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The San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival heads into its 20th year with a diverse and impressive lineup of keynote speakers, led by “Cider House Rules” author John Irving. The literary festival takes place February 12–16, 2025, at the Hotel Real de Minas.

There are two components to the weeklong festival — the keynote speaker series and the actual writers’ conference which is a jaw-dropping series of workshops for writers of all sorts, aspirations, and interests.

Founder Susan Page made the keynoters announcement this morning and also gave a glimpse into what looks like a strongly revitalized workshop series:

“The Conference also features a writing contest judged by renowned authors Ann Hood, Lauren Camp, and Judy Reeves, and writing workshops taught by world-class faculty including Susan Brown, Judyth Hill, Verónica Flores, and singer Daniel Gutiérrez,” writes Page.

“Other events include our popular Mexican Fiesta, receptions and dinners, one-on-one pitch sessions with prominent literary agents such as Michael Carr, Anna Knutson Geller, Rita Rosenkranz, Sam Hiyate and Susan Golomb, individual consultations with experts like Harper Influence publisher Lisa Sharkey, faculty readings, open mic sessions, guided local excursions, discussion groups, wellness offerings, and more.

“We are excited about our specially-priced “Pleasures of Reading” series with presentations on John Steinbeck; the lyrics of Leonard Cohen; and more.”

Page stepped back from a leadership role in the popular festival after 18 years but after last year’s rocky transition, she has returned re-energized and filled with excitement about the 2025 program.

Snagging John Irving is one way to make a statement. The 82-year-old author is a U.S.-Canadian citizen now living in Toronto. He is not only an Oscar and National Book Award winner, he is in the Wrestling Hall of Fame. A wrestler then coach into his 40s, the sport has figured into his novels. His best-selling novel is “Prayer of Owen Meany” though his best known, thanks to a blockbuster movie, is probably “The World According to Garp.” His latest novel, “The Last Chairlift,” published two years ago, involves another lifelong passion, skiing.

“Last Chairlift” is Irving’s first new novel in seven years. It is also his longest at 900 pages. The story is classic Irving: “part ghost story, part love story, spanning eight decades of sexual politics.”

Irving has been quoted as saying it may be his last. But as he told Outdoor magazine on the release of “The Last Chairlift,” his books percolate for a long time. “Some of them waited 20 years, I’ve never chosen one that hasn’t been waiting in notes for at least five years,” he says.

So who knows? By the time Irving reaches San Miguel, another novel may be in the works.

Four of his novels reached number one on The New York Times best-seller list: “The Hotel New Hampshire,” “The Cider House Rules,” “A Widow for One Year,” and “The Fourth Hand.”

The other keynote speakers will be:

Percival Everett is an American writer and distinguished professor of English at the University of Southern California. He may be best known, not for his books, but for the recent hit movie “American Fiction,” which is based on his novel “Erasure.”

He has been nominated for the Booker Prize twice — shortlisted for “The Trees” (2022) and longlisted for “James” this year. Everett is the author of over 30 published works, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Ruth Reichl is the New York Times bestselling author of five memoirs, the novels “Delicious!” and “The Paris Novel, and the cookbook “My Kitchen Year.”

She was editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine and was restaurant critic for both The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.

She has received six James Beard Awards. In 2024, she received the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American poet and scholar. He is the author of “Calling a Wolf a Wolf,” the chapbook, “Portrait of the Alcoholic,” and the novel “Martyr!” a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the 2024 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize.

He was a Guggenheim scholar and is the director of the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Iowa.

Jorge F. Hernández is a prolific novelist, editor, translator, essayist, and historian. He is the author of “La Emperatriz de Lavapiés,” “Réquiem para un ángel.” He was born in Mexico City in 1962, and spent his childhood in Germany, later moving to Washington D.C.

He is the editor of the anthology “Sun, Stone and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories,” the first book published expressly for The Big Read in the U.S. He also wrote “The Solitude of Silence,” published an anthology of interviews with Carlos Fuentes, and a microhistory of the Atotonilco Sanctuary.

Jennifer Clement is an American-Mexican author whose works include “Gun Love” (2018), “Prayers for the Stolen” (2014), and “Widow Basquiat,” a memoir about artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s relationship with his muse, Suzanne Mallouk — told from Mallouk’s perspective.

She has published several collections of poetry and is the first woman president of PEN International. Clement has strong local ties as a popular speaker and as the co-director and founder of the San Miguel Poetry Week (with her sister Barbara Sibley). Clement lives in Mexico City.

John Vaillant is an American-Canadian writer and journalist living in Vancouver since 1998 whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Outside. He has written both non-fiction and fiction books. His book “The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival” was a bestseller translated into 16 languages.

In 2015 he published “The Jaguar’s Children,” a 2015 novel about an undocumented Mexican immigrant trapped inside an empty water truck that has been abandoned in the desert by human smugglers. In 2023, he published “Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast,” about the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.

Page describes the lineup as “among the best we’ve ever presented.”

The festival is offering its “Early Bard” 10 percent discount on tickets and packages purchased by August 31. Find out more about the program, keynote speakers, and faculty by visiting the literary festival website. A limited number of 15% discounts are also available for teachers and students.

Follow the Writers’ Conference here:

English
Facebook.com/SMWritersconference/
X: @SMAWritersCon
Instagram: @sanmiguelwritersconference
YouTube: @sanmiguelliterarysalaa.c.9386

Spanish
Facebook.com/FestivalWriters
Instagram: @sanmiguelfestivalescritores
X: @Literatura_Fest