Amy Dickinson, an award-winning advice columnist, panelist on NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me " and author spoke nearby last summer and I enjoyed her so much.....Even got a photo with her :0) I have relished both her books : The Mighty Queens Of Freeville and People Tend To Tell Me Things.

When we used to have a terrific independent bookstore, I went to hear James Lee Burke, Nevada Barr, and Martha Grimes and thoroughly enjoyed them all.

Way back when I was in junior high school (mid 70s) the story Jonathan Livingston Seagull was very popular. The author, Richard Bach, came to our school one day and I was able to meet him and have my copy of the book signed. Of course, now I have no idea what happened to the book. :/

Donna

I've been to about a half-dozen lecture and/or book signings, with only one negative experience: Maurice Sendak's publicity tour for the release of Outside Over There, when a much larger crowd showed up than anyone expected, and by the time he got to me, he was thoroughly grumpy and greeted my inane remark with the scowl it deserved. Isaac Asimov spoke exactly like the short forewords he wrote in story anthologies to explain why he selected each particular story for the collection, and was generous enough to sign six times on the single sheet of paper my friends and I shared between us. :) The children's authors I've seen were all wonderful speakers, usually telling amusing stories and paying full attention to their youthful audience, very little to the adult hangers-on like myself. Brian Jacques (remember the Redwall series?) did a reading, voicing all the characters which absolutely enthralled the listening kids. I usually just go and listen, and get my book signed if possible, and am reluctant to speak up and ask anything (you can tell my Sendak experience made an impression). I remember my sister and I did ask Lloyd Alexander about the Disney adaptation of The Black Cauldron, which had not yet been released at the time (this was during the publicity tour for Alexander's Westmark), but apparently he had absolutely no input into the movie, and graciously backed out of saying anything about it. Finally, if you have a chance for a poetry reading, I would go for it: I twice went to a Galway Kinnell reading, and each time he read The Bear, yet I cannot recreate the sense and sound he gave to his poem when I re-read it for myself.

I have heard Louise Penny, who was entertaining and interesting, at the Adelaide Writers Festival.

Diana Gabaldon talked one evening at a local library, and I was lucky enough to have lunch with her on the day. My boss, the owner of the bookshop, was invited, but knowing I was a huge fan, she sent me instead. Did I mention I love my boss?

I have also heard many authors at our company's yearly conference, some of them interesting (Trent Dalton, Shane Warne the cricketer, Kurt Fearnley a Paralympian for example) and some who would have done better to stay home (Don Watson and Mike Willesee - these will be known to the Aussies here).

Also went to presentations by David Sedaris and Deepak Chopra. ( though not appearing at the same time ! )

Some years back, I drove over to Kansas City to hear John Irving talk. That was a highlight for me because he has long been my favorite author. At that time, he had just published Last Night in Twisted River, which I liked a lot.

Several. Some local bookstores have authors regularly, and I have heard Orson Scott Card and Sue Grafton speak as well as others that impressed me less. I also have gone to a couple of SF conventions and heard authors speak there. I exchanged words briefly with Connie Willis (my favorite living author) and Patricia McKillip. I also met Kage Baker there, and am glad I did, as she like Sue Grafton is no longer with us.

There is usually a signing event at the end where you get exchange a few words.

Many years ago, when I was living in coastal VA, I heard the late William Styron speak. It was at the local college commencement. Styron grew up in Hilton Village, in Newport News, where I was living at the time. He was poetic and eloquent, just like his prose.

Oh Woodnymph, I would have loved to hear William Styron!

I was lucky enough to attend a lecture given by Geraldine Brooks while she was on tour for People of the Book and she was wonderful. I also attended a talk given by Anne Fadiman, whose Ex Libris is one of my all-time favorite books. The talk was great, but she must have been having a bad day, because she was totally blank and disengaged when signing books afterwards.

I also met Nora Roberts at a local bookstore probably 18 years ago now. She was supposed to just come in quietly, sign books in the back room and go (no meet and greet or anything officially planned) but the bookstore promoted her coming and she was met with several dozen fans. She very graciously spoke to each of us (I even got a photo with her) and signed our books, but I found out later she was not happy about it.

I’ve seen a number of SF authors at SF conventions over the years. Some were very approachable, happy to talk and socialise with fans and others essentially locked themselves in their hotel room when not required to be on a panel or whatever.

(I got driving lessons from Harry Harrison when as a new driver delegated to chauffeuring him and his lovely wife Joan (who gave me a new blouse she thought suited me better than it did her :-) ), I couldn’t do a hill start in a manual shift at the traffic lights without stalling. Joan helped by yelling at the other, honking drivers :-D And after I dropped them off and parked before going up to their hotel room, Harry handed me a neat Scotch as I walked in the door :-D)

The late, great Terry Pratchett was another fantastic, personable guest, as was the also late, great Anne McCaffrey.

I went to a literary lunch with Michael Connelly as guest of honour, and he spoke well and was also happy to answer questions (yes, I had one :-) ).

At my bookclub meeting yesterday I found out that Archer Mayor will be one of the Authors in the Park program at my Library this summer (July). I haven't read any of his books but hope to before I go. The complete list should be available soon. I'll post it when I get it.

Last night I saw George Saunders speak, and read an important scene from Lincoln in the Bardo. He was very, very interesting, as well as personable, and witty, and laugh-out-loud funny. He had much to say about the craft of writing, in particular, self-editing. When the audience was invited to ask questions, I sat silently hoping someone else would ask him "Why so much crude sexual stuff among the ghosts in Lincoln in the Bardo?" No one did.

I'm resurrecting this thread because the list of Authors at the Library is finally available. This program features Vermont authors and is held weekly at our Library throughout the summer. I plan on attending all of them, if I can. The only names I know from this list are Archer Mayor and Katherine Paterson. I'm attaching the link but if you can't open it for some reason, I'll list them out for you. Is anyone familiar with these authors?

https://www.aldrichpubliclibrary.org/authors?lightbox=dataItem-jw87m96b1

In years past, these presentations were filmed and archived which I've spent some time viewing. Pretty interesting. The best by far was a presentation by Judith Jones. I wish I had known about that back then.

Skibby - The link is good. I don't recognize any of the authors, but this looks like a great program your library is sponsoring. I'd go to all of them too.

This past week, I attended an author talk, the culmination of my town's annual One Read program. It was a good one - Jessica Bruder, author of Nomadland. She has a vivacious personality and a good wit, making her a very entertaining speaker. She was flattered that we had chosen her book as our One Read for this year.

I'm just back from my annual book club trip, this time to Boulder. We met Karen Auvenin, author of the memoir Rough Beauty. She spent a good part of her life living in a cabin outside a remote mountain town. By interesting coincidence, one of our club members and she had once lived in the same town, and knew some of the same people.

Those trips sound like so much fun Rosefolly. What a nice addition to your bookclub activities. Last week I went to hear Kekla Magoon speak on our 2019 Vermont Reads selection called March (book I) by John Lewis. This is a graphic novel about the civil rights movement. Very good and part of a trilogy. Ms. Magoon is also an author of YA fiction and one of her books, Shadows of Sherwood, will fit right in with my self-assigned project of reading a number of books about Robin Hood and related topics. She is a wonderful speaker with much enthusiasm for young people and reading, self-expression and confidence. (for adults too, I found). I'm so glad I attended this.