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Which Writer Would You Most Like to Meet?

September 8, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 294 Comments

Simple You Tell Me today.

Which writer would you most like to meet?

Let’s go with one dead and one living.

For me:

Dead – F. Scott Fitzgerald. He’d know the trendy spot to hang out and we’d have a great time until he stuck me with the bill at the end of the night. (Kidding! I would have insisted on paying. My imagination is quite thorough.)
Living – J.K. Rowling. SO MANY QUESTIONS.

How about you?

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: You Tell Me

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jasmine says

    September 9, 2010 at 6:12 am

    Alive: S.E. Hinton–just to say thank you for creating a brand new genre

    Dead: Shakespeare–just to ask how he got those ideas.

    Reply
  2. Lisa says

    September 9, 2010 at 6:22 am

    Dead: Margurite Duras (want a night in her study – we can order pizza – I just want to talk writing)
    Alive: Helene Cixous (tie with Elfride Jelinek)

    Reply
  3. Chris says

    September 9, 2010 at 6:59 am

    Alive: U. K. Le Guin
    Dead: that might change on a daily basis, at the moment probably Charlotte Bronte or Henry James

    Reply
  4. Alexandra Crocodile says

    September 9, 2010 at 9:00 am

    Agatha Christie and Alexander McCall Smith!

    Reply
  5. Annikka Woods says

    September 9, 2010 at 10:08 am

    Dead: We'll start with Andre Norton. She was prolific, wrote some really awesome stories (some crappy ones too), and spawned a world that drew guest writers to play in it.

    Alive: Pretty much any author I read. I'd love to get to meet them, maybe get to know more about the person behind the writing than blogs and Twitter posts show.

    Reply
  6. Kate Lacy says

    September 9, 2010 at 10:40 am

    George Orwell for sheer his sheer imagination – would it rub off if I gave him a hug before and after the tea? Phillip DePoy for his voice, sense of place and character – where's the next Fever Develin Blue Mountain mystery??

    Reply
  7. Cat says

    September 9, 2010 at 11:23 am

    Dead: Can't decide between Edith Nesbith and Astrid Lindgren

    Alive: Diana Wynne Jones

    Reply
  8. salarsenッ says

    September 9, 2010 at 12:07 pm

    Hands down, Jane Austen. Today, Melissa Marr.

    Reply
  9. Sommer says

    September 9, 2010 at 12:08 pm

    Living: Margaret Atwood
    Dead: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

    Reply
  10. Toby Lynne says

    September 9, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    I would love to talk to Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke who wrote Out of Africa. I love that she was an independent woman when it wasn't fashionable to be so and her words just sing.

    I met Wally Lamb a couple years ago in Boston. He's one of my favorite current authors.

    Reply
  11. irishoma says

    September 9, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    Flannery O'Connor

    Harper Lee

    Reply
  12. Anonymous says

    September 9, 2010 at 1:34 pm

    Dead: Beatrix Potter

    Alive: Nathan Bransford

    Reply
  13. Tom M Franklin says

    September 9, 2010 at 1:35 pm

    Dead: Frank McCourt
    Living: Charles de Lint

    Reply
  14. Tom M Franklin says

    September 9, 2010 at 1:35 pm

    Dead: Frank McCourt
    Living: Charles de Lint

    Reply
  15. Melanie says

    September 9, 2010 at 1:54 pm

    Lisa: Great choices! Duras and Cixous would be fantastic, especially at the same dinner.

    Reply
  16. Jennifer Ambrose says

    September 9, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    I could spend all day reading through the comments…and maybe I will!

    Dead: Sarah Teasdale, my favorite poet and highly underrated.

    Alive: Catherynne Valente. I did meet her briefly at BEA this year. She's brilliant and opinionated. Not only would I learn a lot but I think we'd have a great time.

    Reply
  17. Dodici says

    September 9, 2010 at 2:11 pm

    Dead: Dorothy Parker
    Living: Elizabeth Berg

    Reply
  18. minawitteman says

    September 9, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    Living: Jennifer Donnelly. Especially after reading the ARC of Revolution. What a book! What a writer! Yes, questions, many questions, about voice, about character…
    Dead: Yukio Mishima or Konstatin Paustovski. Can't choose. Both are my shining examples when it comes to painting the scenery, the landscape and the way people move in it.

    Reply
  19. Janiel Miller says

    September 9, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    Dead: ShakespearCSLewisDickensAustin

    Living: Yeesh. All of them. But mostly, JK Rowling.

    Reply
  20. Janiel Miller says

    September 9, 2010 at 3:04 pm

    And I do know "Shakespeare" has an "e" on the end.

    Reply
  21. Magdalena Munro says

    September 9, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    Living-Haruki Murakami

    What an honor that would be. So many questions and I think he might be the first person to make me blush.

    Dead- C.S. Lewis

    Reply
  22. Laura Drake says

    September 9, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    Living – Stephen King – would love to discuss writing with that dude.

    Dead – Ayn Rand – would love to talk current politics with her – though I think it would take longer than one discussion!

    Reply
  23. B.E.T. says

    September 9, 2010 at 4:28 pm

    Hmm…Living is easier than dead. The Classics never really got to me.

    Living…Either Juliet Marillier or Laurel K Hamilton. Both are such brilliant women.

    Dead…T.H. White. King Arthur is awesome and his writing is genuinely hilarious.

    Reply
  24. Anonymous says

    September 9, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    Dead: Ernest Hemingway. I want to know if his "suicide" is an unstoppable choice.And why he did it. Living: Wilbur Smith just to find out where he based his novels from? Because it seemed to me based on one specific family.

    Reply
  25. Ted says

    September 9, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    Dead: Mark Twain
    Living: Thomas Pynchon

    Reply
  26. Chris Barry says

    September 9, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    Victor Hugo, Leo Tolstoy, Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller (in Paris), James Ellroy, Stephen King, Bram Stoker, Hunter S. Thompson, Roger Ebert, Jimmy McDonough, Jim Thompson, Ovid, Chaucer…

    Reply
  27. liz hollar says

    September 9, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    dead – em forster. I love his imagery.
    alive – margaret atwood

    Reply
  28. Rebecca says

    September 9, 2010 at 6:56 pm

    Alive and well: Charles de Lint. I have no trouble walking down the street in the worlds he builds, and that is rare. Also, I'm pretty sure we'd go to an Irish pub and he'd play music for me, too.

    Dead and Gone: Mark Twain would be a hoot.

    Someone asked if Robert Jordan was as smart as they believed. He was, and gracious and mischievous as well. I got that out of one chance meeting and count myself blessed to have had it.

    Anyone who wants to know why Hemingway was the way he was should read the works of Dr. Hilary K. Justice. It's all in there. And no, I would not like to meet him because I'm fairly sure he would despise me for wanting to.

    Reply
  29. KSCollier says

    September 9, 2010 at 9:20 pm

    Dead: Charles Dickens and Margaret Mitchell

    Live: J.K. Rowlings and Stephanie Meyers, Stephen King and Dean Koontz

    Reply
  30. Rebecca says

    September 9, 2010 at 9:25 pm

    Dead: Tolkien

    Alive: Mercedes Lackey

    Reply
  31. Heather Marsten says

    September 9, 2010 at 10:36 pm

    Dead: Agatha Christie

    Living: Ravi Zacharias

    Reply
  32. shellie says

    September 9, 2010 at 11:51 pm

    Mark Twain and Mary DeMuth–Easy one.

    Reply
  33. Anonymous says

    September 10, 2010 at 1:17 am

    Dead – John R.R. Tolkien – LOTR

    Alive – David Morell – Rambo

    (note: to the other annon up there ^^^ that thinks you would bore them. Think of all you can learn by listening to them. Hope your day gets better.)

    Reply
  34. austere says

    September 10, 2010 at 7:32 am

    W Somerset Maugham. the absolute God of the short story.

    Kiran Desai.No, Orhan Pamuk. Maybe both.

    Reply
  35. Jennifer Ambrose says

    September 10, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    To Jen P. –

    There are so many comments that you probably won't see this, but I read that you wanted to meet Patricia Wood after book club skyping with her. I met her a couple weeks ago and she was a very cool person. Full of energy and drive and passion but also normal and down to earth. And the reading she did of Lottery was amazing. Good choice!

    Reply
  36. mice_aliling says

    September 10, 2010 at 8:49 pm

    It would have to be Anais Nin. Her words are so palpable!

    Reply
  37. David R. Slayton says

    September 10, 2010 at 9:29 pm

    I want to have lunch with Margaret Atwood. I used to never want to meet my heroes, but then I had a class with a girl who used to be her neighbor. She said Atwood brought her cookies to welcome her to the neighborhood, and my classmate bought a chair at Atwood's garage sale. I just don't think of Margaret Atwood as a bake cookies, have garage sales kind of lady.

    Reply
  38. Matthew Bradley says

    September 11, 2010 at 5:50 am

    Yes, Richard Matheson is very much alive (as the author of RICHARD MATHESON ON SCREEN, I should know!). He even has a new novel, OTHER KINGDOMS, coming out in March, by which time he will be 85.

    Reply
  39. Binnie says

    September 11, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    Dead: Elizabeth Bishop.
    Living: Colm Toibin.

    Reply
  40. Glory Lennon says

    September 12, 2010 at 11:35 pm

    Jane Austen and JK Rowling. Both started me thinking I could do the same, writing to entertain others. Silly of me, huh?

    Reply
  41. Tess Cox says

    September 14, 2010 at 12:36 am

    Oh…what a question! So many temptations and desires stirred by the thought! If I must settle, then my top four would be:

    Past Tense: Henri J.M. Nouwen or J.R.R. Tolkien

    Present Tense: J.K. Rowling or Ray Bradbury

    Reply
  42. Anonymous says

    September 14, 2010 at 8:26 pm

    Dead: Kurt Vonnegut
    Alive: Dean Koontz or Stephen King (I have actually met Stephen King at a book signing but all I could manage to say was a squeaky "thanks"

    Reply
  43. MJ says

    September 15, 2010 at 3:05 pm

    Dead: Louisa May Alcott. Maybe MFK Fisher.

    Alive: Gail Collins. Or maybe Sarah Vowell. Or both. A party with Gail Collins and Sarah Vowell in attendance would be fantastic.

    Reply
  44. Graceful Space says

    October 6, 2010 at 2:57 pm

    Actually, mine are all dead. Dickens, so I could ask him how he meant to end The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dorothy L. Sayers, so I could ask her how she meant to end Thrones, Dominations. Lord Byron, to find out whether women really fainted in his presence!

    Reply
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