A literary mini-festival
By Susan Page December 12, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel Authors’ Sala
A Celebration of the Beat Writers
Sat, Dec 13, 5–9:30pm
Hotel Real de Minas
Cnr. Ancha San Antonio & Stirling Dickinson
250 pesos
Advance purchase at Mailboxes, Etc., Reloj 26 
or online at www.sanmiguelauthors.com 

During the fifties, while Norman Rockwell was enchanting us with images of the idyllic American family, a group of writers and adventurers in New York City was busy shattering them.

 The far-reaching effects of the small group of writers who came to be known as the Beats, cannot be overstated. Their breakthrough writing style and subject matter; their road trips and experiments with hallucinogenic drugs, sex and lifestyles—all led to the beatniks, the hippies, the counterculture, the sexual revolution, the broad acceptance of a wide variety of lifestyles in which many of us still participate and a large body of literary collections and investigations of the period.

San Miguel plays a small role in the whole greater story of the Beats because one of the most important original figures, Neal Cassady, spent time here on several visits in 1967, and then died here in a mysterious incident on the railroad tracks on February 4, 1968.

The Authors’ Sala Celebration of the Beat Writers might someday be written up in someone’s history of the movement, because we are creating an historic coming together that could trigger old memories or even generate new stories from these key Beat players.

Richard Mayes lived in San Miguel when Cassady was here, started a literary journal, and wrote a book of poems called The Zero Tolerance Factor. Richard’s son, David, who recently published the book for the first time, will be with us to read some of his father’s Beat-style poetry and to tell us stories of living in San Miguel during the late sixties and early seventies.

Neal Cassady’s son, John Cassady, reads from his father’s letters and discusses what it is like being the son of a mythologized man whose influence is still felt today. George Walker was a close friend of Neal Cassady and traveled with him on Ken Kesey’s famous cross-country bus trip in 1964. He will tell us stories about the legendary man, and also about his times with Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Timothy Leary.

Harry Burrus hosts the event. He is a Beat enthusiast whose encyclopedic knowledge of the Beats will surely lead the group to some fascinating questions and discussions.

In addition to The Zero Tolerance Factor, books available for purchase at the event include Kerouac’s classic On the Road; Carolyn Cassady’s account of her years with Neal Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg, entitled Off the Road and On the Bus.

The ticket price includes a light supper. Tickets can be purchased ahead of time at Mailboxes, Etc., Reloj 26 or online at www.sanmiguelauthors.com. They also will be available at the door.

Contest deadlines announced 

San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival
Feb 20–24, 2009
Guests: Erica Jong and Todd Gitlin
Speakers: Teatro Ángela Peralta
Workshops & classes: Biblioteca Pública
Writing contest entry deadline:
January 15, 2009 
www.sanmiguelwritersconference.com 

During the fourth annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival, winners of two writing contests will meet with and receive written critiques from New York literary agent Rosemary Stimola and New York literary editor Fred Hills. Six winners will be selected from each contest.

This year’s writing contests will accept manuscripts up to 30 pages in length from writers targeting the youth and adult markets. Most writing genres are included in the two contests. Authors writing fiction or nonfiction for the preschool to young adult markets should submit their manuscript for a chance to meet with Stimola, whose interest in children’s literature began more than 30 years ago. A former teacher of children’s literature and owner of an independent children’s bookstore, she founded the Stimola Literary Studio in 1997, which now represents 60 authors who bring unique and diverse perspectives to fiction and nonfiction for the preschool to young adult market.

Those writing fiction, biography, psychology, history, memoir, business, finance and how-to books for the adult market should submit pages for a chance to meet with Hills, who has edited books in practically every genre of adult publishing. Formerly editor-in-chief of the General Books Division of McGraw-Hill, Hills set the record for the greatest number of New York Times bestsellers during his tenure as senior editor at Simon & Schuster. His list of authors includes Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners and ranges from Vladimir Nabokov to Jane Fonda to William Saroyan.

The submission deadline for both contests is January 15, 2009. Writers should submit 30 manuscript pages (or their complete children’s picture book manuscript if it is less than 30 pages), along with their US$30 submission fee, via email to jody@sanmiguelworkshops.com. You must register for the San Miguel Writers’ Conference before submitting your manuscript pages.

San Miguel will be filled with literary talent for the conference—writers, industry professionals, agents, editors and publishers. The five-day event includes workshops, panel discussions, book sales and signings, open mike readings and three keynote speakers: feminist writer Erica Jong, political activist Todd Gitlin and Southern novelist Josephine Humphreys. Visit www.sanmiguelwritersconference.com  for complete details.

Young writers need a slice of the pie

Pie sale
Teen Writers’ Workshop
Dec 23, 10am–2pm
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
Pies 120 pesos, slices 20 pesos

Creators of the first Teen Writers’ Workshop, to be held in conjunction with the fourth annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival, are holding a pie sale December 23, 10am–2pm, or until all pies are sold.

If you can donate a homemade pie or gingerbread men, please confirm by email to Jody Feagan, jody@sanmiguelworkshops.com , producer of the San Miguel Writers’ Conference, or call or email Dianna Aston, Director of The Oz Project, at 044 (415) 101-6527; email via www.theozproject.org.  

All proceeds go directly for scholarships to 30 Mexican high school students to attend the workshop. Award-winning author Betsy James will lead the two-day workshop.

Pie-eaters: We sold out in an hour at the last pie sale on November 26. Don’t let our success leave you hungry; come early for homemade pies and gingerbread men. Local restaurants also donate pies.

The five-day conference, February 20–24, 2009, features public events with guest authors Erica Jong and Todd Gitlin, 20 workshops and two writing contests to meet with Rosemary Stimola, New York literary agent for children’s writers and New York literary editor Fred Hills.

Conference sponsors are the Authors’ Sala, The Oz Project, Atención, Biblioteca Pública, Casa de Sierra Nevada and Jasmine Day Spa. Visit www.sanmiguelwritersconference.com  for more information.

The Bruja, the Turk, the commitment 
By Eva Hunter

Author Readings
The Writer’s Workshop: San Miguel
Benefits the Children’s Christmas Fund
Wed, Dec 17, 5–7pm
Garrison & Garrison Books
Herna´ndez Maci´as 59
Donation 25 pesos 

Margaret Tallis with witchcraft symbols: the datura plant and a black cat.

A bruja stole her husband away, with poison and charms and sex and secret incantations. A bruja, a witch, a curandera, an evil one. This is not a story of Wicca, or the sometimes innocent and often misguided curiosity about black magic that fascinates the extranjero here. This is not fanciful prose written for a novel. It is the true-life story of an educated Canadian woman, poisoned with the drug datura, life torn apart by brujeri´a.

Margaret Tallis is her name, one of five readers affiliated with the Writer’s Workshop: San Miguel, who will participate at a holiday literary party at Garrison & Garrison Books, in the Hotel Sautto. The entry fee will be donated to the “Children’s Christmas Fund” sponsored by La Conexio´n for the purchase of holiday gifts for orphaned or otherwise homeless local children.

The Writer’s Workshop, an affiliation of writing coaches and their protégés, has been offering writing classes and workshops in San Miguel since 1995. Each reader at this event will present a excerpt from works in progress that range from short story to novel, memoir to tongue-in-cheek travel essay.

Sheila Sheehan, a two-year resident of San Miguel, is active in local charitable organizations. For 20 years, she was an international travel industry executive and still consults in that field. She will read from her novel based in Mexico concerning the choices and commitments made through a lifetime, called, Good—Better—Best.

Margaret Tallis, a watercolor artist, equestrienne and massage therapist, has been living in San Miguel for over 20 years. She will read from her in-progress memoir, The Known.

Mariah Sirius, who recently moved to San Miguel from Portland, Oregon, will read from an untitled travel essay about an experience on “loneliest road in the world” (proclaims Nevada’s tourism bureau), which is—indeed—lonely, and is—in fact—devoid of any credible tourist destination, except for one surprising phenomenon.

Cynthia Huntington, former Pan American airline stewardess, nurse and local bed-and-breakfast owner, will read from an autobiographical novel: Through Her Eyes: A Western Woman’s Adventures in an Ancient Ottoman Culture. A young woman marries into, then must find a way to escape, a traditional Turkish family.

Carolyn Roberts de Hernandez, originally from Australia, has lived in Celaya for over 30 years. A poet and an English teacher, she now grows organic vegetables in a small greenhouse. Roberts will read her short story, “Christmas Tides,” which is based on her poem about a childhood day at the beach in Australia.

Garrison & Garrison Books will be set up for mingling, with complementary refreshments of wine and Christmas cookies at 5pm. Readings begin at 5:30pm, and a brief audience comment and question period will follow the readers’ presentations. The bookstore’s co-owner, Michelle Garrison, says she will keep the store open for as long as customers wish to browse her selection of used and new books.

At-the-door donations to the Children’s Christmas Fund allow children of the hogares, the shelter homes run by Catholic sisters for homeless and abused boys and girls, to select some special holiday gifts for themselves in supervised shopping trips to local public markets.

For more information about the literary event, or the Writer’s Workshop: San Miguel, call 152-6378, or email: evamhunter@gmail.com. 

Book club donates to library

There are many book clubs in San Miguel. Ours has 16 members and we meet monthly from October through April. At the beginning of each season we collect 50 pesos from each member, mostly to use for ordering books.

At our last meeting, we discussed various options for spending our surplus and agreed unanimously that donating it to the Biblioteca Pública was the perfect fit. We have, therefore, given the library 2,000 pesos to buy books, whether for children or adults, in Spanish or in English—they will know best how to use the donation. As readers and residents, we appreciate so much having this wonderful institution in our midst and we hope others also will consider supporting it. 

Book Fever
By Marcia Loy

Trips to Asia

Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,
He travels fastest who travels alone. —Rudyard Kipling

This week Book Fever takes three great trips to different parts of Asia, from the thirteenth century to the present.

He described the dazzling court of Kublai Khan and the organization of the Mongol Army that came perilously near conquering the entire world; and he also described strange little birds and animals unknown in his own land and temples that had golden roofs, and odd customs, strange sights. . . . No volume has ever contained a richer magazine of marvels. —From the introduction


The Travels of Marco Polo, revised and edited by Manuel Komroff, 1934. When I started writing about travel for this column, I told my daughter how much I enjoyed reading the journals of Lewis and Clark. She said she felt the same way in high school when she read the first 80 pages of Marco Polo’s journey to China. I was glad she mentioned it because I hadn’t thought to include that book in my columns. What a trip that must have been. Young Marco, his father and uncle spent 24 years (1271–1295) as some of the first Europeans to visit Armenia, Persia, India, Tibet, Burma, Siam and China.

While he was imprisoned after a battle between the Venetians and Genovese, he wrote the story of his travels. His account was so full of curious things that many of his contemporaries didn’t believe his tale. Mapmakers of the time didn’t make many changes to accord with his careful descriptions.

Excerpt: Departing from the city last mentioned, and proceeding three days’ journey in a north-easterly direction, you arrive at a city called Shandu, built by the Great Khan Kublai, now reigning. In this he caused a palace to be erected, of marble and other handsome stones admirable as well for the elegance of its design as for the skill displayed in its execution.

The halls and chambers are all gilt, and very handsome. It presents one front toward the interior of the city, and the other toward the wall; and from each extremity of the building runs another wall to such an extent as to enclose sixteen miles in circuit of the adjoining plain, to which there is no access but through the palace. Within the bounds of this royal Park there are rich and beautiful meadows, watered by many rivulets, where a variety of animals of the deer and goat kind are pastured. . . .

In the center of these grounds, where there is a beautiful grove of trees, he has built a Royal Pavilion, supported upon a colonnade of handsome pillars, gilt and varnished. Round each pillar a dragon, likewise gilt, entwines its tail, whilst its head sustains the projection of the roof, and its talons or claws are extended to the right and left. The roof, like the rest, is of bamboo cane, and so well varnished that no wet can injure it. The bamboos used for this purpose are three palms in circumference and ten fathoms in length, and being cut at the joints, are split into two equal parts, so as to form gutters and with these, laid concave and convex, the pavilion is covered. But to secure the roof against the effect of wind, each of the bamboos is tied at the ends to the frame. The building is supported on every side like a tent by more than two hundred very strong silken cords, and otherwise, from the lightness of the materials, it would be liable to oversetting by the force of high winds. The whole is constructed with so much ingenuity of contrivance that all the parts may be taken apart, removed, and again set up, at his Majesty’s pleasure.

A highly readable life of one of the great British women of the past century. —Chicago Tribune

Desert Queen, Janet Wallach, 1996. Gertrude Bell was a wealthy young English woman when she traveled to Arabia in 1899. She returned many times and, along with T.E. Lawrence, helped shape the modern Middle East. She provided information to British intelligence during the First World War. She traveled in style, bringing trunks filled with crystal and fine china, a canvas bathtub and several servants and went to places and met with people most women of her era never dared. She was a confidante of King Faisal I, crowned in 1921 as the first modern leader of Iraq. In her day she was the most famous woman in England.

Excerpt: The following morning they moved past the black hills onto the flat and yellow plain, but soon the men caught sight of rising smoke and a camel flock, signs of the Jebel Druze. Gertrude spotted a horseman galloping toward them, firing shots into the air. He wheeled his horse around them, shouting that they were foes and ordering them not to use their guns. With that, he aimed his rifle at Gertrude and demanded Ali, her helper, hand over his rifle and his fur cloak.

Within seconds, more of the tribesmen appeared. Terrified, Gertrude found herself surrounded by a dozen Druze, shrieking insanely, matted black hair flying in their faces as the leapt into the air, their bodies half-naked except for one, who had no clothes at all. Shouting crazily, one of them grabbed Muhammad’s camel, drew the sword hanging behind the saddle, and danced around the group, slashing the air and hitting Gertrude’s camel on the neck to make it kneel. As the animal struggled to get up, Gertrude could only watch in silence while the thieves stripped her men of their revolvers, cartridge belts and cloaks.

A week out, and already her hopes were scorched. There was no way they could continue without guns and bullets; they would have to return to Damascus. Suddenly one of the ruffians recognized one of Gertrude’s men, and just as abruptly, two sheikhs arrived who knew Muhammad and Ali. With great relief, Gertrude invited the sheikhs to drink coffee in her tent, and after the stolen goods were returned, she paid off the pair with baksheesh. The caravan was soon on its way again, but her voyage carried heavier baggage now—the weight of ominous portents.

Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, Laurie Gough, 1999. One day when I was at the library looking for travel books, I ran into Robin Velte. She said I shouldn’t miss reading this one, and she was right. Gough was a 24-year-old traveler from Ontario when she took this trip to Asia, Africa, New Zealand and the South Pacific. It’s fun to compare her take of New Zealand (paradise) with Theroux’s in The Happy Isles of Oceania (prim and moribund). Most of her book is written about Fiji and her two visits to the island of Taveuni, although there are also unforgettable trips to Morocco and Switzerland.

Excerpt: Something wakes me very early this morning. Much too early. Night is barely over, I think, as I stumble out of the tent. Halfway out of my dreams I walk groggily to look at the sea, the disappearing stars, the mountains of the next island. This view of the sea is just as miraculous as the first time I saw it, that evening almost a year ago. But now, as I look at the water from the trees, I see something new, a sight entirely shocking to my sleepy self. The Giant Aunts, the overbearing and jolly Fijian women, five or six of them that I thought I knew so well, are walking into the sea, dressed in bright floral sulus that engulf their bodies from their breasts down to their knees. They laugh and talk and tease noisily, splashing each other as they walk out deeper. Then they plunge.

Their glorious bodies split open the water and their red soaked sulus cling to their soft mocha skin. They continue to laugh and splash, but then, as if by cue, as if they must, they fall silent. Each woman floats her gorgeous vessel body adrift, face up, arms and legs stretched out like the sky’s fading stars above, the ocean’s starfish below. They welcome the opening dawn. The sea’s lapping swells make no noise. There’s no noise at all.

I don’t want to leave behind travel without mentioning The Way of the Traveler by Joseph Dispenza. It’s an excellent book that will enhance any trip whether it’s around the globe or heading to Zacatecas for a weekend. Take a look at it before your next trip.

Next week Book Fever wraps up a year of columns with a list of favorite fiction. The last week in December will feature 50 nonfiction books. Happy reading!