My Dream Bookish Panel

This post a bit different from our usual fare, but Eventbrite inspired me to write a post where I would share which authors I would most love to have on a book panel. So here goes!

When I started thinking about which authors I would write about, the list came fairly easy. There are tons of great modern writers, of course, but I think I would love to hear from a few writers from the past:

1. Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden is one of my favorite childhood novels. To this day I am not the type to re-read books, even if a book is amazing, one go tends to be enough for me. The Secret Garden is one of the few books I have read numerous times, well into adulthood. It really resonated with me as a child, the 'magic' the children believed in, the garden hidden away from the world that they brought back to life and became their secret haven, I loved it! So I think it would be great to be face to face with the author of a book I have loved for most of my life.

2. Yukio Mishima

I have a love of post-modern Japanese novels, and have read a few of Mishima's novels. The Sound of Waves is another book I have read more than once, and is another favorite of mine. Yukio Mishima's life story is fascinating and tragic, and I would love to hear from him in his own words.

3. Emily Bronte

Another book I've read more than once -- Wuthering Heights. It's dark, gothic, romantic (in a dark, twisted, violent way). The dynamic between Cathy and Heathcliff has always been once I have been drawn to. I would love to meet Emily and talk to her about the book and hear her own thoughts on her characters.

4. Emily Dickinson

I have found the biography of her life to be very interesting. Someone who spent so many years as a recluse, writing poetry and communicating with others largely by written correspondence only -- I'd love to meet her, maybe find out why she choose to live that way, and talk to her about her poetry. Hopefully she would show up, right?


I think I chose authors from the past, not only because of how much I love their work, but because other than what they may have left behind, a lot of times we can only speculate about what someone who is long dead was like, guess at why they made decisions they made or wrote what they wrote. We don't have the ability to sit and talk to them, can only peruse what was left behind, and though there is beauty in the enigmatic and unknown, sometimes it's nice to have answers too. So if I were to have a dream panel of authors, those four are who I would choose.

Hope you enjoyed reading my choices!

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