71 Comments
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Kathy's avatar

David Sedaris. Do i need to explin further?

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Margaret Allbee's avatar

💯

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Jerilyn's avatar

Barbara Kingsolver. I've been impressed time and time again with how she addresses social justice issues in a compelling and entertaining way through her immeasurable writing skills.

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Courtney Geisendorff's avatar

Agatha Christie

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Sarah Williams's avatar

And you could find where she disappeared to for those 11 days.

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

YES! Finally get the whole scoop.

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Jon Varese's avatar

Virginia Woolf has a great variation on this answer, about whom she would *not* have dinner with:

"Questions of affection are of course always disputable. I can only reiterate that while I would cheerfully become Shakespeare's cat, Scott's pig, or Keats's canary, if by so doing I could share the society of these great men, I would not cross the road (reasons of curiosity apart) to dine with Wordsworth, Byron, or Dickens."

LOL!

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Gretared's avatar

Tho also I’d *not* want to have dinner with Virginia Woolf.

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

Good one.

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Kimberly's avatar

Mel Joulwan and Anne Bogel 😘 invitation includes bringing an author of their choice. And of course Dave and Will. I’d also invite Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

I love everything about this guest list — Phoebe Waller-Bridge? We would have such a good time! Thank you for the invite! :-)

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Kimberly's avatar

Someday!

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Katy O.'s avatar

Catherine Newman - I truly believe we’d be best friends! Also, John Green, but going to a big dinner party doesn’t seem like something he’d be up for.

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

Aw, poor John Green! I feel like he would enjoy the idea of it, but then not really want to go :-)

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abbycorbet@yahoo.com's avatar

First to pop into my head was Samuel Clemens, he would be such good company. But if he were busy that night, Isaac Asimov would be my second choice, followed by Ursula LeGuin. If they could stand to eat together, all 3 would be ideal.

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Gina Keller's avatar

Dead: Jane Austen. How would she feel about the incredible impact her work has had on literature? And I would learn some manners over dinner.

Living: Ann Patchett. I feel like I know her already after reading her essay collections so it seems like it would be a comfortable conversation. I’m sure she would get along well with Jane too.

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Katy O.'s avatar

I want to come to the party with Ann - please invite me!

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Sarah Williams's avatar

Maybe William Shakespeare-or the person who wrote the plays under that name. I am not one for conspiracy theories, and I bet it would just (just! Ha)be William Shakespeare. But I would like to have a definitive answer.

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

And then you could do a multi-part podcast about it, followed by a best-selling book :-)

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Michael Jensen's avatar

Lianne Moriarty and Tana French, though I'd probably just sit and stare at them in awe.

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

And maybe be worried about getting murdered later?

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Michael Jensen's avatar

I only worried about getting murdered by a serial killer! Or being kidnapped and buried alive in a box by a serial killer.

BTW, hitchhiking once in Australia, I think I might have been picked up by a serial killer who started killing people the following year. :-0

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

WHAT

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Michael Jensen's avatar

Too much? LOL. Oh, well, it was a beautiful Substack relationship while it lasted…

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

Never, dahling

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Carol Ann's avatar

I would love to visit with naturalist Margaret (Mardy) E Murie, author of Two in the Far North, who earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom and along with her husband, Olas, founded the Wilderness Foundation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. When invited to a hyped up event in the area with John Denver, she declined because it was her potluck and acrostics night with her friends. She passed in 2003, but if it were ever possible, I would have loved to spend a potluck and acrostics evening with her! My second choice would be Beatrix Potter. : )

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

"When invited to a hyped up event in the area with John Denver, she declined because it was her potluck and acrostics night with her friends."

AMAZING. Mad respect.

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Louise Gobron's avatar

I will be thinking about this question for days, but given recent developments in the US, my initial response is that I would like to have a lengthy dinner with James Madison and other framers/contributors to the US Constitution and find out if the current chaos is what they had in mind when they were thinking through the concept of “checks and balances.” It would be fun to bring them up to speed on technological developments over the last 250 years. We could also talk libraries — more specifically, the Library of Congress — and find out what he/they liked to read to escape. Do we think they did?

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

Hmmm... they seem like 'reading to learn' kind of people, rather than 'reading for pleasure' kind of people. But maybe I'm wrong! What if Madison was a die-hard 'Pride and Prejudice' fan?

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Louise Gobron's avatar

After some cursory research, I learned the following: you’re correct, of course, that their libraries were filled with the classics and a ton of political philosophy and history. No Austen on Madison’s book list, though he was a fan of Shakespeare, and Jefferson favored Tristram Shandy and had a copy of Don Quixote in his collection. Washington liked a satirical novel aimed at British imperialism by Tobias Smollet called The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. Somewhat surprising to me is that the fairytale of Beauty and the Beast was a favorite of John Adams. I could introduce him to the TV series at our dinner :-)

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

This is all so delightful. Thank you so much for sharing that!

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Gretared's avatar

For a long time my fantasy was Susan Sontag and Joan Didion. But now I think Colson Whitehead, NK Jemison, and Alyssa Cole would make a magical realism party.

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

Magical Realism Party, name of our new experimental punk band.

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Jeanine Kitchel's avatar

Dorothy Parker.

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

And martinis!

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Jena Burges's avatar

David Sedaris, yes, sitting next to Eudora Welty. P.G. Wodehouse, across from Michael Lewis. Adam Gopnik, Min Jin Lee, Roz Chast. We're gonna need a bigger table...

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Melissa Joulwan's avatar

Love that you have a seating chart in mind!

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Tullia Ropp's avatar

Living- Margaret Atwood. Honestly, she just seems like she'd be a delight.

Dead- hands down, Virginia Woolf

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