Writers’ Conference teachers talk shop
By Cynthia Simmons January 18, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel Writers’ Conference
Feb 22–24
Hotel Real de Minas
www.sanmiguelworkshops.com/conference. 

Jane Goldstein

The San Miguel Writer’s Conference will host its third annual conference at Hotel Real de Minas February 22–24. Writer Cynthia Simmons, who will lead one the conference breakout sessions, discusses an adage that was popular during her college years— those who can do, those who can’t teach— with three breakout session authors, Stephanie Bennett-Voght, Jane Goldstein and Lulu Torbet, all of whom combine writing with teaching.

Lulu Torbet

For Bennet-Voght, writing is an extension of her teaching. Teaching is what she feels she was born to do. Rediscovery, not writing, was what prompted her to take a leave of absence after teaching high school Spanish for 20 years. She began writing to process a spiritual transformation that began when she cleared out a single drawer. This journal evolved into her book, Your Spacious Self: Clear Your Clutter and Discover Who You Are. Rather than teaching Spanish classes, she now leads Space Clearing workshops. She regards space clearing as another foreign language because the idea is that clearing physical clutter can remove invisible clutter. Releasing stuck energy that separates us from our true selves is a foreign idea. Her writing, like her teaching, is instructional. She feels that writing connects her with herself while teaching connects her to others. She will lead a breakout session on Subsidy Publishing on Saturday, February 23.

Stephanie Bennett-Voght

Goldstein, a book editor, never envisioned herself as a writer. She loved teaching authors about writing, publishing and building careers. Her teaching and writing careers developed organically. When she started her own publishing consulting business, Jane Goldstein Enterprises, she received many requests for workshops and other teaching opportunities. Her work with 20-something students inspired her and helped her break out of the “editing” mindset. She discovered her own writing voice penning Starbuck’s story— It’s Not About the Coffee: Leadership Lessons from a Life at Starbucks— and is now exploring ideas for other books. She stays passionate combining teaching, writing and taking action; building books for other authors; and learning from all of them. She feels, “Each element gives me insight, greater caring, and a clearer vision for the others. I think every editor should be required to write a book … Teachers should try writing the same papers and assignments as their students. We can learn and grow fr
om all of it.” Jane’s breakout session, Taking Your Book Project to the Next Level, is also scheduled for Saturday.

All of these authors had other careers before they began writing. Torbet ran a graphic design studio in Manhattan before being lured into the writing trade by an editor who needed an author for a macramé craft book. She moved from craft books to the self-help market before turning to ghostwritten autobiography. Torbet feels the adage mentioned previously is an oversimplification. “There are certainly aspiring writers—or painters or actors—who turn to teaching when they don't find an audience for their work. But I and, I assume, other writers, enjoy teaching because it gives us a break from the isolation of writing; it offers an exchange of energy and ideas in a like-minded community; and it gives us a chance to articulate exactly what it is we do—as much for ourselves as for our students. I know that I get tremendous satisfaction from seeing my students’ enthusiasm and progress, and return to my own writing with renewed vitality and gratitude.” She will lead Saturday’s breakout session on Do You Have a Book in You? Guidelines for Writing the Nonfiction Book Proposal.

For additional information about this year’s San Miguel Writer’s Conference, visit www.sanmiguelworkshops.com/conference. 

Cynthia Simmons began her creative life as an actor. She toured internationally with her first play, Sally of Monticello. Her first screenplay, Coming Home, has been optioned by Soul Mending Communications.

San Miguel Writers’ Conference

Now in its third year, the San Miguel Writers’ Conference is a three-day event featuring best-selling authors, top industry professionals, agents, editors, and publishers, an annual writing contest, a special review of one’s work for eight lucky writers, workshops, panel discussions and more.

Held at the Hotel Real de Minas, from February 22 through 24, the conference features keynote speakers:

Rebecca Walker, bestselling author of Baby Love and Black & White, and Jewish

Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife, Abundance, Four Spirits, Sherlock in Love

Norm Foster, the celebrated Canadian playwright, author of more that 40 plays including Melville Boys and The Love List

Laura Fraser, author of the bestselling memoir, An Italian Affair, and contributor to numerous magazines

And many, many more celebrated presenters. For information and registration:

www.sanmiguelworkshops.com 

Mexico Lost and Found: Living and writing in Mexico
By Elizabeth Starcevic

PEN Winter Lecture Series 
“Mexico Lost and Found”
Tony Cohan 
Tues, Jan 22, 6pm
Auditorio Miguel Malo
Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75
50 pesos

San Miguel PEN, the international writers’ group, presents a talk with Tony Cohan, the author of the bestselling travel narratives On Mexican Time: A New Life in San Miguel (now in its 12th printing) and last year’s award-winning Mexican Days: Journeys Into the Heart of Mexico. For many years a resident of San Miguel, Cohan is also the chair of San Miguel PEN’s Freedom to Write Committee. He will discuss his recent experiences traveling, living and writing in Mexico, read from his books and take questions from the audiences.

Cohan is also the author of the novels Canary, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Opium a Literary Guild selection, as well as the memoir Native State, a Los Angeles Times Notable Book of the Year. He has written for Condé Nast Traveler, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and numerous other publications.

Critics have said of On Mexican Time: “Terribly seductive—an enticing and intoxicating vision of Mexico.”–Denver Post. “Cohan describes life in Mexico as ‘intimate, voluptuous, sense-driven,’ a phrase that also describes On Mexican Time.”–Boston Sunday Globe.

In describing Mexican Days, critics said: “An essential read.”–Library Journal. “A series of vivid and engaging accounts. This is about a different Mexico, one Cohan calls ‘permanently exotic.’”–Christian Science Monitor. “The phrase ‘magical travel realism’ keeps springing to mind. Cohan can make a reader smell the orchids and coffee, feel the mist and shrouds of jungle fog. A standout.”–Los Angeles Times.

Donations for this and San Miguel PEN Winter Lecture Series events will be 50 pesos at the door. For more information: lucina.kathmann@gmail.com  or phone 152-0614.

Elizabeth Starcevic is president of San Miguel PEN and for many years was a professor of Spanish at the City College of New York. She divides her time between New York and San Miguel.