Ken Follett
David Sedaris. I have heard him in concert and I love to laugh.
i have had the opportunity to have several intimate book reads, when I lived in Raleigh, NC (his home town).
True story: I was in traffic in Raleigh and saw a white van that said “Sedaris Flooring.” My mind went…..brother Paul? Seems in line. Then I saw smaller lettering that said “Silly P.”
Bingo!
Love listen to his audio books when he does Paul’s voice. He is a treasure.
I just googled to find a picture of the van:
@Debborah I know!
So is it his brother’s company.
Debborah Peschang Connery yes. after i recognized the van to be Paul’s, I seemed to see it everywhere around town.
Very cool.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him several times. He is wonderful.
Aldous Huxley, Voltaire, Chuck Palahniuk
Pat Conroy
Hubert Selby Jr., William S. Burroughs, Flannery O’Connor, Poe, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac.
Tom Stoppard – what’s he like to be able to come up with stuff ?
Jane Austen
Sylvia Plath
Francine Rivers
Maya Angelou
Yes…loved her.
I got to sit up front at presentations by Doris Lessing and another by Toni Morrison-very inspiring-2 powerful and brillant writers.
Mark Twain
Rowling
Neil Gaiman.
and Ray Bradbury.
@Charlene He lectured at my high school, I loved his work so it was great.
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Her too.
I love when she talks about her wrtiting in interviews
I’m a lifelong Dodgers fan. Her “Wait Till Next Year” is one of my two favorite non-fiction books of all time. I was fortunate to attend one of her appearances several years ago & get a signed copy (actually two signed copies!).
She’s a great lady. And told me not to get Westies. ?
Judy Blume
Francine Rivers
Ted Dekker
Anne Rice
Maya Angelou
Harper Lee
Margaret Mitchell
Maya Angelou and Alice Walker
Suetonius
Mark Twain and my husband wants Arthur C Clark.
V.C. Andrews
Jane Austen, Lucy Maude Montgomery, Charles Dickens
Stephen King & Susanna Kearsley since I’ve already met Diana Gabaldon several times.
Maya Angelou
Arthur Clark
Anne Lamott
Fred Rogers
I met him twice and he was exactly like his on-screen personality.
Dr. Seuss
Beverly Cleary
James Michener
Maya Angelou or Toni Morrison
Rachel Carson
No doubt, Joseph Campbell.
Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Maya Angelou, Dr. Seuss, John Grisham
Beverly Cleary
Scott Fitzgerald
Two I met that were delightful in person: John Elder Robison (woof), Rick Bragg.
Tolstoy
May Sarton
I was fortunate to hear May speak at the Boston Public Library in the mid 70’s. It was fascinating to listen to her process of creation, her character creation and particularly the physical and mental toll it takes on an invested writer to produce a novel. I love all her works from her Journals through her fiction. Highly underrated and not that well known which I find baffling.
Gayle Brandeis
I have one pending. Glad it isn’t just me.
Shirley Jackson; she used to live near where I live now in Upstate NY; she was in Vermont in a close by town and wrote about her children as well as the House on the Hill and other scary stories. She reminds me of my mother who was very creative, and funny, but could be pretty scary too!
Yes!!! Yes!!! Oh yes!!!
Kurt Vonnegut and Terry Pratchett.
Shirley Jackson
I’ve met Jeffery Deaver (Wonderful person!), Sara Paretsky and heard talks from Diana Gabaldon and Stephen King. I would LOVE to have the chance to sit and chat with Charles Dickens, but of course that is not possible…
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
London, Melville or Steinbeck. Or Dumas!
Steinbeck!
I have a related regret: I was in the Salinas valley area for a job interview a fews year back. After the interview I knew I didn’t want the job, so saw no reason to be going back to the area. On the way to the airport I saw a sign for the John Steinbeck museum and pondered paying to change my ticket. The regret is that I didn’t change my travel plans.
Stephen King, Harper Lee, Chinua Achebe
I kind of want to meet Edgar Allen Poe and then I think….maybe not….
Hemingway of course
Maeve Binchy
Stephen King.
Sue Monk Kidd
James Patterson
Charles Dickens. <3 He is my literary boyfriend.
But for real the one I want most to meet is an author no one has heard of- Charles Williams. He was a member of the Inklings and wrote 7 incredible supernatural thrillers no one reads.
You’re right..just looked him him. Very few readers and not great reviews..so what do find about his books that appeal to you?
Joy Kravetz Berger his writing is turgid which is why he will never have a great following. It is the Christian mysticism in his stories that changed my life. He was a theologian. He literally taught me about the nature of reality, Grace, evil, etc.
Toni Morrison
Christopher Moore
Louise Penny
Me too.
Charlotte Bronte
Oh yes. One of mine and my daughter’s favorite authors. We went to England to the Bronte parsonage and walked up on the moors to hear the wuthering. It was one of my favorite days with her when she was a teen, sharing our love of literature.
@Janis When my daughter was 10 we both read The Golden Compass and it bonded us in a new way.
Oh my! What a great experience for You! Lucky you, I love all about this novelist, Jane Eyre is terrific !
Genesis Mary MC we traveled to DeSmet, South Dakota, Laura Ingells Wilder, Giverrne France after reading Linea in Monet’s Garden, Atlanta to MLK’s home after she read about him in 2nd grade and later to Margaret Mitchell’s home. Oh and Williamsburg after reading the American Girls series. We were not rich in money but wealthy in words. Needless to say she majored in English.
@Janis amazing?
@Mary I thought a few years ago about writing a book about book travels with children, it’s been done.
John Steinbeck
F.Scott @Kelly
@Kurt
Stephen King.
c.s.lewis for tea and conversation. leif enger so I can punch him for the way peace like a river ended
Loved that book.
@Kathleen I did too, but I hated the end! tell me how you felt about it
@Patty I agree with you.
@Kathleen when I finished I was so angry I threw the book down and went to my basement to stomp around till I cooled down, my husband thought it was hilarious that I was so upset!
@Patty I know, then you fume for a few days.
E.B. White
Kate @Atkinson
Maya Angelou
I would want to meet Edgar Allen Poe. And one of the first things that I would want to tell him is that over 100 years after his death, the city in which he died (which is also my hometown) named their football team after his most famous poem. Because I think that would make him laugh.
Mark Twain, I think, but I’m not sure I’m smart enough to keep up with him.
Hitchens
Jane Austen and Emily Bronte
Tough choice! Can I bend the rules?! Margaret Mitchell and John Steinbeck. And thrillingly..Stephen King!!
There are three: Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City), Fannie Flagg (Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe), and Frances Maye (Under the Tuscan Sun)
that’s an eclectic group!
Anne Rice. Or Edgar Allen Poe.
Pat Conroy.
agreed
I wonder if he looks as insightful and observant as his writing
Both Stephen King and Agatha Christie.
Jack London and John Steinbeck
Elizabeth Berg
I’ve met her at book signings years ago. Very enjoyable!
Cathy Lamb
Hemingway and Stephen King
Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald….Oh Wait, That Was Midnight In Paris….
Zelda was a talented writer, too. Check out her novel Save Me The Waltz. F. Scott and her mental issues derailed a possible career on her own.
Scott actually plagiarized some of his work….He used to carry a note pad around and write down all the crazy stuff that Zelda said….then he would incorporate those quotes into his novels verbatim….one favorite quote from The Great Gatsby is attributed to Zelda….”I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”….
@Michael Yes, all true!
Rowling
Michael Crichton.
Jane Austin!
Kurt Vonnegutt Jr.
Margaret Atwood, again. I have more questions.
Mr. Rogers.
Stephen King and Jonathan Kellerman.
John F. Kennedy
Hemingway
Margaret Attwood
God and JK Rawling…
Obviously they are not anywhere near the same level but I would love to meet both.
Elie Wiesel… & Give him the warmest hug ❤️
I was just wondering why Night is not on the list. Surely one of the most influential books in my life at a young age.
@Janis that’s so true ?
Night was left off the list. Unfortunately. So sad.
It was worthy… Better than 50 shades or others that are on there lol
@Linda or The Notebook! Yikes.
Agatha Christie
Will you ask where she was when she went missing??
I think there was a giant bee involved. =)
I think that is my favorite episode of Dr Who.
Cassandra Clare
Pat Conroy!!!!!
Yep! Me too.
Me too. Although I did hear him talk at an event in NC. He was so funny.
How could I have forgotten Charles Dickens!
I think sitting in a pub with Douglas Adams would be a blast ?
Amor Towles, J. K. Rowling, Leon Uris, Ken Follet, Amy Tan, Phillipa Gregory, Maeve Blinchy, Robert Ludlum, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Irving, Harper Lee. Just to name a few. Oh, and of course, Jane Austin.
C.S. Lewis and Titus Coan
Anne Frank
Grace Livingston Hill
James Patterson
Me too
Jane Austen
I really admire J. K, Rowling having not yet started reading any of her books. She would be high on my list. Nora Ephron, Alice Walker, Barak Obama, Colin Powell, Mark Twain…..the list is too long to complete. I have already had the honor of meeting J. A. Jance and Elmore Leonard and several other favorite contemporary authors at book signings.
Definitely Alice, and I had forgotten about including @Nora
I loved Hunter S Thompson, but I am not sure spending time with him would have been as fun as reading him.??
@Elaine There are just too many to choose. I finish a reply and then think of three more names.
@Linda I know then I read what others wrote and I want to include those as well!
Rick Bragg
I hope you’ve seen him interviewed, its a kick
Definitely!!!
Still living Ken Follett…deceased Louisa May Alcott or Charles Dickens or CS Lewis.
JK Rowling
Ernest Cline
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Stephen King
Living JK Rowling
Dead Shakespeare
Patty Doane Cormack McCarthy
Pete hamill
I would love to have a drink with Kurt Vonnegut.
Barbara Kingsolver,Isabel Allende, Amy Tan, Mike Dooley, Dr. Seuss, Shakespeare, Hemingway, the list is endless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ❤️
There is an audio book of Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer that is read in the southern accent of the state, so lovely.
Wow, interesting!!! ?
Maya Angelou, JK Rowling, Stephen King, Dr. Seuss, Jodi Piccoult, Roald Dahl
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou, Diane Gabaldon, James Baldwin and President Obama
I’m reading my first James Baldwin now. It has been in my bookcase for a while but when I saw Another Country on the GAR list I remembered that I hadn’t read it yet.
Donna Tartt
So love The Goldfinch!
Margaret Mitchell
Pearl S. Buck
Jose Saramago and Fernando Pessoa
Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read one of her books when I was a little girl and loved it. Somehow I never discovered the little house on the prairie series as a child. But, I love the tv show. Also, I have read her biography off and on. It is good.
You need to read the series! They are all so good!
Hi, I have the first five books of the little house series now. But I have not read them yet. It is on my list of things to do.
@Lisa Please do! You will be delighted! I would love to have met Laura, too.
@Beth hi, I really want to read them. I remember reading Little House in the Big Woods as a child and loving it.
Diane Galbadon, James Michener, Dr. Seuss, Dan Brown
Stephen King, Augusten Burroughs, Harlan Coben
Tolkien, Vonnegut, Bradbury, McCaffrey
I also forgot Isaac Asimov
Vonnegut~ agreed.
Robin Lee Hatcher!!
E Eugenia Price; Wanda Brunstetter, Jan Karon, LaVyrle Spencer.
St. Paul. The author of The Letters to the Corinthians and Letters to the Galatians. I have many questions I would like to ask. I would like to meet Moses, too.
James Michner, Wally Lamb, Tolkien, Dr. Suess
Did you ever read Lamb’s Wishin’ and Hopin’? I love that book so much.
@Ann Have you seen the movie? It was hysterical!
@Ann No, but I will put it on my list.
@Chris I didn’t know there was a movie. Does it go by the same title?
@Ann Yes! It was a Lifetime movie in 2014. Some of it was filmed in my hometown.
@Chris Thanks, I’ll try finding it.
Jack Kerouac
And Heinlein
Abraham Lincoln
Diana Gabbledon
Come to a signing in Phoenix/Scottsdale! 😀
James Herriot
Love him
charles bukowski <3
Patricia Cornwell from the Kay Scarpetta series
Ernest Hemingway,even though we would have had our disagreements.
I want to go to Florida to see his cats!
I have been there. Beautiful Place and the cats are delightful.
@Natalie yes! go to Key West and tour his house – and cats.
I was so concerned when the employees and cats rode out Hurricane Irma in Hemingway’s home, but everyone came out okay.
Pete Hamill
TONI MORRISON!!!!
Oh yes!
Yep, yep, yep.
Charles Dickens; JK Rowling; L. Frank Baum; Franz Kafka; Ernest Hemingway; John Steinbeck, James Baldwin…
The amazing Alice Walker!!!
JK Rowling ?
Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, EB White, Victor Hugo, Toni Morrison – just a few others ?
Judy Blume’s books were a major part of my childhood (much like many other girls I know).
Margaret Atwood
Hemingway, hands down. And Samuel Beckett. Oh and Louisa May Alcott! 🙂
I almost mentioned Louisa May Alcott in my list, but just saw a documentary on her, she wasn’t very gracious to her fans. So, I didn’t include her in my list.
Well I would just love to tell her how much I loved Little Women… maybe if I buttered her up she’d be nice to me… ??
Dorothy Sayers, Jane Austen, Lady Murasaki
Orwell and Verne would be interesting to chat with in these times!
JK Rowling, Kate Serady, Jim Kjelgaard, Barbara Kingsolver, Isabel Allende, Nicholas Sparks.
I was due to meet Diana Gabaldon this week on an Outlander cruise, unfortunately had to cancel due to injury…so bummed
🙁
Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Thomas Verghese.
Nora Ephron. Because she was so sly and witty. And, she always knew about the best food at the best restaurants.
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Michael Bond.
I first read Fitzgerald’s books when I was 13 and “the Great Gatsby” is still my all time favorite. Bond because Paddington Bear has always been my friend no matter what was going on in the world.
Michael Connelly
Neil Gaiman
Jane Austen, definitely!
I got to meet the author of one of my favorite childhood books, TIME AT THE TOP by Edward Ormondroyd in upstate New York in HIS home for over an hour. I felt so blessed. It wasn’t planned, I was visiting a friend and another’s friend mother, the author Ruth Stiles Gannett who wrote MY FATHER’S DRAGON was at an event. I saw all of her adoring fans lined up to speak with her, and I thought, who would I want to meet. I happened to ask one of Ruth’s daughters if she’d heard of TIME AT THE TOP, and she said, “Oh, Ed lives around the corner from Mother.” I was visiting from NEW MEXICO, and I just got chills, realizing I was so close to “Ed.” Needless to say, I was at his front door the next day.
Dahli Lama 14th
Stephenie Meyer
Michael Crichton
I have met the ones I love they reveal themselves in their writing!!!
Margaret Mitchell
Jane Austen
Jk rowling
Shakespeare William of course?
Stephen King
I would love to learn his process on writing.
@Jessica He has a book called On Writing which is fabulous!
Diana Gabaldon
Daniel Silva
Louise Penny.
Ernest Hemingway.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
@Clive
Harper Lee
Mark Twain
Madeline L’Engle
She would be at the top of my list too!!!
Maeve Binchy
Pat Conroy
Truman Capote
Robert Louis Stevenson
Allen Ginsberg, Jane Austen, & Langston Hughes
Flannery 0’Connor
Sue Grafton
Rachel Carson
Elmore Leonard
Ed McBain , the author who introduced me to police procedurals. <3
Beverly Cleary
There are so many favs. I would love to have met Barbara Michaels. I would love to have lunch with Alice Hoffman.
Kurt Vonnegut.
Patricia Polacco
William Shakespeare and Stephen King
WOW! That would make for an interesting evening.
Lisa Genova
L. Frank Baum.
Doris Kearns Goodwin
I have and she’s a joy to talk to!
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Celeste Ng
Only one?? Maybe I could narrow it down to five. E.Hemingway, V.Wolfe, Jack Kerouac, Pearl S. Buck and Alice Hoffman.
Rosamunde Pilcher
Margaret Atwood.
Mark Twain
Emily Bronte
Lois Lenski.
Easy question. Drinks in Key West with Ernest Hemingway.
Harper Lee, Flannery O’Connor
Mark Twain, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Eudora Welty
Oscar Wilde
Pearl S Buck
JD Salinger
CS Lewis
Diana Gabaldon
Have met her at The Decatur Book Festival book signings. She is engaging and fun.
Diana Gabaldon
Can I just say “The School of Night” and have it count as one person???
Ken Follett
George RR Martian so I can stand over him until he finishes the last book. I
I’ll help you ….. very long wait with him.
Be right there with you ladies, I am actually to the point of being a bit angry that he is not finishing this…but, it is being finished on HBO. I did get their channel to see the ending, but will cancel when it is over. Ticked off!?
@Bobbie I won’t watch the HBO series. I want the book.