Top 10 Authors I've Met

 What a cool topic! Like Jana, there was a period of time where I went to a lot of author events and book festivals. I didn't go to a lot for a while after Covid, and lately, there have been other reasons that I haven't felt comfortable going, but I have been lucky enough to meet many of my favorite living authors.

1. Charlie Jane Anders-- I've actually been lucky enough to meet her twice, both times at the Baltimore Book Festival. So glad I got to chat with her, while she added some one-of-a-kind doodles to my books! 😊
2. Margaret Atwood-- I got to meet her at the National Book Festival one year and got her to sign my copy of MadAddam!
3. Amy Tan-- I met her at the Fall for the Book Festival many years ago!
4. James McBride--I got to listen to him read at the National Book Festival one year from one of my favorite books, The Good Lord Bird, and it was a profound experience. The rain literally stopped for him.
5. Maggie Stiefvater-- I got to meet her at the Baltimore Book Festival last year and she was just so funny and engaging and cool.
6. Margaret George --I met her at the National Book Festival, I think the first time I ever went, and there was such a small crowd so I got to ask her how she went from her biology degree to historical fiction 😊
7. Anita Diamant-- I actually met her twice, once at the Boston Book Festival and once at an event at Sixth & I. 
8. John Scalzi-- I heard him read and talk about his book. When the Moon Hits Your Eye at the Gaithersburg Book Festival a few years ago, and I finally read and enjoyed it this year!
9. Jonathan Safran Foer-- I met him at a Sixth & I event, and one of the cool things about that is that his mom is actually on the board there, and his whole family was there to see him too.
10. Leslie Gray Streeter-- So I didn't actually meet her in person, but she came to one of my book clubs on Zoom back in the Pandemic Era, and so I count this because we actually got to ask our questions and talk to her about her book, Black Widow. Even though her book is about being a widow and is therefore obviously sad, it's one of the funniest books I've ever read and I highly recommend it. 

This is also not counting authors that I actually know as people, including, oddly, two of my former Hebrew school teachers--two of the few I actually liked. It might be fun to do a post on that someday.