Although the pandemic forced them into an online virtual format this year, the San Miguel Literary Sala has come out of adversity swinging, scheduling a season of online events, including live, interactive interviews with authors more commonly known as Hollywood royalty: Tom Hanks and Matthew McConaughey.

The San Miguel Literary Sala — which hosts the annual San Miguel Writers Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato — is hosting Hanks on April 23 in a virtual interview format.

McConaughey will be interviewed in the same manner on May 14.

For both events, viewers will also get to take advantage of a San Miguel Literary Sala tradition: a one-on-one interaction afterward with the author.

Typically, at the organization’s events, authors stay on stage and speak individually with audience members. Viewers will be able to recreate this experience online, getting a brief chance to converse with Hanks or McConaughey via video conferencing.

“It’s as close as we can come online to a book signing where individuals have the chance for a short personal chat with the author,” San Miguel Literary Sala executive director Susan Page said.

Hanks, more commonly known as an Academy Award-winning actor in blockbuster movies such as Saving Private Ryan, is promoting his debut short story collection Uncommon Type, a group of stories that all feature a typewriter in some way, sometimes minor, sometimes central.

According to author Stephen Fry, “The stories in Uncommon Type range from the hilarious to the deeply touching.”

Hanks will be interviewed by EJ Levy, a short story author who has won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.

McConaughey, who won the Oscar for the film Dallas Buyers Club, is promoting his memoir Greenlights, which reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list after it was released in 2020.

An unconventional memoir filled with a combination of raucous stories, outlaw wisdom and life lessons, author Lawrence Wright said of it, “This is a wildly unexpected and delightful book you can’t just read, you have to experience.”

McConaughey will be interviewed by fellow Texan Jamie Brickhouse, a comedic storyteller, memoirist and actor.

Tickets to the Hanks and the McConaughey interviews and an entire season of literary events for book lovers and workshops for writers of all levels being conducted online this year are available by going to the San Miguel Literary Sala website and clicking on “store” in the top horizontal menu.

Mexico News Daily