I got, and am not sure I’ve ever read,

  Olaf Stapledon

Standing outside the science fiction “field”, he wrote fictional explorations of the futures of whole species and galaxies.

Stanislav Lem

This pessimistic Pole has spent a whole career telling ironic stories of futility and frustration.  Yet he is also a master of wordplay so witty that it sparkles even when translated into English.

Agreed, Psychromorbidus, it was a bit flippant of me to dismiss him just because I’ve never heard of him.  I’ll look him up too.

Agreed, that man just screams tweed to me.

Though his works may be good, so I shall shut up until I read them.

Ditto, Psychromorbidus.  How did I get this unknown doofus too?

Will trade for Heinlein, Ellison, Bear, or Dick.

I am: Cordwainer Smith (Paul M.A. Linebarger) This inimitably unique storyteller created a future with so many deep layers of history that all the world we know is practically lost in it.

Which science fiction writer are you?

WHO IN THE BLOODY HELL IS THIS GUY??  Never read any of his stuff.  Looks kinda like some of the fossils in my institute

This is nice. I always liked hard science fiction.

I am: Hal Clement (Harry C. Stubbs) A quiet and underrated master of “hard science” fiction who, among other things, foresaw integrated circuits back in the 1940s.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Hey, DOF, I like Hal Clement. One of my favorite school library reads as a child was “Needle”. It made me fear having an alien “hunter” living inside me that I might not be aware of.

You know the old expression……

Well, you do! Don’t you?

(If you can’t beat em-)

Could be, Moses, could be.  Are you with us or against us?

I was Hal Clement but my favorite would probably be Clarke precisely because of his optimism.  I also like Asimov and Heinlein, though the latter is hardly an optimist.