Press | San Miguel Writers' Conference and Literary Festival

STAR AUTHORS JOHN IRVING, PERCIVAL EVERETT, JORGE F. HERNÁNDEZ, RUTH REICHL, KAVEH AKBAR, JENNIFER CLEMENT, and JOHN VAILLANT

Will Keynote the 20^th Anniversary

SAN MIGUEL WRITERS’ CONFERENCE AND LITERARY FESTIVAL

February 12–16, 2025, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

The bilingual San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival, which is dedicated to forging literary connections between Mexico, the US, and Canada, will hold its twentieth-anniversary event February 12–16, 2025, at the Hotel Real de Minas in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico(named by Travel + Leisure magazine in July as “the No. 1 city in the world.”)

Its seven keynote speakers will be:

John Irving

Legendary author John Irving has written sixteen celebrated novels includingThe World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Cider House Rules, andWidow for One Year. He is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada. Among his many accolades, he is a winner of the National Book Award and an Academy Award.

Percival Everett

Author of the current runaway bestseller James (the Huckleberry Finn story told from the point of view of the enslaved “Jim”), Everett also wrote Erasure, upon which the movie American Fiction was based. The author of more than thirty books, he has won or been a finalist for both the Pulitzer and the Booker and numerous other prizes and international accolades. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

Jorge Hernández

Jorge F. Hernández is a prolific short story writer, essayist, novelist, columnist, professor, magazine editor, and radio show host. Until recently, he worked at the Institute of the Culture of Mexico in Madrid.

Ruth Reichl

Former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, chef Ruth Reichl was the food critic for both the Los Angeles Times and the New Your Times. She has written cookbooks, memoirs, novels, and has won the James Beard Foundation Award six times.

John Vaillant

John Vaillant’s current bestseller, Fire Weather, about the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind, is a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and is named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, TIME, NPR, Slate, and Smithsonian. He is the author of five non-fiction books and a novel about Mexican immigrants.

Kaveh Akbar

Kaveh Akbar’s 2024 debut novel Martyr! created such a sensation that the New York Times declared it “nothing short of miraculous.” NPR described it as “so much its own creation that comparisons don’t help.” Akbar is a multi-award-winning poet, Poetry Editor of The Nation magazine, and Professor at The University of Iowa.

Jennifer Clement

Jennifer Clement’s five novels, two memoirs, and several poetry collections have received numerous awards and been translated into 38 languages. One novel was an Oprah Book Club selection and another was made into a movie. She was the first woman President of PEN International.

San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival founder and president, Susan Page, said: “We have had a phenomenal roster of world-class writers and publishing professionals visit us in San Miguel for the Writers’ Conference over the last nineteen years, and 2025 is one of the best we’ve ever had.”

The Conference also features a writing contest judged by renowned authors Ann Hood, Lauren Camp, and Judy Reeves, and writing workshops taught by world-class faculty including Susan Brown, Judyth Hill, Verónica Flores, and singer Daniel Gutiérrez.

Other events include our popular Mexican Fiesta, receptions and dinners, one-on-one pitch sessions with prominent literary agents such as Michael Carr, Anna Knutson Geller, Rita Rosenkranz, Sam Hiyate and Susan Golomb, individual consultations with experts like Harper Influence publisher Lisa Sharkey, faculty readings, open mic sessions, guided local excursions, discussion groups, wellness offerings, and more.

Previous guests at the San Miguel Writers’ Conference have included Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, Cristina Rivera Garza, Silvia Moreno Garcia, Gloria Steinem, Judy Collins, Alice Walker, Scott Turow, Joyce Carol Oates, Calvin Trillin, Tom Hanks, Yuri Herrera, Rosa Beltrán, Margo Glantz, Pedro Ángel Palou, Brenda Lozano,Matthew McConaughey, Guillermo Arriaga, Adam Gopnik, Elena Poniatowska, Laura Esquivel, Mary Karr, Tom Robbins, Juan Villoro, Jorge Volpi, Tommy Orange, Paul Theroux, Sandra Cisneros, Delia Owens and dozens of others.

Tickets, press images, contest information, and more are available through the Conference website: sanmiguelwritersconference.org

Tickets are discounted 10% through August 31; limited numbers of student and teacher tickets are also available at 15% off. Complimentary event tickets are available to approved members of the media with confirmed assignments.

For more information or to request interviews with the keynote speakers, faculty, or conference leadership, please contact the media director at: media@sanmiguelwritersconference.org

Photo credit for the headshot of Percival Everett: Michael Avedon. Other photo credits not required.

English