Building Global Literary Community

How We Began

When Susan Page moved to San Miguel in 2004, she knew of its reputation as a Mecca for writers and so was surprised to find no venue for author readings, no gatherings of writers, and no bookstore showcasing the works of local authors. She placed a small article in the local newspaper announcing a gathering of writers interested in greater visibility and community. Everyone was excited when twenty-eight people appeared for the meeting on April 26, 2004. The San Miguel Literary Sala was born!

Almost immediately, the Sala began presenting two authors to San Miguel audiences each month. These events drew enthusiastic audiences of 75 to 125 people each time and continued until the pandemic. The group also started a small bookstore presenting only local authors. It still thrives as a part of the Tienda at the Biblioteca.

A year or so after the Sala began, member Jody Feagan made her now historic statement: “This is a world-class destination. We should have a writers’ conference here.”

Jody and Susan set about making it happen. They had a personal connection with John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, who agreed to keynote the conference. They were pleased when twenty-six burgeoning writers signed up for the first annual event.

Each year the Writers’ Conference and its reputation for excellence grew. It hit a tipping point in 2010, when registration leaped from 78 registrants the previous year to 207 full Conference attendees! That year our keynote speaker was Barbara Kingsolver, and that was also the year that Michael Coon invented our now legendary Fiesta. Barbara Kingsolver loved bashing a piñata in the shape of Senator McCarthy (who played a part in her novel The Lacuna) and was brought to tears when she saw “Lacuna” in bright lights on the castillo fireworks. The Fiesta has become a much beloved feature of our Conference every year.

About the Conference

When we founded the San Miguel Writers’ Conference in 2006, we could not conceive that within a few years it would become “one of a handful of must-attend writers’ conferences in the literary world,” as one reviewer recently commented. Our first conference drew twenty-six local San Miguel residents. Twenty years later, in 2025, we expect some 3,000 unique individuals to attend some or all of the Conference. They will have gathered in San Miguel from many parts of the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Over the past nineteen years, more than 5,000 writers have enjoyed world-class workshops, and we have filled more than 40,000 seats for keynote presentations by just over one hundred keynote speakers, including some of the world’s most well known writers.

We survived two Covid years by offering speakers, interviews, and workshops on line over a period of months for two years.

How We Are Different

The San Miguel Writers’ Conference is distinctive because:

• We are both a Writers’ Conference with world-class faculty and a Literary Festival featuring famous and distinguished authors.
• Our event is designed to excite both readers and writers.
• We are bilingual and tri-cultural, bringing together the literary communities of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.
• Our town is a World Heritage Site that has been a gathering place for artists and writers since the 1930s. It is an entire town of restored eighteenth century buildings, utterly charming, and a Mecca for artists and writers from all over the world.

About Susan Page

Susan Page conducted relationship workshops internationally for twenty-two years before moving to San Miguel de Allende in 2004. She is the author of six books including the international bestseller, If I’m So Wonderful, Why Am I Still Single, which was translated into twenty-two languages and is currently celebrating twenty-sixth year in print. Her international speaking and media career, including three appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show, has taken her to twenty-six states, Canada, Korea, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico. She is the former Director of Women’s Programs at the University of California, Berkeley, where she pioneered the first university-based human sexuality program in the U.S. Susan grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and lived in Berkeley, California, for most of her adult life until she moved to San Miguel in 2004. Almost as soon as she arrived, she founded the San Miguel Literary Sala, and the very next year, the San Miguel International Writers’ Conference.