Write On! What Is The San Miguel Literary Sala?

By Catherine Marenghi

Sometimes confused with its most famous program – the San Miguel Writers’ Conference & Literary Festival – the San Miguel Literary Sala is the nonprofit umbrella organization that has been the focal point for San Miguel literary activity for more than 20 years.

The organization was founded in 2004 by Susan Page, who moved to San Miguel in 2002. “I immediately noticed there seemed to be no local literary events – no readings, no writer gatherings,” Page said. “I thought this strange, considering all the famous authors who have lived and visited here.” Page, author of several books including the bestselling If I’m So Wonderful, Why Am I Still Single? (1989), set out to change San Miguel’s literary landscape forever. She placed an article in the town’s bilingual newspaper, Atención, inviting local writers seeking visibility and community to come to a meeting. Twenty-eight people attended, and the San Miguel Literary Sala was born.

The inaugural event, on August 6^th, 2004 was an all-day marathon, featuring an author reading every hour at Los Arboles, a bookstore on Calle Aldama that agreed to work with the Literary Sala. Among the readers were Tony Cohan, author of On México Time, and Beverly Donofrio, author of Riding in Cars With Boys. Thus began a long-running monthly author series. Every event featured two authors, each allowed 50 minutes to give a presentation about their work. That series continued 16 years at the Hotel Posada de la Aldea and other venues until March 12^th, 2020, the eve of the Covid shutdown.

Early on, another major institution was born: the yearly Writers’ Conference. Jody Feagan, an original Literary Sala member, had suggested the idea, having experienced writers’ conferences when she lived in Aspen, Colorado.

She considered San Miguel a world-class destination. Page and Feagan put the idea into action with the first Writers’ Conference in 2006, with John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Evil, as the keynote speaker. The weekend event drew a mere 26 participants, but it was extremely well received. From that humble beginning, the San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival has become internationally acclaimed, attracting thousands of participants and major authors from around the world.

“Our watershed year was 2010 when Barbara Kingsolver came to keynote. Attendance soared, nearly tripling over the prior year,” Page recalled. That year the Writers’ Conference launched its “Legendary Fiesta” in Kingsolver’s honor, featuring a Mexican castillo de fuego – a pyrotechnic display on a bamboo tower with fireworks depicting words or pictures. This one spelled “Lacuna,” the name of Kingsolver’s latest book. The incident brought Kingsolver to tears, and she wrote about it in the preface to the paperback edition of The Lacuna.

For two decades, the San Miguel Literary Sala has been a venerated membership organization serving writers, readers, and lovers of the literary arts.

It has sponsored hundreds of author readings, book fairs, works-in-progress readings, publications like Solamente en San Miguel, the monthly San Miguel Poetry and Prose Cafés, special events like the three-day Rebellious Nuns at a former convent, the Poetry Mesa online poetry series, local university and teen scholarships, books for toddlers at Ojala Niños, the Aurora Books store, and the Radio San Miguel (1280 AM) Spanish-language literary radio program, “Sancho Panza de Cabeza,” every Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Membership dues support these projects and connect members to a vibrant literary community.

The newest member benefit is a 10% discount on tickets to the San Miguel Writers’ Conference.

For authors, membership offers these benefits:

• Book sales: Member authors may sell their books at Aurora Books, Tesoros bookstore in the Biblioteca Pública, and the on-site bookstore at the Writers’ Conference. (Become a member by December 31^st to feature your books at the 2026 Conference!)

• Author showcase: The Literary Sala features “Books by Our Members” on its website.

• Email newsletter: Member authors can announce for free a San Miguel book launch or reading in the Literary Sala’s email newsletter, which reaches thousands of people.

To learn more about theSan Miguel Literary Sala, visitwww.sanmiguelliterarysala.org

For news on upcoming events, sign up for the newsletter. The next San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival will run February 11^th-15^th, 2026

www.sanmiguelwritersconference.org

Catherine Marenghi is an award-winning poet, novelist, and memoirist and has published five books. She has been active in the San Miguel literary community for more than a decade. More information on her work is at www.marenghi.com