Who’s on Writers’ Wish Lists?

Calendar Weekend asked several Festival of Books authors: “What author would you like to meet at the festival?”

Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey (“A Woman of Independent Means”): “Isabel Allende. I’m teaching a course at Hollins College [in Virginia] called Autobiographical Sources of Fiction. We began reading her extraordinary book about her daughter, which tells the story really of how she came to write ‘The House of the Spirits.’ My students are enchanted with her honesty, her imagination and her courage, as am I. So I am thrilled to find out she’s coming to Los Angeles Festival of Books--and I hope to meet her there and tell her in person how much she’s meant to me and to my students.”

Sidney Sheldon (“The Best Laid Plans,” “The Other Side of Midnight): “George Bernard Shaw. I don’t suppose there’s any way you could arrange it?”

A. Scott Berg (“Goldwyn”): “George Plimpton, Merlin Holland and Barbara Goldsmith--I’m looking forward to meeting all of them. I think they’re all exciting writers who have written exciting books.”

Cari Beauchamp (“Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood”): “Larry Gelbart. I have tremendous respect for his longevity. He’s very clear about what is important to him. I love his attitude as much as anything.”

Clive Barker (“Galilee”): “The spirit of Edgar Allan Poe.”