Breaking Bread with Your Favorite Author. Who Would You Pick?
By Kimberley Allen McNamara
Who would you pick? If the universe gave you the ability to pick any author Alive or Dead to break bread with, be the meal: dinner, brunch or lunch or even coffee and pastry, who would you pick and why? What would you serve or order?
Consider the problem as a two paragraph MadLib.
I would have ___________________ with _____________________________, author
(dinner, lunch, breakfast, snack) (Name of Author)
of: __________________________________ and ______________________________ (title of books, poems, short story. If more than two books kindly note your favorites).
I would serve: (list what you would serve on lines below.) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who are you thinking? I know I’d wrestle with these questions. Who would I pick? That depends. Am I my 15 year old self? Then Alice Walker or Peter S. Beagle. Or my pretentious Humanities major undergrad self? Then William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sylvia Plath.
Or my present age? And also do I mean authors I have read recently? Or read in my post-college years, “my adulting years” or new parent years? Or writers I have read after studying the craft of writing?
Here’s my list based on my current age and writing age. Please don’t make me pick one! (I did manage to keep my list under 10).
Marie-Helene Bertino: because she pushes at the edge of realism, memory, timelessness, and the laws of physics. Two AM at the Cat’s Pajamas--I find something new in the pages each time I read it or listen to the words on audio.
Ann Patchett: for The Dutch House and the way she plays with memory, time, and relationships. Tom Hanks on audio also contributes to this as a favorite.
Liane Moriarty: for The Husband’s Secret and Apples Never Fall because she’s a genius at inserting details that echo and reverberate.
Weike Wang: for Chemistry because of how she limits character names, inserts random facts that move the story forward and push the hidden truth upward.
William Kent Krueger: for Ordinary Grace, because his use of flashback and flash-forward were inspiring.
Aimee Nezehukumatahil: for World of Wonders, because of how she relates to the natural world with such poetic extrapolation leaves me in awe. *
Kathy Fish: for her flash fictions, micros, short fictions, and now chap book and because she extracts from ordinary words, meanings buried deep within their very core and twists them into shapes not previously conceived.
Tayari Jones: for Half Light and Silver Sparrow because she is a master of understatement and the nuances of relationships.
Alice McDermott: for That Night and Charming Billy etc. because she builds the story and then folds the pieces into each other like origami.
What would I serve: coffee, champagne and dessert. Definitely chocolate. Maybe pound cake with berries and whipped cream.
But if I had to pick one? Well, that would be too hard. The list above is NOT long enough (I didn’t even think about non-fiction authors—Sorry Glennon!) I had to stop at a number and 9 seemed to be enough. Please remember, this list is incomplete.
Your turn. Who would you invite? Email me or comment below and I’ll add the choices to this post.
State the author’s name and
the food/drink you’d have.
If you feel up to sharing: the why.
Need some help? If you are stuck on authors or meals checkout these sites:
The Ten Dead Writers I’d Most Like To Have Dinner With by Greg Levin
75 Authors you’d would Invite for Dinner by Shan Williams
A Literary Feast: 8 Authors We’d Invite to Dinner by Off the Shelf Staff
Book Reporter: What author you would like to have dinner with (or any other meal)
Here are 25 International Comfort Foods to Try at Home by Tasty Co.
*Nezehukumatiahl’s essays are creative non-fiction mixed not fiction as with a novel.
