my apologies if this has already been a thread. i didn't go look to see if it had been done. today i was talking to my friend laura about authors we'd like to meet. i decided among living authors, i'd like to meet madaleine l'engle, cynthia voigt and maybe dave eggers too just so i could ask him where topher is. i read somewhere that john irving sat next to a woman who was reading one of his novels for an entire international flight and he never told her who he was. he just sat next to her writing another novel. imagine that! i would love to talk to him.

anne lamott. without a doubt.

i know everyone is surprised!

wm. shakespeare, ee cummings, sylvia plath, maya angelou.

i'm sure i'll think of more as soon as i hit "send"

peace,
zayne

I'd love to meet Rita Mae Brown, mostly 'cause I think she's pretty funny, and also because she's one of my heroes, really.

: )

Joy and I LOVE Traveling Mercies. I would absolutely like to meet Anne.
She seems like someone worth meeting. (Like all of YOU guys).

I would have liked to talked further with Douglas Coupland the other day.
I also would like to talk with Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, and William Shakespeare.
I talk with Don Miller on a semi-regular basis. </namedropping>

you know, i was on this date once with a guy named bryan. and he went to seminary in san francisco and he went to the same church that anne lamott went to and he didn't care much about her writing and i always thought what a waste. he said bono wrong, too. /bad date rant

wouldn't it be kinda cool to sit down with someone who wrote part of the old testament. ha. God. or one of the people. poor guy who had to write the book of numbers. we could talk about numbers over a good bowl of manna just to reminesce.

great thread idea (and I don't think it's been done here)...

my heroes: Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Dorothy Day...
Frederick Buechner (I did meet), Annie Dillard, Madeleine L'Engle, C.S.Lewis, Charles Williams (just to see how freaky that would be), Czeslaw Milosz, Flannery O'Conner, Simone Weil, Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou, Franz Kafka, Jorge Borges, Philip K. Dick, Stanislaw Lem... oh lordy, this could almost be endless... but these and a whole slew more are the ones I immediately think of as closest to my literary heart.

can I add Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Thom Yorke, Jazz Koleman, Bono, Larry Mullen, Rich Mullins, Miles Davis, and those kinds of folks without moving this over to the music thread? ok thanks...

what would we talk about? oh lord, that question is almost too big to contemplate. I'd be tongue-tied and speachless anyway, which would be just how it should be.
the thing about reading is that this is just the sort of thing we're doing when we read them. we're having "conversations" with the masters of all times and places. so, to answer what would we talk about, well I imagine all I'd really want to talk about is what's written in their books anyway (the very reason why I'd want to talk to them in the first place), and so I already have that. I realize the actual presence of such greatness would be amazing (seeing and meeting Frederick Buechner was more than I thought it could be - the inspiring and humbling presence of true greatness), but anything approaching a two-way conversation I can't help but feel would be to cheapen the moment.

I guess, to be all esoteric and cosmically mystic about it, I would hope to talk about how I could reach enlightenment as they have (at least in the aspect of their lives where I have found such light). I would want to tell them about my crummy job and my endless dead-end daily routine and my dying grandmother and ask them if it all means anything to them, and what should it all mean to me as far as they can tell. how do you get to see the world the way you have? what does it take to acquire that kind of vision? you know, the real "meaning of life" deep stuff that goes good with coffee and cigarettes. though I might not smoke around her, I might ask Mother Teresa, what'd you do it all for, really? and was it worth it in the end? or did you just feel like it was too late to turn back now? maybe I'd ask Dorothy Parker if she'd ever been properly laid. maybe I'd ask JD Salinger what the hell that part in nine stories meant, and how was the recluse thing working out... that sort of thing...i don't know....

fun question though... good stuff.

I would like to sit down with Hermann Hesse and talk about life's failures and their subsequent effect on a person's character.

I love reading because it can get me to the heart of a person in a few sentences...I don't have a burning desire to meet them...I would love to meet Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Madeleine L'engle or Frederick Buechner (I did meet him last year and it was a wonderful moment!! It was a true honor to be in his presence.) Madeleine is the only other one I stand a chance of meeting and that is probably a remote possibility...

Having said that, after attending the Faith and Writing conference last year for the first time, I met Joyce Carol Oates, Leif Erickson and a few others I had never heard of but enjoyed their seminars very much! (ex. Lauren Winner!!) I left that weekend feeling I had been around greatness and had grown as a writer somehow just being around them and absorbing their thoughts and ideas. The conference is set up for that kind of successful interaction to happen. Meeting someone for an autograph in a book store is not set up like that though and I do not enjoy that kind of interaction.

Oh! I would also love to meet Dorthey Day or Mother Theresa. I would want to work side by side with them for a bit and hopefully their spirit, work ethic and discipline would rub off on me! Also, not able to happen. I would enjoy meeting Anne Lamott and that is probably the most likely possibility on my list! If she came to town I would be waiting in line with all the others...

Dr. Phil. I'd ask him where he gets off writing a diet book when he obviously shops in the husky section.

Actually, if Dr. McGraw isn't available, I'd take Noam Chomsky in a heartbeat.

Just give me ten minutes with James Joyce and some sodium pentathol!

Nice one, Brookd!

I would like to sit down with Oscar Wilde over a cup of tea and give him a hug. Then I would show him his son Vyvyan's introduction to his collected works, so he would know that his children didn't hate him. I would show him a copy of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, so he would know that the public no longer detested him. I would show him a picture of his window in Westminster Abbey, so he would know that he was enshrined in the poets' corner with other British legends. And I would take him to his burial place in Pere Lachaise, so he could see how many people still bring red and white roses in remembrance of what Reading Gaol did to him. He died rejected by so many people. I would like him to know that he is viewed quite differently now.

I'd also like to have a pint with Will Shakespeare and ask him whether his sonnets are autobiographical. And one with Ben Franklin -- I'd like to know how he got to be so industrious, and what advice he would give a young woman trying to make her way in today's world. And of course, I'd love to have lunch with J.K. Rowling. I deal a lot with her moral concepts in my thesis, and I'd like to know what in her upbringing and life experience has contributed to her values system -- and what she does to pass her values on to her own kids.

I'd like to talk with Douglas Coupland. Possibly about the future of our relationship, and if not mine, then Jaem's.
I'd also like to hang out with Anne Lamott and Billy Collins. Don Miller would probably be fun. Frederick Buechner, oh man. I have had passing interaction with him, I just don't know what to do with myself around him, except swoon or giggle.
I've met Barbara Brown Taylor before, but I wouldn't turn down another chance to hang out with her.
Have you ever read a book and thought "I hope I never meet this guy"? Actually, that happens to me more with articles and academic work, but it happens.

YES! If I ever met Harold Bloom, I'd be hard pressed not to spit on him. Same with this literary critic, Farah Mendelsohn, who really doesn't like Harry Potter as a character. She reminds me of Umbridge.

if i ever met james dobson or tim lehay, i would prob kick them in the shins.

Funny you should say that....I actually thumbnosed Tim Lehay, though his back was turned. I think I did the same to Josh McDowell as well.

An ideal summer evening would be sitting on the porch of my grandmother's Kentucky farmhouse drinking sweet tea with Flannery O'Conner, William Faulkner, Thomas Merton, Walker Percy, and Shelby Foote. I think we would talk about everything except literature and their books.

I'd like to talk to Paul, and find out what books he actually did write for the New Testament.
But, if that's not an option, I'd go for C.S. Lewis in a heartbeat. Tolkien second, I suppose. Nick Hornby third, just to talk about music.

Nice, one!! Wow...

Have you read the letters of Percey and Foote, btw? So funny, real, and wonderful...

maybe i would include linford in my little list and talk about the book i've never seen and the one i hope he will soon write.

peace,
zayne

I'd love to have a chat with Umberto Eco about the mysteries of communication and the power of language. But I'd probably just gush about how much I love his novels...

Garrison Keillor or Madaleine l'Engle.

Toss in some Flannery O' Connor, and I'd say that'd be a pretty cool chat.

Sylvia Plath
Toni Morrison
Barbra Kingslover


Hey, Joshua, I know Garrison Keillor's brother and went to school with his nephews, however, I have yet to meet Garrison in person.

wow... that's awesome! i'd love to attend one of his storytelling "concerts" he does. unfortunately, when he comes out seattle way, it's usually pretty expensive and sells out rather quickly.

i would want to meet up with orson scott card, and i would ask him how he deals with the mormon church, who gets upset when he doesn't write clearly mormon stuff.

i would also ask him about his inspiration for his _women of genensis_ series.

and i want to know how he came up with the idea for the short story _unaccompanied sonata_. it was so beautiful and poignant...