By Carole Schor and Susan Page

The Literary Sala invites you to an evening of thought-provoking discussion as an historian and a novelist present aspects of Mexican culture and history, Thursday, November 14, 5pm, at the Aldea Hotel, Ancha de San Antonio 15. Admission is 70 pesos, 50 pesos for Literary Sala members.

San Miguel Literary Sala Presents
Geoff Hargreaves’s Seventy Times Seven
and
Gregory Orfalea’s
Journey to the Sun: Junipero Serra’s Dream and the Founding of California
Thu, Nov 14, 5-7pm
Hotel Posada del Aldea
Ancha de San Antonio 15
70 pesos (50 pesos for Literary Sala members)
Complimentary wine reception

Geoff Hargreaves, Translator

An engaging novel that vividly characterizes the differences between American and Mexican cultures, Seventy Times Seven takes place between 1880 and 1920. While one sister remains in rural Mexico, her two brothers migrate to what will become urban Texas. The siblings remain connected, but their cultures begin to separate them in ways they could never have anticipated. Through triumph and tragedy, laughter and tears, births and deaths, love and hate, they and their families must either adapt to or resist the challenges of their widely separated environments. The families in Texas earn more money, but they are far from the values that nurtured them and miss a sense of community. They reluctantly break with tradition, lose touch even with their own children, who themselves are caught between two cultures. The families who stay in Mexico have more limited opportunities, but they are happily connected to each other and to tradition. They know who they are and where they belong, and their lives are satisfying. The questions this novel evokes are relevant today.

Long-time San Miguel resident Geoffrey Hargreaves translated the novel into English and will present it at the Literary Sala event on Thursday, November 14, 5pm at the Aldea Hotel. “The book is beautifully written,” according to Hargreaves, “in a simple style appropriate for this novel.” Hargreaves learned Spanish while teaching in Madrid in the ‘60s but perfected it here in San Miguel where he married his Mexican wife, Guillermina, and where he has lived for 25 years. He has translated numerous Spanish writers into English, including the much-beloved Juan Villoro, a featured writer at the San Miguel Writers’ Conference this past February.

The author of Seventy Times Seven (a Biblical reference to the number of times Jesus says one should forgive) is the historian and novelist Ricardo Elizondo, who died of cancer just this past August at the age of 63. In addition to his writing, Elizondo administered the State Archives in Nuevo León and was head librarian at Monterrey Institute of Technology. He was a member of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Committee.

Although Hargreaves never met Elizondo face to face, he greatly enjoyed working with him. The translation and publication of Seventy Times Seven into English was a major breakthrough in Elizondo’s career, because the Mexican government’s cultural wing, CONACULTA, offers substantial grants to writers who are published internationally.

In his presentation at the Literary Sala, Hargreaves will talk about Ricardo Elizondo, tell us how the two of them met, talk about the novel and the process of translation, and read some excerpts from Seventy Times Seven.

Gregory Orfalea

Gregory Orfalea grew up among Mexicans in Los Angeles, working side by side with them in his father’s factory. Orfalea, an Arab-American, has been mistaken many times for Mexican and welcomes the misidentification. He loves the life and soul of Mexican culture, here in this country and back in Los Angeles.

Orfalea’s new book, Journey to the Sun: Junipero Serra’s Dream and the Founding of California, from which he’ll be reading at the Literary Sala, gave him the opportunity to delve deep into Mexican and Spanish history, uncovering the faith and strength of the Mexican people, and the generosity he finds so similar to that of his own Arab family.

Journey to the Sun is the story of the remarkable life of Junípero Serra, the valiant priest who led Spain and the Catholic Church into California. Father Junípero Serra is well known in California for founding the missions at San Diego, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Clara and San Francisco. Serra paved the way to opening California and the making of the great American West. But many Californians, until they move to or travel in Mexico, do not know that Serra also founded important missions in Mexico’s Sierra Gorda. Why are Serra’s Mexican missions graced with elaborate Baroque façades, while the missions in California are simple and plain? Perhaps Orfalea will be able to shed light on this mystery.

Gregory Orfalea is traveling to San Miguel from Los Angeles to present his new book on the missions to us at the Literary Sala. He is a prolific writer and is the director of the Center for Writing at Pitzer College in Los Angeles, where he teaches creative nonfiction and the short story.

His writing spans a wide variety of subjects from this study of Father Junípero Serra and the founding of the missions, to a collection of Los Angeles essays entitled Angeleno Days: An Arab American Writer on Family, Place, and Politics; and even to Obama’s First 150 Days: Perspectives from An Arab American Writer. His highly acclaimed book, The Man Who Guarded the Bomb, gives the reader elegantly written stories alive with heart-warming and complex characters.

In Why Write? one of the essays in Angeleno Days (2009), Gregory says, “There is no writer worth his or her salt who doesn’t yearn for it, pray for it, let blood and position for it, hunt it, dice it, and serve it raw to readers.” Writing, he says, “ . . . keeps me going when all else fails: I love it! I love it because short of lovemaking itself, writing is one of the few human activities that can add more life to this sorry life that we have.”

To the aspiring writers of San Miguel, Gregory Orfalea gives this advice: “Work like the devil and think like an angel.” Join us at the Literary Sala for a lively evening, November 14, 5pm.

By Susan Page

The San Miguel Writers’ Conference is pleased to announce opportunities to purchase tickets in person for individual keynote addresses or full conference registration, for the Ninth Annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival, to take place February 12 to 17, 2014, at the Real de Minas Hotel.

Literature
San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival
Tickets and Registration available in person
The first and third Tuesdays of
October, November, and December
11am-2pm
La Biblioteca’s Courtyard
Insurgentes 25
Tickets and Registration also available online
www.sanmiguelwritersconference.org

Tickets and registration are always available online at www.sanmiguelwritersconference.org. However, since many people prefer to purchase tickets in person, the conference registrar, Nathan Feuerberg, will be ready to serve you in the courtyard of the Biblioteca at Insurgentes 25 on the first and third Tuesdays during October, November, and December from 11am to 2pm each of those days. He will be available more frequently in January and February.

Single event tickets are available for keynote addresses by Pat Conroy (The Great Santini, The Price of Tides); Yann Martel (Life of Pi); Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate); Benjamin Alire Sáenz (PEN/Faulkner award winner); David Whyte (poet and professional speaker); Kathi Diamant (Kafka’s Last Love); and Ellen Bass (poet).

Other events open to the public include the highly acclaimed play, Women of Will, about the women in Shakespeare’s plays; two panels featuring the keynote speakers; a panel on the New Era of Publishing; a panel called “Women Write Their Lives;” a panel of Literary Agents; and a highly acclaimed program featuring distinguished writers called “Women’s Voices.”

Full Conference registrations are also still available and include, in addition to all of the above, eight 90-minute workshops (choose from 56 available workshops), pitch sessions with top literary agents, four-hour intensive workshops for writers, receptions, our legendary fiesta, and more.

Full information is available on the website at www.sanmiguelwritersconference.org.

San Miguel Literary Sala presents
Jesus Ibarra
El jardinero de fantasmas, vida y obra de Carlos Ancira
and
Judith Gille
The View from Casa Chepitos: A Journey Beyond the Border
Thu, Oct 10, 5pm
Hotel Posada de la Aldea
Ancha de San Antonio 15
70 pesos; 50 pesos for Literary Sala members
Includes wine reception

The Literary Sala is proud to present Jesús Ibarra, editor of the Atencion and author of El jardinero de fantasmas, vida y obra de Carlos Ancira, the story of one of Mexico’s most famous actors, Carlos Ancira; and Judith Gille, author of The View from Casa Chepitos: A Journey Beyond the Border, the story of one family’s expatriate life here in San Miguel.

Jesus Ibarra

Jesús Ibarra, editor of this newspaper, has written several books about Mexican history and the arts, including The Bracho: Three Generations of Mexican Cinema. His work includes accounts of the famous actors and actresses of Mexican stage, screen and television including Carmen Montejo. His next books will be about Sergio de Bustamante and Magda Guzman (Carlos Ancira’s mother-in-law and a famous actress herself). At the Literary Sala, he will present his latest book about Carlos Ancira, considered by many to be an even finer actor than the great Sir Laurence Olivier. According to Sr. Ibarra, “In fact, he [Ancira] won the award in Russia for the best foreign actor (over Laurence Olivier), for his performance of Diary of a Madman, by Gogol.

Ancira was not only an accomplished actor; he was a writer, director and acting teacher who worked on 300 plays, 50 movies, and over 2000 telenovelas, Mexican soap operas.

Jesús feels it is important to write about these Mexican stars in order to preserve their memory and make them known to the younger generation of Mexicans.  Carlos Ancira, according to Jesús, represents, as no one before or since, an actor capable of an intense and moving display of artistry, commitment and dedication. Ibarra believes Ancira was one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century.

Writing a biography is a long and complex task, and this book took a year and a half for Jesus to complete. “To write a biography, I first do a chronology of the life of the person I will write about; this is always my first step. In this way I can easily develop each stage of his or her life.”

What would Jesús say to all of the aspiring writers of San Miguel? “I would tell them that they must feel a special passion for the topic they have chosen to write about. I would tell them also to be constant and patient. At least here in Mexico, publishing is difficult; you have to knock doors until you find someone who believes in your work and decides to publish it.”

Judith Gille

Judith Gille, like many transplants to San Miguel, fell in love with a vision of bougainvillea and jacarandas and a life of less stress and more fun. Like so many others, she plunked down a sizeable amount of cash for a rundown house in the middle of heaven. Casa Chepitos, a hot pink house in an alleyway filled with Mexican families, gave Judith and her family a new way of life, far removed from her life in Seattle as one of the city’s most successful and hard-working retail entrepreneurs. Judith’s family, first her young son and daughter, became part of the callejón’s life, playing ball with the macho boys and playing dolls and dress-up with the sweet young girls. Judith sat on the stoop outside her door and learned about Mexico and Mexican women, learned the language, and integrated herself into a foreign culture. She was challenged, and her neighbors were wary of the gringos moving into their neighborhood and bringing strange looks, customs, and language.

Over the years in this little alleyway, the cultural difference between the Cordovas and the Gilles began to soften and fade away, as each family received help and love from the other side of the street. Judith attributes her acceptance into her Mexican community (which eludes some of us) to her gregarious children who befriended the other kids quickly. For Judith, “it was harder because, as you know, Mexicans hold their cards close to their chest.” She felt lucky her neighbor, Gracia, “ . . .opened up and took me under her wing, and that allowed me to get close to others in the alley.” Weddings, holiday celebrations, baseball games, and even illegal immigration across the border to the United States, provided opportunities for the families to lean on one another for joy and for security, blurring the lines of cultural differences and uniting the families in a kind of universal similarity of mothers, brothers, fathers and sisters growing up and helping each other while learning to live together in multi-cultural harmony.

Finishing this book took Judith six years of writing every morning for an hour or two before going to work running her retail empire in Seattle. Her advice to those here in San Miguel aspiring to write a book? “Be persistent. Work at it. Writing is hard work and if you want to be good at it you have to practice. But I believe everyone has a story to tell and writing it down can be rewarding in so many ways.”

Join Judith and Jesús for a lively program at the Literary Sala’s monthly event, October 10 at 5pm at the Posada de la Aldea. Admission is 70 pesos, 50 pesos for Literary Sala members, and includes a wine reception.

By Laura Juliet Wood and Juliet DeMarko

I did not grow up thinking of my mother as a poet. Juliet DeMarko expresses her creativity in the kitchen and has been a well-known chef and caterer for most of my life. But remembering now, there were clues to her literary bent…the Faulkner class she took at the local university, her tales of working as a high school American lit teacher before I was born, some scribbled verses from her college days yellowing in a box in the attic, the stacks of paperbacks towering by her bed.

Literature
Mother and Daughter Poetry Reading
Sat, Oct 5, 4-6pm
Garrison & Garrison Books
Hidalgo 26
50 pesos

Though I can claim poetic influence on both sides of my family going back several generations, my mother, specifically, taught me a passion for beauty in all things, a meticulous attention to detail and a curiosity towards the human spirit. Her first book of poems, Blue Ridge Childhood, is a family treasure. Inspired by her early years in the mountains of western North Carolina in the 40s and 50s, she wrote poems about her mother and herself as a daughter, both then and now.

Today Juliet DeMarko is the Poet Laureate of Northwest Florida, teaches a Thursday creative writing class at the Pensacola Cultural Center, reads monthly at an open mic and, as a board member of the West Florida Literary Federation, has been instrumental in bringing noted poets to speak and conduct workshops, as well as speaking herself, to a number of local organizations and schools on the importance of poetry in today’s difficult world. I am proud of my mother who encourages young students to express themselves through poetry and aspire to publication.

Laura Juliet Wood, by no means, falls at the end of the long string of poets that meander through our family. She was receptive to the muse long before I gave in to it only a few years ago. She was two when, staring out our hotel window in Spain, she called to her father and me to look out on the dark plaza with her. “Do you see,” she asked reverently, “the horse, the fountain, the moon?” Her father, a Lorca scholar, was exuberant. “I knew it! Already she is a poet!” I, of course was skeptical, but somewhat inclined to agree when, waking from a nightmare when she was three, she told me half asleep, “The cat scratched me and left a line, white, like one I scratched on the sidewalk with a stick.” I know, I know, but there was no doubt when she became a teenager and every time I fluffed her pillow, lifted her mattress to change the sheets, or swept under the bed, I would find mangled pieces of notebook paper with phrases, lines, stanzas of attempted verse.

By the time Laura arrived at Hollins for college, her obsession was apparent to everyone. So it was no surprise when she was accepted to Columbia University’s MFA program. Although her professors sometimes secretly sent off her work to be successfully published and even to win awards, she refused to believe that she was ready for publication. So, it is with great pride and relief that Laura herself has finally sent her work out into the world.This past year, Finishing Line Press asked to publish her chapbook of poems, All Hands Lost. She has had her poems appear in Sol Magazine, Haibun Today, Crab Creek Review, The Atlanta Review and Minerva Rising as well as poems coming out in both the Hollins Critic and the Los Angeles Review. She has inspired me to believe that I, too, might be a poet, as it obviously runs in the family!

Don’t miss Laura and Juliet reading together for the first time at Garrison & Garrison Books on Saturday, October 5^th, from 4-6pm. They will be available to sign their books after the reading. Garrison & Garrison Books is located on Hidalgo 26 in the Plaza Artesanal Bicentenario across from Los Burritos and has served the English-speaking community with new and used books since 2008. 50 pesos requested donation, wine served, and limited seating in the main patio.

By Robin Loving Rowland

A Little Book of Prayers and Meditations for Travelers by Mireille Grovier reminds us that, as Robert Louis Stevenson is quoted as saying, “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”

Other quotations from Blake, Goethe, Emerson, Wordsworth, Longfellow, the author, and others, bring the reader wisdom and peace for our travels – whether they are from our armchairs or via supersonic means.

“This little book is … dedicated to travelers worldwide in the hope that … they will bring a message of peace and love that transcends hate and violence to the people and the lands they visit,” says Grovier.

“Life is a journey and our living it a process. How we value the process and grow from the lessons the journey offers is the measure of the people we eventually become. Mireille Rita Grovier’s A Little Book of Prayers and Meditations for Travelers is a handy little ‘carry-on’ guide for life’s journey. It offers the weary traveler sustenance, encouragements, insights and wisdom so that the experience of the journey, whether real or metaphoric, can be best processed and understood by the traveler,” said the Rev. Drs. Tom and Cynthia Lynch of the International academy of Interfaith Studies.

“Ms. Grovier’s book presents a gracious blend of … spirit-prompted and spirit-prompting poems … by … authors whom I admire. I should think it would provide inspiration to eager travelers and encouragement to those who travel more reluctantly. The illustrations complement the text in a gentle and affirming manner,” said Rev. Michael Long, former rector of St. Paul’s Church.

“A Little Book of Prayers is a great blessing of comfort and inspiration for anyone traveling and for those quiet moments at home when connecting to our inner Spirit is so important,” said Rev. Nancy Anderson, Religious Science Minister Emeritus, Friends of Unity.

The book draws on various faith traditions including Christian, Chinese, Jewish, English, Austrian, Scottish, and those from the Philippines. It is illustrated with original art, and it reflects the author’s travels around the globe. It is available from Amazon.com. May it be a welcomed traveling companion.

The deadline for the 2014 San Miguel Writers’ Conference “Writing Contest” is getting close, but you still have a chance to submit your creative writing. Until November 4, 2013 (midnight), the writing contest will be open for submissions. Not only could you be one of the writers to walk away with a “Full Conference Registration” and free lodging, but you could also earn the prestige of winning a contest facilitated by the acclaimed San Miguel Writers’ Conference.

In the past, our winners have gone on to find literary agents and publish their books. Plus, during the conference they’ve rubbed elbows with amazing authors such as Margaret Atwood and Barbara Kingsolver. It’s a big opportunity for new writers because all winners receive pitch sessions with literary agents.

If you have poetry, creative non-fiction or fiction sitting in the back of your hard drive, now is the time to polish that piece and submit it to us. This year we will be selecting one winner from each category and inviting them to join us in magical San Miguel de Allende. See all the keynote speakers such as Yann Martel, Laura Esquivel, Pat Conroy, and Benjamin Saenz on us. Take workshops with award-winning authors like Mary Morris and Dinty Moore. Party through the night during our Legendary Fiesta. Start relationships with other writers that will last for years.

So have a look at the 2014 San Miguel Writers’ Conference “Writing Contest” Guidelines and directions for online submissions. See the lower left corner of our web site home page: www.sanmiguelwritersconference2014.org.

By Carole Schor

Margaret Tallis

Do you believe in magic? What if everything you know to be true and right is really wrong? White becomes black and good becomes evil? When the person you love turns into someone else–do you dare believe it? Do you think you are going crazy? Or maybe, just maybe, the other person is really going crazy – but why?

Literature
The San Miguel Literary Sala presents
Arlene Krasner’s Kosher Sutra and Margaret Tallis’ The Known
Thu, Jun 13, 5pm
Hotel Posada del Aldea
Ancha de San Antonio 15
70 pesos (50 pesos for Literary Sala members)
Complimentary wine reception

Margaret Tallis, author of The Known, came to Mexico in the early 1980s and began a wonderful life filled with the horses she trained and loved, and a man she met, loved and eventually married. It all seemed so perfect – the handsome Mexican architect and his family, the insider’s Mexico most foreigners don’t get to enjoy. Her husband was filled with joy to have this accomplished American woman as his lover and companion by his side. He introduced her to his friends, to the boys in the choir he helped to coach, and to the mother of one of the boys who graciously sent over plates of delicious Mexican food. As this magical life progressed, Margaret’s husband started acting strangely. He’d spend more time away from home, coming home to sleep and to bring more plates of the delicious food from this other woman. Margaret and “Javier” ate–and suddenly, things began to change. Strange noises on the roof, the dogs barking at something (or nothing), Javier stopped coming home, the plates of food kept coming, life became weirder and weirder until Margaret had become so ill and Javier had become so crazy that she had to find out what was going on.

Witchcraft and poisoning are very common here in Mexico, as she learned; and the use of plants for good and bad magic is a widespread practice. Margaret finally went to a shaman in San Luis Potosi who told her to find a priest–and find a policeman–her life was in serious danger. Margaret did this, but she also found help at La Victoriana where the owner immediately knew she had been poisoned with Datura, a white trumpet flower that grows all over Mexico and is extremely poisonous. After a long and difficult detoxification process, Margaret got well. But “Javier” didn’t. The other woman who had so generously provided food to him had also provided poison, enough to make Margaret ill, and more than enough to affect Javier’s brain, liver and life. To this day, he has never recovered. When Margaret chances upon him on the streets of San Miguel, he cannot recognize her any more and runs away in crazy fright.

Arlene Krasner

While Margaret Tallis was eating food and going crazy dealing with datura poisoning, our other reader, Arlene Krasner, was in the kitchen making her own kind of magic. Arlene’s magic was the good kind, the delicious kind, the kind of food she had learned from her mother which had been nourishing people for generations and bringing happiness to all who eat it, especially her husband Mark.

In Kosher Sutra, Arlene recounts a life of odd and humorous twists and turns laced with knishes and paella, frat boys and chimpanzees. Arlene has cooked her way through life, no matter what it brought or where she went, from Long Beach to Reno to Portland and Mexico, back to Portland and back to Mexico. Everywhere she went, she cooked. And now she writes. And like Arlene herself, her writing is funny, cute and spicy!

Arlene and Margaret have both learned that telling the stories of their lives is what gives them pleasure and gives their lives meaning. Margaret never wanted to write a book, but how could she not tell the story of Mexican witchcraft? Her writing coach, Eva Hunter, encouraged her to write the story of her life, to put the pieces of this bizarre tale together so she could see it as a whole. She learned how to write a scene and a description, how to incorporate dialogue and beats, how to put emotions into words, and make characters interesting and readers interested.

Arlene, on the other hand, always wanted to write a book, always knew she would, and that it would be about food and it would be funny. Although she claims to have no writing discipline, she believes that writing is just “putting your butt in the chair,” setting a goal, and writing until it’s done. Her biggest surprise was not that she wrote a book, but that people actually like it! Her next book, Entertaining Food, will be about the trials and successes she’s had over the years of making party food for people who not only like her writing, but also like her food (she swears she’s never used datura as an ingredient). Arlene will also be presenting a food writing workshop at the 2014 San Miguel de Allende Writers Conference entitled “Write What You Eat: A Workshop for Food Lovers.”

Join us for an evening of magic – the delicious kind and the devilish kind, as these two readers share their very different stories. The event will take place on Thursday, June 13 at 5pm at the Aldea Hotel, Ancha de San Antonio 15. The 70 pesos admission includes a wine reception.

San Miguel de Allende is a magical place that inspires painters, musicians and writers. Every year in May, thanks to the Literary Sala, a handful of talented authors come together to read from their “Works in Progress.” This year, on May 9, the Sala is proud to present an evening of authors reading their newest works.

Literature
San Miguel Literary Sala presents:
“Works in Progress”
Twelve writers read from their current work
Thu, May 9, 5-7:30pm
Hotel Aldea
Ancha de San Antonio 15
70 pesos (50 pesos for Literary Sala members)
Includes wine reception

Frank Thoms will be reading Bystander, a nonfictional philosophical work about the power of stillness, which emerged from Thoms’ discovery as a teacher that doing, doing, doing often leads simply to more doing, rather than reflecting and contemplating, and invoking wu wei, doing without doing. Thoms’ piece Bystander is from Teaching That Matters: Engaging Minds, which is seeking a publisher.

Jim Knoch, a native of Missouri and retired antiques dealer from Colorado, is writing his first novel. He will be reading a selection from his historical fiction work, The Last Waltz, in which Henry Wilkins, a six-foot-seven medic, dejected after being wounded in the Civil War, travels west and settles on the Santa Fe Trial in Council Grove, Kansas.

Mark Johaningsmeir grew up in a small city north of Chicago, once the home of Jack Benny and Ray Bradbury. Johaningsmeir was a United Methodist minister and worked with congregations in Minnesota and Colorado. He will be reading from his memoir, Scenes from Life with My Father, an autobiographical collection of vignettes revealing parts of his father’s character that Johaningsmeir can see more clearly now than when they were unfolding.

Judith Jenya is a visual artist, painter and photographer. After a career as an art therapist and psychotherapist, she studied law and practiced for 12 years, becoming a peace activist. She founded Global Children’s Organization and was honored as International Humanist of the Year in Europe in 2002. She will be reading from a collection of her poetry entitled Life, Loss, Love. One poem deals with the sadness and renewal of war-ravaged Bosnian children, while other poems describe her joy in finding love and marriage in San Miguel.

Evie (E.E.) King also is connected to Ray Bradbury, who calls her stories “marvelously inventive, wildly funny and deeply thought provoking. I cannot recommend them highly enough.” King has worked with children in Korea, California and Bosnia, crocodiles in Mexico, frogs in Puerto Rico, egrets in Bali, mushrooms in Montana, archaeologists in Spain and butterflies in South Central Los Angeles. She will be reading selections from her anthology, Another Happy Ending, being released by PMM Press in October, 2013, a work of science fiction/fantasy, and so called because there really are no happy endings.

Beldon Butterfield’s latest book, Mexico Behind The Mask, was published in January 2013. Beldon, who came to Mexico in 1962 with Time Life International, calls himself an “Anglo-Argentine,” born and raised in Buenos Aires to British parents. He will be reading from his memoir, Once Upon a Time, a narrative historical work which tells of the time Argentina was a British colony. As Beldon says of the British influence in Argentina “un argentino habla español con acento italiano, se viste de francés y quiere ser inglés.” (An Argentine speaks Spanish with an Italian accent, dresses like the French, and wants to be English.)

Lee Bellavance’s articles, poems and short stories have appeared in dozens of publications, including the Atencion. Before discovering San Miguel in 2009, she was a producer, a publicist, an events coordinator and a journalist. On May 9 she’ll be reading from DogVille, a novella set in San Miguel that may morph into a novel.

Cynthia Huntington grew up in Yorkshire, England. After becoming a registered nurse, she joined Pan American World Airlines, flying to Europe, Mid-East, Africa and Hong-Kong. She is the author of Through Her Eyes – An Infidel’s Perspective, a book about her life in Muslim Turkey. Her reading will be an accounting of a memorable event entitled, “Jet Flight to Karachi 1962: The man in the bathroom.”

Grover Ellis has written articles, poems and short stories for the Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, Texas Monthly, Sierra Club Bulletin, True and other literary publications. He will be reading a short chapter taken from his novel, An American In Texas, a coming of age story centered on a difficult and troubled father-son relationship.

Sara Fasy arrived in San Miguel in 1977 with savings from her year on the Alaska Pipeline to study drawing and printmaking at the Instituto Allende. Fasy will be reading “Yellow,” a chapter from her memoir A San Miguel Story, a tale of the clash of cultures, the exploration of the other, and the love-hate that characterized her romance with both Mexico and the tall, curly-haired future husband from Xalapa, Veracruz. It’s a tale of births and deaths and all the glorious and aggravating extremes of raising children in a foreign land.

Matthew Carroll, once a San Miguel restaurateur, will read from his yet-untitled autobiography in which he describes the life story of a conflicted orphaned only child trying to understand and live with abandonment. His selection, “Sahara,” describes one of several life events where he has placed himself, with questionable motive, in harm’s way. It is written as he wishes his father had left such a chronicle. Also reading on May 9 will be Cynthia Simmons.

For Judyth Hill and Eva Hunter, writing is a way of life. Hunter knew she wanted to write before she could read. Hill began writing poetry in third grade at PS 166 in New York.

Literature
Judyth Hill and Eva Hunter
SOL literary reading
Thu, Mar 21, 4:30pm
Café Santa Ana
La Biblioteca
Reloj 50A

Poetry and prose are as different as these two literary divas, but each has a unique voice and style.

Hill and Hunter will be reading from their latest works on Thursday, March 21, at Café Santa Ana in the Biblioteca. Hill will be launching her seventh book of poetry, Dazzling Wobble, and Hunter will be reading from her soon-to-be published memoir, A Little Mormon Girl.

Playful and provocative with a dash of humor, Hill’s poetry begs to be read. “I love to read it…that’s what completes the circle of the creative act.”

Hunter brings her own unique voice and story in A Little Mormon Girl about her life “…growing up in a ‘Temple’ Mormon family, which supposedly is the highest order of Mormonism. In my family that was a façade that was very difficult for a little girl, then young woman to reconcile,” she says. “I reveal some of the most closely guarded secrets of Mormonism—some that many Mormons themselves do not know.”

Hunter emphasizes, however, her memoir is not an “expose.” “It is funny, sad, informative, and tells how one person escaped the physical and mental bonds of a very strong religion. It is also a story about coming to understand, and then forgive, my parents.”

Hill says the biggest influence in her life was attending Sarah Lawrence to study poetry with Galway Kinnell and Jane Cooper. “My most powerful transformers have been the poet Robert Bly, storyteller Gioia Timpanelli, and deep-ecology maestra Dolores LaChapelle, all of whom I was privileged to personally study with over a period of 25 years.”

“My writing, performing and teaching come from my faith in the delicate and intricate connection of our political, emotional, cognitive, spiritual, imaginational bodies, both within the self, and within the social web to each other,” Hill says.

Hunter grew up in a small Nevada town and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she raised her daughter, worked as a journalist and taught writing. She relocated to San Miguel in 1996. “I hated the cold and the rain and wanted to find a warmer place that had the same type of arts culture, and was a beautiful, comfortable place to live.”

Hill relocated from New York City to Santa Fe, where she wrote, raised her children and ran her bakery, “The Chocolate Maven.” She relocated to San Miguel five years ago after falling in love with her partner, Michael Mckenna, on the Internet. “We were way into it when I realized I had just moved my heart to Mexico! My life and furniture followed. It’s a life about passion and choices. And joy. And having fun.”

Both Hill and Hunter have a passion for writing that is clearly evident in their work. Hunter’s first book, The Lord of the Dolls: Voyage to Xochimilco, a literary nonfiction collaboration with arts photographer Jo Brenzo, has received special recognition by being accepted into the prestigious Benson Collection for Latin American Studies, University of Texas Libraries, Austin. “Very few books are placed in this permanent, world-regarded collection,” Hunter says. The book was a limited edition, which now sells for up to US$300 on E-bay, she adds.

Marge Fahey is a retired journalist from Washington, DC and an editor at Sol: English Writing in Mexico

Though she is probably best known in San Miguel de Allende as a photographer and painter, Lulu Torbet has never quit her “day job” as a ghostwriter and developmental editor/consultant. She is the author, ghostwriter or editor of over 30 books. On Tuesday, February 26, at 6pm, she will give the closing lecture of the 2013 PEN Lecture Series at the Teatro Angela Peralta. I talked with Lulu about just what it is she does and what she plans to discuss in her presentation.

Sheridan Sansegundo: First of all, how does one become a ghostwriter?

Lulu Torbert: Well, it’s not as though one grows up dreaming of becoming a ghostwriter. In my case, as has been the pattern of my life, it was an accident. The short version, which I’ll expand on in my talk, is that I got picked up on 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village in 1969 as I was selling my hand-made jewelry by an editor who was looking for someone to write a book on macramé, which was becoming a big craze. I refused, she persisted, I caved. I wrote a few craft books, which led to my getting an agent, which led to my agent having a client who needed a book written. Which led to…. well, you get the picture.

SS: What kind of books do you write? Do you have a particular niche?

LT: That first client was Dr. George Bach, one of the pioneers of the self-help movement. I wrote two books with him. More books with therapists and relationship gurus and related practitioners followed, all nonfiction. I wrote a couple of memoirs. Since the collapse of the traditional publishing business, and especially since moving to San Miguel seven years ago, I’ve worked mostly with private clients, often on shorter pieces, often simply as a consultant and developmental editor, including short stories and the occasional novel. A number of these projects end up being self-published, which no longer carries the stigma of “vanity” publishing.

SS: What are you going to focus on in your talk?

LT: I’ll start by addressing basic issues about what a ghostwriter does, how they find clients (and how an author finds a ghostwriter), how they charge for their work, and whether and how they are credited. But I want to concentrate on three topics. The publishing climate has changed drastically in the past decade, for both author and ghostwriter/consultant, so I want to discuss how that affects their working process and arrangements. I want to talk about the slithery issue of “truth” in memoir and nonfiction. Finally, I want to address the rarely discussed complexity of the relationship that inevitably develops between the client and the ghostwriter over the course of a project, and about the varied and often subtle roles that are part of the job description of the ghostwriter. I’ve got lots of anecdotes and funny stories to illustrate my thesis. I’m just trying to figure out how to “tell all” without naming names.

Your ticket entitles you to a free glass of wine or other beverage if you dine at Vivoli Restaurant after the talk. For more information: lucinakathmann@gmail.com

Literature
PEN presentation by Lulu Torbet
“Ghostwriter Tells All”
Tue, Jan 26, 6pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta
100 pesos