How the San Miguel Writers’ Conference continues to evolve

Published March 3, 3034

After two years on Zoom, the renowned San Miguel Writers’ Conference returned to an in-person format this year, to the delight of several hundred enthusiastic attendees from across North America.

In between keynote addresses, intimate author readings, master classes from an impressive faculty, and energetic open mic nights, I had the pleasure of visiting with both Susan Page, co-founder and outgoing executive director of the conference, and Tina Bueche, incoming executive director.

Founded in 2006, this bilingual and tricultural conference held annually at the Hotel Real de Minas in San Miguel de Allende has attracted an impressive array of literary stars over the years, including Barbara Kingsolver, Luis Alberto Urrea, Tom Robbins, Valeria Luiselli, Paul Theroux, Gloria Steinem, Naomi Klein, and U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, among many other notable writers.

This year’s keynote speakers included Janelle Brown (“Pretty Things”), Jean Kwok (“Searching for Sylvie Lee” and “Girl in Translation”), Brenda Lozano (“Witches”), Linda Spalding (“The Paper Wife”), and Benjamin Lorr, the immersive journalist who wrote “The Secret Life of Groceries” and “Hell-Bent”, an explosive exposé on sexual abuse within the Bikram yoga community.

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