Notes from Crew Quarters: Writer Party Is Best Party

This week, we posed a hypothetical situation to our editors: You're at a party with the characters of every book ever written. Who are your top three priorities to hang out with?

Ashley Adams, Associate Nonfiction Editor Emeritus

All the dogs that got killed in childhood books. I don't care how many that is, they're all coming home with me.

Tianli Kilpatrick, Associate Nonfiction Editor

If I had to pick only three: Randle McMurphy, the Cheshire Cat, White Fang.

Ethan Brightbill, Associate Fiction Editor

The narrator of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, since he's chill and would have great stories; Anne Rice's Lestat for party skills and the possibility of existential vampire adventures later; and Shevek from The Dispossessed, not for the party itself, but rather the profound, drunken conversations sure to take place afterward. Honorable mention to Fizban from the Dragonlance YA novels, who could probably put on a good show provided he didn't accidentally fireball everyone.

Brenna Womer Associate Fiction Editor

Esther Greenwood, Ishmael, and Miss Havisham.

E. Flores Associate Poetry Editor

The mouse from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," Christian Grey, and the Grinch.