Posts tagged Writers Conference

San Miguel Writers’ Conference 2012

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Last year, I fell into it at the last minute. This year I came prepared to deliver, at San Miguel Writers’ Conference, a 90-minute workshop on “Self-Publishing Success.” My overview of  the rapidly-changing world of print on demand (POD), eBooks and online marketing was well-received by 40 gracious and eager learners.

I shared what I discovered in publishing”Leonardo’s Revenge and Other Stories” – in the week between Christmas and New Years Day, without spending a penny – my encouragement to get it done, and my suggestions of where to spend money on professional help: editing, cover design and a well-conceived marketing plan so as to stand out among the three-million-plus eBooks expected to be published in 2012. I also uploaded a number of resources to this site for those interested in self-publishing (feel free to pass along!).

By all accounts, the 7th Annual Conference was the best yet! Bigger, better and exceptionally well organized, the four jammed-packed days in mid-February provided authors and readers a plethora of workshops, classes, panel discussions, readings and lectures. For me, the highlight was Margaret Atwood’s keynote address, “Writing and Hope,” attended by more than 800 people, both residents and visitors to San Miguel.

Margaret Atwood, photo by George Whiteside

Margaret Atwood, a Canadian National Treasure and author of more than 40 books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays, spoke of hope as “a human constant and a literary concept. As writers, we cannot possibly succeed unless we have hope… hope we’ll finish a book, find a publisher, and the publisher last long enough for the book to come out; and hope someone will buy it, read it, and understand and/or like it. That’s a lot of hope!”

With grace and wit, she traced her history as a woman author in light of social changes over the past five decades, starting with “Edible Women” published in 1969: “In those days, I was often asked, ‘Do you hate men?’ to which I’d responded, ‘Which ones?’ When vacuous reporters asked, ‘Is your hair really like that or do you get it done?’ I’d say, ‘If I were going to get it done, would I do this?'” (Sharing a similar relationship to my unruly hair, I had to laugh!)

In a beautifully balanced discourse of light and darkness, Ms. Atwood raised the question of hope regarding human rights and environmental issues – major issues of our time and her passions – noting we rightly fear for the economy, the planet, our children, and the civil rights we once took for granted. She concluded, “We are readers and writers embedded in time.”

In regard to her dystopian books, that she refers to as “speculative fiction,” “”Handmaiden’s Tale”, “Oryx and Crake” and “Year of the Flood”, Atwood addressed possible, scary futures such as “theocracy, and contraception in all its forms” – who can have children, who are denied them, who must have them, who gets to steal the children of others, who creates canon fodder – adding, “I did not intend [my books] to function as a blueprint for Republicans.”

In Atwood’s insightful world, “Writing is the coding of human voice into symbols. Reading is the decoding of symbols (like music). Readers are playing your symbols; it’s not passive.  Human voice and language – it is us and we are it.” But, there is always the dark side: “Those in power control language. They think, ‘if it can’t be said, then it can’t be thought, and it can be made to disappear.'” She asked us to consider examples, such as recent laws of unbridled snooping, and labeling environmentalists “terrorists” when, in fact, “it’s all about the oil!” As soon as those emphatic words were out of her mouth, a boom of thunder shook the conference hall. Without missing a beat, Ms. Atwood calmly proclaimed, “I love punctuation!”

Among many global concerns and challenges, she spoke of the disappearance and murder of journalists “brave enough to write about drug violence. Mexico deserves better! Writers must be free to use their human voices without being martyred.” She ended her beautifully-crafted speech with a final insight into hope: “Hope imagines things can be better than they are.”

The next day, passing Ms. Atwood on the grounds of the Hotel Real de Minas, where the conference was held, I thanked her, saying, “That was the best keynote speech I’ve ever heard.” To which she replied, eyes twinkling, “If that’s the case, we’re in trouble!” We both laughed and moved on. I felt hope… hope that I might realize my aspiration to be such an elegant, lively, passionate and brilliant writer and speaker as Margaret Atwood.

With another successful event behind them, Director Susan Page and the executive committee are already planning for 2013. I have submitted my proposal to again present on self-publishing and marketing, and hope to be invited back to this extraordinarily fun and inspiring conference.

A highlight of the San Miguel Writers’ Conference is the Friday night Fiesta, held at the exquisite Instituto Allende. Here I am with some strange characters.
Giant puppets, Mojigangas, join us for a photo op. Left to right: Aysha Griffin, Linda Post, Susan J. Cobb and Conference Director Susan Page.

 

The San Miguel de Allende Writers’ Conference

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I call it magic when doors swing wide open, opportunities unfold easefully and support is present at every turn for realizing my dreams. This has been the experience of my first month in San Miguel de Allende.

This colorful city has charmed many writers and artists and been much lauded in print and paint, so perhaps I am just the next lucky one to fall under its spell and be embraced and delighted. (For more about San Miguel, I suggest this recent Smithsonian article ).

Before I arrived in San Miguel de Allende, on January 21, I read online about the upcoming international writers’ conference (Feb. 18-21, 2011) and contacted director Susan Page, offering to be a volunteer in the hope I could attend this year and perhaps be a presenter next year. She thanked me but said there were no openings. Que será será. Then, a week before the conference, I met the vivacious Susan at a Women In Business meeting, and she told me a volunteer had just canceled and I was needed. Needed! I could attend! But that’s not all. At the volunteers’ orientation, days before the start of the conference, Susan announced that a faculty member had just canceled and it was too bad because she was offering the popular workshop on Self-Publishing. Without thinking, I interrupted and said, “I could do that!” “Fine,” said Susan to the group, “Aysha will do it.” And all of a sudden, my dream of presenting became a reality.

My workshop was well attended by a broad range of students, from aspiring to highly-successful published authors like Laura Davis, Jan Baross, Minerva Nieditz and Susan J. Cobb. I gained much useful information and inspiration from attending courses with writing coach Eva Hunter, crime fiction writer Jonathan Santofer, and political writer Ellen Meeropol.

A highlight for me was the keynote address by U.S. Latina writer Sandra Cisneros. Ms. Cisneros, poet, storyteller and author of several best-selling novels, took the stage to a full auditorium with a reboso wrapped around her shoulders. The theme of her talk, “Living in los Tiempos de Sustos”, (Living in the Time of Being Frightened), was gracefully woven throughout her observations about writing as the practice – “writing comes from a rant until it takes you to a place of light.”; writing as healing (after the  loss of her father) – “The book (“Carmelo”) saved me from the sadness. Because you can be extremely heartbroken and write about something heartbreaking, but if you stay with it long enough, it will bless you.”; and writing as requiring “fearlessness and lack of ego.”

She challenged us to think of writing in new ways, from what she calls her ‘pajama voice’: “If today’s hours sitting down to write were your last hours on earth, what would you write?” Write about the things you wish you could forget, she suggested. Make a list of subjects that are taboo for you and cause you discomfort. Try the “10×10 exercise” where you list 10 things in 10 different areas that make you different from everyone else, like 10 things that make you different from others in your profession, from others of your gender, etc. Acknowledge the fear of our times and write through it.

Cisneros told engaging stories from her life, read from her beautifully-crafted work and left us with the encouragement to “enter your story from your body. You are a writer and can respond to the news. We are wizards, in the time of sustos. We are light. Honor your story, your characters, and the people you love. Our writing is medicine.”

In addition to the three intensive days of the conference, there were pre-and post-events, fiestas, field trips and tremendous opportunities for conversations and connections, orchestrated by dozens of devoted volunteers and local business people. I felt honored to be a part of it all. Now I dream of returning to The San Miguel Writers’ Conference next February to present with greater preparation and in greater depth. In the meantime, I plan to be a light and honor my story, my characters, and the people I love.