The Genius of it all!
by Nancy
Snipper
Wisdom, Writing,
Workshops and Wonder
Write down these words: accessibility,
cultural inclusiveness, excitement and inspiration! Everyone talks; everyone learns; everyone
laughs and everyone walks away looking younger and happier than ever. After
all, San Miguel de Allende’s colonial charm is a darling place to excite the
senses, inspire writers and invite party-goers to celebrate. This festival beckons
a myriad of muses to enrich your soul in honour of the written word. Susan Page
is executive director of the festival.
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| Photo Credit: Christine McReynolds |
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| Photo Credit: Christine McReynolds |
Everyone flocks to the keynote speakers
This year, the literati line-up of nine notables was as powerful as the
margaritas pouring into our glasses at the festivals’ fabulous fiestas. These
astounding writers included Joyce Carol Oates, Gail Sheehy, Elizabeth Hay,
Scott Simon, and other gifted giants of international acclaim. |
| Photo Credit: Christine McReynolds |
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| Photo Credit: Christine McReynolds |
His imitations of his friends, his macho dad whose machismo extended
into everything Mexican; he believed it was great if it was invented by
Mexicans. His elegant American mother was the foil for his gruff dad. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Mr. Urrea
has written novels (The Devil’s Highway,
Nobody’s Son), poetry and essays. He is so entertaining. He says he belongs
to the nation of words, and his are uproarious.
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| Photo Credit: Rebecca Woodland |
Another fine speaker – Scott Simon -
whose novel Unforgettable about being
with his dying mother – an extraordinary Jewish woman whose humour became known
throughout the world via Scott Simon’s tweeting their mini-conversations – he
at her bedside in the hospital, both keeping that unbreakable mother/son as millions of tweets touched the world.
Known as VPR’s great interviewer, Mr.
Simon was both moving and humorous. His work at a mentally challenged home in
Chicago revealed how he began to change his perception of humanity because of
the great friends he made with these adults, and how they taught him to love
through example.
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| Photo Credit: Rebecca Woodland |
Lisa See whose three astounding books
explore the cultural hardships of the Chinese. Her description of the practice
of female foot binding was riveting. She surely is the authority on ancient
customs – many which have been addressed in her books. On
Golden Mountain: The Hundred Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American
Family, she brings to life the world of her grandparents
who led the wave of the Chinese coming to America. Her grandfather started a
ladies’ underwear business -“crotchless” being the operative word here. In
another book, she uncovers the secret 17th century language invented by women who communicated to
one another; they shared the same husband. Her deep curiosity compelled her to visit the remotest region of
China where she uncovered this secret communication.
Her book, China Dolls is being made into a TV series by the great
screenwriter /producer, Kirk Ellis famous for his successful HBO
"John Adams" miniseries. In his keynote address, he took us
through a lesson of cinematic development from the silent to the neo-realism of
the Bicycle Thief to clips from his
hero, Satyajit Ray and from the great Iranian director Jafar Panahi.
Gale Sheehy basically reenacted her
trajectory rise to stardom as a writer. Her professional relationship with Clay
Felker – top editor at New York Times resulted in a longstanding marriage and
the adoption of a Cambodian girl she met during one of her assignments in
Cambodia. Moving, touching hilarious and energetic, Sheehy gave me goose bumps.
Her presentation included film clips from parts of her career. She is a
performance artist, now moving beyond her world-famous novel, Passages, continuing her mantra of
daring. Her latest book, Daring: My Passages was put to the test when she closed the evening,
inviting anyone from the audience to share their most daring moment. How poignant and relevant to the evening’s
theme of daring.
A plethora of invaluable workshops
Seventy-seven incredibly dig-deep
workshops addressed almost every aspect of writing – all genre varieties,
marketing your work and giving it its much needed electronic buzz, to agent
pitching and every conceivable topic in between – all this to give your writing
an assortment of strategies to get it where it needs to go.
I particularly learned about character-shaping
and plot construction in David Corbett’s wonderfully enthusiastic and helpful
session. Incorporating suspense and
using setting to illuminate character are interesting and often overlooked
topics. Susan Brown and Newfoundland’s Donna Morrissey stimulated us, offering techniques
along with the do’s and dont's in their respective workshops, but I was
critical of Morrissey’s refusal to
answer questions, and it would have been nice to share with each other what she
asked us to write in her workshop on setting. She was more intent on reading
from her own book to give examples than hearing what others wrote during her
workshop.
Elizabeth Rosner’s Bending the Rules workshop was fun and encouraging. She offered
examples of writing from famous writers who broke all rules. She was the
maverick who talked about construct taking all kinds of novel forms – that
passion is the cornerstone of great writing, not rules.
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| David Corbett |
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| Susan Brown |
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| Donna Morrisey |
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| Elizabeth Rosner |
Enlivening the poetic spirit
San Miguel’s writers and literary
conference is deeply involved with outreach programs for children. Open mike to
read your writing, spontaneous questions asked to the keynote speakers, agent
panels, book signing and more – are all part of the five-day conference. Poet,
Judyth Hill, dubbed the conference’s poet laureate, enlivened our poetic
spirit. She created two amazing poems that colourfully resonated the Mexican
spirit in the opening and closing evenings of the five-day whirlwind
conference. Outdoor excursions, cantina prowls, story-telling and
cross-cultural panel discussions informed and entertained us all. 
Photo Credit for 2 photos above: Christine McReynolds
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