The San Miguel de Allende Writers’ Conference

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.

18 Comments The San Miguel de Allende Writers’ Conference

  1. arturo Vera February 26, 2011 at 7:19 pm

    Thanks for sharing this experience! Just one paragraph of the time you spent with Cisneros is enough to make me think of how and why I write and therefore make the activity more meaningful. Thanks again.

  2. Anne Savitt February 26, 2011 at 8:37 pm

    Aysha you exemplify what is necessary to make magic happen – know what you want, be prepared, and put yourself in the path. If you stay at home fantasizing about what you want, nothing would happen!

  3. Janet Goldstein February 27, 2011 at 6:14 am

    Wonderful post. I love the way you captured Sandra Cisneros’s soulful and yet very practical and helpful talk. I’m thinking about playing with the 10×10 idea. Glad we met and all best, j

  4. Fran February 27, 2011 at 9:58 am

    How exciting…nothing like imagery and having it come true! Miss you. Fran

  5. jann February 27, 2011 at 11:45 am

    I love Sandra Cisneros’s writing and fondly remember an inspiring lecture-wkshop with her years ago. Aysha, Mexico’s putting her spell on you!

  6. Jan February 27, 2011 at 12:30 pm

    Hi Aysh!
    This is beautiful, thanks for sharing it with us. “We are the wizards” (I love that) Everyday we live in a miraculous world of complex beauty, at times that beauty is so well hidden that it takes a gifted writer to coax it back into the light. Thanks for your lovely post.

  7. judie February 27, 2011 at 2:42 pm

    i was there, sitting in the audience, listening to sandra cisnero. i was there, with you, elated at there being an opening for you. brava.

  8. Don Cavness February 28, 2011 at 8:13 am

    Aysha, thank you for so generously and concisely sharing the wisdom and insights you gained from the masters. The light and honor you give to your story, your characters, and the people you love are a reflection of the honor and light freely given to you by all who meet you. I can’t wait to read the next soulful and wizardly dream you weave!

  9. glen kanwit March 2, 2011 at 11:40 am

    Aysha, I’m sitting here in our house in San Miguel, looking out at the beautiful sunshine, enjoying full spring and waiting for time for my evening beverage. I loved the writers’ conference. It taught me what I need to do to be a successful writer. It isn’t necessarily the same as being a published writer; it is becoming a fulfilled writer. See you next year, I hope!

  10. Aysha Griffin March 2, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    Glen, Thank you for your wise comment about being a “fulfilled writer”. Yes! I wish that for you, am here to help in any way, and also hope to see you at the SMA Writers’ Conference in 2012!

  11. Aysha Griffin March 2, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    Dear Don, You honor me with your generous words, and your friendship. I look forward to getting together after I return to Fanta Se late this month.

  12. Aysha Griffin March 2, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    Judie, Your inspiration and spirit is indeed always sitting next to me. May it be literally and physically so at next year’s SMA Conference and many other events in beautiful places around the world!

  13. Aysha Griffin March 2, 2011 at 10:10 pm

    Jan, Your gift for coaxing that hidden beauty into the light is an inspiration for all who know and read your wizardly words!

  14. Aysha Griffin March 2, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    Indeed, the spell of San Miguel is intoxicating and perhaps, if I am so blessed, I am developing a relationship with her as you have with Sicily!

  15. Aysha Griffin March 2, 2011 at 10:12 pm

    Janet, thanks! If you do explore the 10×10 idea, I’d love to read about it!

  16. Susan Cobb March 4, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    Aysha, you did a fantabulous job with your workshop. You were meant to be in that place for all of us. And I am so impressed with my first SMdA Writers Conference. Thanks for synthesizing remarks made by the wonderful Sandra Cisneros. I was there. I was writing them down like crazy, but you heard things I didn’t.

  17. Aysha Griffin March 4, 2011 at 9:48 pm

    Susan, Thank you! I would love to read what you heard/took away from Sandra Cisneros’ address.

  18. Karen Strickholm May 4, 2011 at 8:34 am

    Wonderful post Aysha, really truly lovely in every way. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to visiting you in that magical place, San Miguel de Allende! xoxo

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