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The San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival ended Sunday, Feb. 15, after a jam-packed week of literary and related activities organized around the theme of “Our Stories, Doors to the World.” That turned out to be an appropriate title since the 21st annual event drew a record 1,750 participants from 15 countries, 67% of whom were attending for the first time, according to Susan Page, conference founder and president.
Eight keynotes and two panel discussions were held in the ballroom of the Hotel Real de Minas, with the biggest draws featuring Abraham Verghese, an Indian-American physician and author of “Cutting for Stone” and “The Covenant of Water”; Maira Kalman, a New York City author, illustrator and designer; R.F. Kuang, the Chinese-American author of “Yellowface” and “The Poppy War”; Andrés Neuman, an Argentine poet, writer and translator; and Margaret Atwood, the well-known Canadian author of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and many other publications (and a conference patron).
The first panels
Comprising the first panel were representatives of the publishing industry, including agents, editors, reviewers, critics and a showrunner. The second panel included keynoters Neuman; Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil from Oaxaca, who writes in her native Mixe, Spanish and English; Emily St. John Mandel, a Canadian novelist and essayist; Souvankham Thammavongsa, a Laotian-Canadian poet and short-story writer (and two-time winner of Canada’s Giller Prize); and Danielle Trussoni, a U.S. novelist and columnist (and director of the conference’s English-language program).
The Spanish language program
The conference’s Spanish-language program had a higher profile this year, with its general director, Armida Zepeda, organizing two keynotes in Spanish, plus readings, scholarships and other events for Mexican students. On the final day, Zepeda introduced Lizeth Galván Cortés, secretary of culture for the state of Guanajuato, who called the conference “an event that shines” and helps to strengthen the regional literary environment.
“I invite you to keep reading to connect and to keep writing to make change,” Galván Cortés said. “Every page read creates social bridges. Together, let’s make writing and reading the heartbeat of our development. On behalf of the governor of Guanajuato, we await you next year in San Miguel de Allende.”
Key moments in 2026
Below are just a few of the many highlights from the panels and keynotes at this year’s conference.
Industry Insiders Panel: Leslie Zemeckis, U.S. author, documentary filmmaker and actress, was asked about the contraction of the publishing industry and had this to say: “You just can’t let other people say no. I’ve had so many friends just give up. You can self-publish, you can get in a magazine. I’ve made films and had other people make my films. So don’t ever give up.”
Abraham Verghese: “My calling to medicine came to me from a book. I was a precocious reader. By nine or 10, I accidentally picked up ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover.’ ‘Of Human Bondage’ by W. Somerset Maugham held out the same promise, but, to my astonishment, it was much better.”
Maira Kalman: “I did a show with David Byrne, who asked me to do the (embroidered) curtain for ‘American Utopia.’ He’s an optimist. You do your work, and you look at beauty and help the people who need help.”
R.F. Kuang: “All characters are outsiders, those who don’t fit in and are always on the outside looking in. I felt like that growing up in Dallas. Later, I realized outsiders have a lot of power. I think I’ll keep writing about those on the margins.”
Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil: “Thanks to all the people who are doing wonderful work in spaces where they are not seen. Thank you for making this into a multilingual space. Literary spaces should be multilingual. It’s a great act of generosity to listen to the words of others.”
Andrés Neuman: “There are many reasons to write. Mine was to realize that I felt more alive when I wrote. My reality was not in my mind unless I wrote about it. I realized that my life was more real if I wrote about it in my diary. I actually write so I’m not a zombie. When we write or read, it’s when we are actually alive and we realize that we are here.”
Emily St. John Mandel: “There’s always a baby or a job or something that keeps you from writing. You have to treat writing like a job. If you only have 45 minutes in a coffee shop wearing noise-canceling headphones, then take it. The first draft is just the marble or the block of wood; it’s not the statue. The draft is the raw material, and I’m going to find the book in that.”
Keynote Panel: When asked which three writers she would invite to a dinner party, Danielle Trussoni said, “Virginia Woolf, Colette and Walt Whitman. Colette was a hedonist and a war reporter. Whitman would have a good vibe with her. I would just love to see Virginia Woolf and would pull her into a corner while the other two created problems.”
Souvankham Thammavongsa: “I auditioned for a role in (‘Little Red Riding Hood’), but I didn’t know the story. I kicked the wolf because he was following me around, and the director said you have to follow the script if you want to get the part. I said who decides what happens and who decides what they said, and the director said the writer, and I knew when I was seven that I wanted to be that.”
Margaret Atwood: Asked why she wrote an autobiography now (“Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts,” published in November 2025), Atwood said, “I got talked into it by my publishers. I also said I was never going to write a sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’ I finally decided a memoir was what you could remember. My siblings were helpful. What you can remember is mostly catastrophes, stupid things you did, stupid things other people did, bad things people did to you and not so much bad things you did to other people.”
At the closing event, Page announced that the conference is offering virtual writing workshops in April and May, and that those who purchase registration packages for the 2027 conference by March 30 will pay the same prices as this year. More information is available here.
Cathy Siegner is an independent journalist based in San Miguel and Montana. She has journalism degrees from the University of Oregon and Northwestern University.
