The 2012 San Miguel Writers’ Conference has come to an end and we’d like to thank everyone who attended the conference.  This year’s event was the largest we’d put on in the seven years since the conference’s inception and we hope that everyone who participated is now busily writing.

Over the next few weeks we will be uploading photos of the conference to our Facebook Fan Page as well some other treats such as a film with interviews of the general speakers and keynote speakers, and information on how to download MP3s of many of the sessions.  If you’re interested in photos and keeping in contact with the other conference attendees go to our Facebook Fan Page, and click the ‘Like’ button at the top of the page.

You can also stay in contact with us through email.  To join our mailing list click HERE and fill out the form.

We also have a blog with weekly updates about what is going on in San Miguel de Allende and news about the Writers’ Conference.  To subscribe to the blog mailing go HERE and fill in your email in the right hand column. 

Many people have approached those of us involved with the conference and said that they were ‘inspired’ and that the experience was ‘magical.’  We’re all very happy about this and would like to thank everyone who came to the conference and made 2012 an amazing event for all.

www.sanmiguelwritersconference2012.org

The 7th annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference begins today with two acclaimed Canadian writers kicking it off, Merilyn Simonds and Margaret Atwood.  Simonds will be giving a general session address, “A Writer’s Place” at 1:30 PM and Atwood will be giving the keynote address, “Writing and Hope” at 6:00 PM.  Both will take place in the Hotel Real de Minas Ballroom.

While there are still a few tickets to Simonds left, tickets to Atwood sold out last week and the audiences numbers have exceed any keynote speaker the conference has had in the past.  In order to comfortably seat such a large audience special arrangements had to be made to redesign the interior of the Real de Minas Ballroom.  The event is one of the biggest San Miguel will see this year and will bring out the Minister Counsellor, Ginette Martin, of the Canadian Embassy and her entourage as well as some big name authors.

Atwood has written numerous books of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. She has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Prince of Asturias award for Literature, and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, winning once.  She has also been a finalist for Canada’s Governor General’s Award seven times and won twice.  Her newest novel, The Year of the Flood (2009) is the follow-up to her 2003 Giller Prize finalist, Oryx and Crake.

Simonds debut novel, The Holding, spent five months on the Canadian Booksellers’ Association bestseller list and was selected as an “Editor’s Choice” by the New York Times Book Review. In 2006 she was invited by the University of British Columbia to be the Writer in Residence at Green College. Tickets to Simonds can be bought in the lobby of the Hotel Real de Minas.

www.sanmiguelwritersconference2012.org

On a familiar dark and cloud choked morning I’m marking an X near the hemline of January.  I run a finger past eleven empty squares before resting on the declarative, “Mexico!”  My excitement is not founded on the usual beach escape (though some sun on this translucent skin wouldn’t hurt) but rather, a creative calling.

I’m attending the 7th Annual San Miguel Writer’s Conference.  Held mid February in the crown-jewel of Mexican colonial cities, this conference is no candidate for boardroom boredom. A case could be made that the Legendary Fiesta, described by Kingsolver as “one of the ten best parties I’ve ever attended,” is reason enough to take part.  But that this year is already boasting a larger-than-ever number of attendees is most likely a nod to the impressive collection of faculty.  Powerhouse keynotes Margaret Atwood, Joy Harjo, and Elena Poniatowska are joined by a strong cast of general session speakers, most notably Naomi Wolf.  Supplying their personal stories, writing inspirations and challenges, these authors will open five days of jam-packed programming.  Participants may sample workshops, tuck into more serious writing intensives, or test their mettle with a pitch opportunity.  But whether it’s rubbing elbows with the glitterati or getting down to craft, there is something for everyone at this event.

What personally led me to this yearly gathering could only be described as a serendipitous chain of events. The first piece is Shelley.  I met Shelley while on tour of Mexico’s colonial cities (among which San Miguel is reputed to be the most beautiful) about three years back.  Being the only other solo group member, Shelley would often invite me for a glass of vino to shake off the day’s fast-paced touring schedule.  I soon learnt she had an investigative angle to her trip.  A long time Chelsea resident, she had recently retired, taken up painting and was seeking an alternative to the snow fringed nights of the Gatineau.  Her quest was not an original one. Since around the 1950’s, Mexico’s colonial cities have been providing attractive havens for North American snowbirds, and San Miguel is chief among them.  Recent figures approximate that 10,000 more or less permanent American, Canadian and European residents spend several months a year in this mountain oasis.

Shelley had spent two winters warming up to San Miguel’s charm, and when she reminded me again of the open invitation, I took the bait.  I decided to check into that unused air mileage and a few hours later (and $380 dollars worth of phone charges and tax add-ons reminding me that indeed NOTHING is free) an e-ticket perks up my inbox.  With the primaries taken care of, I branch out into possible activities for my ten day sojourn.  A lead from a Vogue “Destination of the Month” article has me considering language and cooking classes, but I don’t expect the possibility for writing.  A few google searches and cascading links later, my eye catches the bold blue letters proclaiming the 2012 Writer’s Conference.  Lo and behold the exact week of my innocent visit happens to coincide with this annual event.  Like I said, serendipity.

At $495 the full conference package could only be considered a bargain when compared to similar events in North America.  But as a young writer just eeking out the cost of living in Vancouver from a coffee shop income, I still felt hesitant.  I saw that photographs of past attendees reflected an audience I was familiar with from other creative writing events and lacked the faces of my (younger) contemporaries.  I contacted the organizer.  As luck would have it, the conference coordinators were grappling with the precise problem I had noted, and trying to find a way to make the conference more attractive (and accessible) to young people.  I took the plunge:  “I noticed you have travel partner discounts and group discounts,” I said.  “What about a discount for young writers?”  Okay, so serendipity with a pinch of gumption.  But my high slowly dissipates over the silence of the next two days.  It turns out that’s how long it takes to push an initial step further.  With approval from the board, the organizer replied with the application for a Young Writer’s Conference Scholarship attached.  A week later another plucky email appears in my inbox granting the funds.  In celebration I spend the afternoon researching all the concurrent workshops I wish to attend, with a Mexican hot chocolate in hand.

These days I’m marking off my calendar with added impatience.  A week of writing, inspiration and creativity while discovering the current buzz surrounding San Miguel. My story affirms that holidays and writing opportunities can often go hand in hand, and it might just take a bit of sleuthing (add serendipity and gumption) to make it happen.  It’s still not too late to register or at least start assembling your amigos for a group rate next year.  I promise to take good notes and share more experiences upon my return.
Until then…

The 7th Annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference is right around the corner.  Many of you coming from the north may be wondering what you’ll need down here in Mexico.  Here’s a list of items to think about.

Passport:  You will need your passport to exit your country of origin and to enter Mexico. Make a photocopy of your passport before departure. That way once you arrive in San Miguel you can walk around with the photocopy as ID instead of your real passport.

Clothing:  The weather in San Miguel in February is much warmer than up north. However, it is still winter. Make sure to bring a sweater and some long sleeve shirts as well as a light jacket. During the day, when in the sun, it can be warm enough to wear a T-shirt, but in the morning and evenings it can get cold and you will want the added layers.

Most of San Miguel’s streets are paved with cobblestone. High heels are almost impossible to walk in. Make sure to bring some sensible shoes for touring around the city along with your Jimmy Choo sandals. The Conference also offers a number of excursions to places outside the city. A pair of walking shoes or hiking boots may be nice to have for going to places like El Charco.

San Miguel is at a high altitude, and it is possible to get burnt by the sun even in the winter. Sunblock, sunglasses, and a hat can be nice to have when walking around or sitting on a plaza.

The Writers’ Conference will be hosting a fiesta and an opening and closing reception. While there is no dress code required you may want to bring along a nice outfit or two for these types of events.

Laundry:  If you need to do laundry while staying in San Miguel there are a number of small places who can wash clothes overnight. These facilities charge by the kilo. A small bag of laundry will cost about 50 pesos.  Also most hotel offer to take your laundry to one of these services for you.

Electrical Items:  The voltage in Mexico is the same as in the United States and Canada.  Don’t worry about bringing a hairdryer, electric razor, or curling iron. All electric items should work fine.

Cell Phone:  Depending on your phone and service provider you should be able to use your cell phone in Mexico although your calls will probably be routed through your country of origin. One plus about bringing a cell phone is that you will be able to follow the twitter feed that will be provided by the Writers Conference announcing each event before it begins.

Computers and Internet:  Many people bring laptops to the conference. There are a number of places around San Miguel that have free wifi (Starbucks, Cafe Contento, Casa Payo, etc) Also, printing is available in a variety of shops in the area. The Hotel Real de Minas where the conference is taking place offers free wifi to hotel guests.

If you’ve been to the Writers’ Conference before or live in San Miguel, please add a comment about other items someone might want to bring.

www.sanmiguelwritersconference2012.org

There will be a twitter feed available during the 2012 San Miguel Writers’ Conference. If you bring a cell phone and leave your data feed on, twitter will provide you with announcements five minutes before each event begins. Instead of checking your schedule every few hours, you’ll be able to rely on the twitter feed to inform you as to what is happening next and where you need to go.

To subscribe to our twitter feed go to https://twitter.com/#!/WritersConferen and click FOLLOW. If you do not have a twitter account, you will have to open one and then go to the above link and follow us. Once you are following us you can set up your account to send our twitter updates to your cell phone.

The San Miguel Writer Conference is excited to announce that Comedian, Scotty Watson, is coming all the way from New York City to teach a concurrent workshop “Finding Your Comedic Voice” as well as give a performance, “Live From New York It’s Monday Night!” If you like stand-up, sketch comedy, and improvisation, you won’t want to miss his show at 6:30 PM on Monday February 20th, 2012 at Los Milagros (Relox 17.)  Tickets can be bought ahead of time on February 7, 9, and 14 in the Biblioteca Publica courtyard from 11-2 PM. They can also be purchased at the 2012 Writers Conference (Lobby Hotel Real de Minas) or at the door.

Scotty Watson is an alumnus of The Second City and has worked with Cirque du Soleil.  You may have seen him on Comedy Central and in many national TV commercials. His comedy is loaded with wild & wacky characters in a style reminiscent of Red Skelton and Jackie Gleason.  His pantomime sketches are sure-fire audience favorites that deliver rollicking laughter across generational and cultural boundaries.

Scotty has vast experience writing for television and especially radio. After receiving a fine arts degree from York University, he returned to The Second City as a writer and member of the company while touring across Canada.  Upon immigrating to the United States, Scotty taught sketch writing and improv for The Second City NYC.  He now teaches a weekly workshop in improvisation for Artistic New Directions, www.ArtisticNewDirections.org, as well as several weeklong improv and writing intensives in The Catskills every summer.

At the 2012 San Miguel Writers’ Conference he will be leading a workshop, “Finding Your Comedic Voice” on February 18 at 11 AM.  The workshop is designed to loosen up your funny bone and develop your comedic point of view. Participants will learn the basic structure on which to build comedy and the discipline to put comedic thoughts on paper.  Topics include: scene, character development, as well as different styles and genres of comedy.

At the show on February 20th, Scotty will be joined on-stage by local actors and comedians. “Live From New York It’s Monday Night!” is sure to be a hilarious Tour De Farce.  For more information about tickets contact Melissa Hirsch at, mhirschone@aol.com.

www.sanmiguelwritersconference2012.org

We’ve had so many people purchase tickets for Naomi Wolf’s speech “Writing Riskily: Taking a Stand Within Your Prose,” that we’ve decided to have a second Wolf event right after the San Miguel Writers’ Conference.  “Naomi Wolf: Protest 101” will take place on Monday, February 20, 2012 in the Real de Minas Hotel Ballroom. This event is presented in association with Reel Docs and the Center for Global Justice.

Naomi Wolf will give a lecture at 3:00 PM.  This will be followed by a screening of the film The End of America based on Wolf’s book by the same name.  Both Avram Ludwig, the film’s producer and Naomi Wolf will be present for a question and answer session following the film.

Tickets to “Naomi Wolf: Protest 101” will be available at the door or can be bought ahead of time in the courtyard of the Biblioteca Publica (Insurgentes # 25) on Tuesday and Thursday from 11-2:00 PM throughout January and February 2012.  They can also be purchased at the Global Justice Office (Calzada de la Luz #42) or from Reel Docs: info@reeldocs.org

www.sanmiguelwritersconference2012.org

This year’s intensive writing workshops are filling up.  If you want a chance to work in a smaller group with a professional writer, (Separate Registration) go to our website and reserve a place before it’s too late. 

This year we have scheduled eleven two-day workshops for Monday and Tuesday February 20 and 21, 2012.  All intensive workshops are limited to 25 people.

Morning Workshops

Susan Sutliff Brown: James Joyce meets Judith Krantz: Writing the Sexy, Literary Best-Seller

Kristen Iversen: Must I Tell the Reader Everything? Balancing Fact and Research in Narrative Nonfiction

Amy Ferris & Hollye Dexter: The Shame Prom: Where Everyone is Invited to Dance

Linda Bergman: Screen Writing: So You Think Your Life’s A Movie – Reel Magic!

Anne Dimon: Take the Trip, Write the Story: Take an Actual Press Trip!

Araceli Ardón: Cómo hacer las preguntas correctas al escribir memorias (Spanish)

Shelley Puhak: The Craft of Revision: (Re)forming Your Poems

Afternoon Workshops

CM Mayo: Techniques Of Fiction: How To Create The Vivid Dream

Franny Billingsley: Writing the Young Adult Novel

Laura Davis: From Memory to Memoir: Crafting Personal Stories that are Vivid, Compelling and True

Sam Horn: POP! Your Book’s Sales and Success

www.sanmiguelwritersconference2012.org

The San Miguel Writers’ Conference would like to announce that Shelfstealers is one of our lead sponsors for the 2012 conference.  This up-and-coming publishing company has a unique program called “Watch Our Writers” where readers can sign-up to read a writer’s novel as it progresses.  By serializing the novel writers with Shelfstealers can leave their day jobs and focus on creating.  The San Miguel Writers’ Conference has organized a series of morning readings with four authors represented by Shelfstealers: George S. Whiteman, Leslie Hall Pinder, Ellen Herbert, and Kerry Dunn.  Below is a note from Sheryl Dunn, founder of Shelfstealers.

Shelfstealers is honored to be a sponsor for the 2012 San Miguel Writers’ Conference. We believe talented authors deserve the blessing of a legitimate publisher, one that doesn’t charge fees, offers a 50/50 split, helps authors to make their projects the best they can be, and markets their books so that they have a chance at finding their audiences.

On the ‘eve’ of releasing our first four books at the conference, we are confident these books are good books. They might even be great books. Certainly, the preliminary reviews and blurbs from Margaret Atwood, Publishers Weekly, Alan Cheuse, Don McLean and others bolster our faith in our choices.

Be sure to come to breakfast at the Hotel Real de Minas on Saturday, February 18, and Sunday, February 19 to meet our authors and hear them read from their books.

On Saturday, Leslie Hall Pinder will read from Under The House and Bring Me One Of Everything, both literary novels. Margaret Atwood says Leslie is “a writer of great talent and sensitivity.” We’re sure you’ll agree.

Also on Saturday, George S. Whiteman will read from the first of his three-part Jesters’ Court series, The Perennial Freshman, a coming-of-age memoir that will make you laugh. We certainly did. Don McLean, singer/songwriter of ‘American Pie’ fame says, “…George’s writing is as creative and scintillating as the rest of his talents and personality.”

On Sunday, Ellen Herbert will read from her collection of award-winning stories, Falling Women and Other Stories. Alan Cheuse of NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’ says, “…By turns, appealing, worrisome, full of sighs, full of cheer, these stories remain always true to life.”

Also on Sunday, Kerry Dunn (no relation, although I’d adopt him in a minute) will read from his noir crime novel, Joe Peace, a semi-finalist in the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, and about which Publishers Weekly says, “…an exciting gang story and a heartbreaking tale of relationships.”

We’ll be giving away a free print version of each book, and T-shirts you might even wear!

With over 3 million new books hitting the market in 2011, over 80,000 publishing companies in the US alone, and Goldman Sachs saying that no one should invest in the publishing business right now because the ground is shifting too rapidly, the question, “Is a great book enough?” weighs heavily on my mind as the Chief Thief/CEO of Shelfstealers.

But it weighs on my heart, too. It weighs on my heart because I feel a moral obligation to the authors who have entrusted us with their work. Their talent humbles me. I have fallen in love with them and their books.

We hope you will, too.

www.shelfstealers.com

The seven annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference will be offering Pitch Sessions with Literary Agents this year.  These one-on-one sessions will only be available to individuals who register for a “Full Conference Package.”  Each of the four literary agents joining us in February, 2012 (Elise Capron, Andy Ross, Malaga Baldi, Kathleen Anderson) comes from a different background, and we thought it would be nice to introduce each of them individually.

This week we would like you to meet Malaga Baldi of the Baldi Agency based in New York City. Malaga specializes in literary fiction, memoir and cultural history. Her philosophy is that the strength of the author’s voice and the heart of the story are important factors and she considers these aspects of a manuscript when reading a new work.

Malaga Baldi has been an independent literary agent since 1986, but her love for books goes much farther back.  After graduating from Hampshire College she worked as a cashier at Gotham Book Mart.  Soon she moved on to work in the Ballantine Books Publicity Department.  Before starting her own agency she was an associate at Candida Donadio & Associates and the Elaine Markson Agency.

Some of the books and authors the Baldi Agency has represented include: Patty Dann’s Mermaids (now a motion picture), memoirist and playwright Martin Moran’s The Tricky Part, Felice Picano, Assuming the Position: A Memoir of Hustling, Rick Whitaker and Bill Mann who writes a series of YA novels for Regan Books under the name Geoffrey Huntington, and many more.

So what are you waiting for?  Seize this rare opportunity to present your book proposal to an agent.  Register for a Full Conference Package today!

www.sanmiguelwritersconference2012.org