The San Miguel Writers’ Conference By Nathan Feuerberg

reading at the 2013 SMWCThree years ago a friend from graduate school coerced me into volunteering for the 6th annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference.  She needed people to check tickets at the door and, although I wasn’t interested in spending my weekend as a bouncer, I agreed to do it.  At the time I didn’t know much about the conference.  I figured it was a small event where published writers talked about their success and unpublished writers wrote down every word in the hopes of one day publishing a best seller.  I’d been writing for over ten years and knew there weren’t any steps or tips that would suddenly put my short story collection next to Dan Brown’s novels and if I’m going to be truthful I should say, I sort of thought of all writers’ conferences as scams.

However, what I found was very different from what I had expected.  For one, the San Miguel Writers’ Conference was not a small affair.  It may have started as a two day event in 2004, but it had grown to a week-long literary festival with a thick schedule of events ranging from panels about political topics to a fiesta the size of a circus.  Many of the lectures where I had expected to check 50 tickets boasted more than 500 attendees.  On top of that, the writers were not a bunch of novices hoping for a break.  Most of the writers I talked to had published books with real publishers like Random House.  During my weekend of volunteering I realized this conference was different.  Sure they offered workshops on how to get published, but the heart of the conference was meeting other writers and getting that jolt of inspiration to work in a solitary environment for another twelve months.

2012 Legendary Fiesta SMWCNow years later I work for the San Miguel Writers’ Conference full time.  I create all their social media, work as their registrar, and basically assist in creating an event that takes over a year of planning (We’re already started working on the 2014 and 2015 conference and the 2013 conference hasn’t even happened yet.)  I have to say I’m proud of what I do.  Not only do we bring super-star writers like Margaret Atwood to Mexico, but we also create a space where writers can meet other writers from all sort of backgrounds and feel good about being an artist.  That’s the aspect of our conference that I think is most important.  Sitting with a pen and notebook day after day can feel very lonely.  The isolation can be discouraging especially when working on something as long as a novel.  But when you get a chance to go to our workshops, network at our events, and just hang around our massive bookstore you leave inspired to plow on.

Margaret Atwood and Merilyn Simonds
Margaret Atwood and Merilyn Simonds at 2012 Conference

This year we have some amazing writers coming down such as Luis Alberto Urrea, Juan Villoro, Cheryl Strayed, ZZ Packer, Lawrence Hill, Sandra Cisneros, and many more.  We have over 50 workshop options for both readers and writers from our acclaimed faculty.  There will be a live performance of “O’Keeffe!” with Lucinda McDermott, the legendary fiesta, teen workshops, and a slew of panels and other events.  We also will be offering various excursions such as the “Fireside Carnitas Fest” and the “Cantina Crawl: ‘Beat’ Afternoon in San Miguel’s Old Cantinas.” (The crawl was my idea.)

Still, I think my favorite part is meeting our writing contest winners and scholarship awardees.  These writers have a huge amount of potential and are carefully picked each year to come to the conference.  By attending our conference they take any workshop they are in to a higher level with their insightful questions.  Plus, they get the opportunity to meet with agents, acclaimed authors, and other writers.

A lot of work goes into pulling off a week-long literary festival, but once you see how much good it does for the community and the people traveling here to attend, it’s easy to say, “It’s worth it.”

 

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