During the steamy temperatures of July the San Miguel Literary Sala is offering some online activities this month that you can enjoy without even leaving the house.

After the coronavirus pandemic made it inadvisable to hold its events in person in 2020, the San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, nonprofit — known for putting on the annual San Miguel Writers Conference — adapted and began offering its conference, as well as its year-round events, online.

The change has allowed the Literary Sala to book some very high profile guests: in May and June, celebrities-turned-authors Tom Hanks and Matthew McConaughey both graced their Zoom “stage.” Viewers even got a chance to interact with the stars in the live presentation over videoconferencing software to ask questions at the end.

This month, the Literary Sala’s offerings are meant to appeal to a variety of interests: they include a master class on writing book proposals, an author reading, a lyric-writing workshop in Spanish and a free virtual writing group event.

The events are interactive and live, conducted via videoconferencing. The format allows for questions like at an in-person workshop.

The schedule is as follows with all times given in Central Daylight Time:

• July 14, 7:30 p.m.: “Silent Write.” Nathan Feuerberg leads a monthly free online non-critique writing group on a videoconferencing platform. Participants will write for an hour with the aid of prompts. At the end of the hour, session participants will have the option of sharing their work with the group.
• July 22-September 30, 5–7 p.m.: “Bang Out Your Book Proposal!” Book Proposal Master Class. Anna Knutson Geller will lead this two-month, six-class intensive online workshop for nonfiction writers teaching how to craft a winning book proposal. Participants will leave with a finished document ready to submit to agents. Participants must submit an application and be approved by the instructor.
• July 22 and 23, 5:30–7 p.m.: “Ra Poesía.” A two-part workshop conducted in Spanish on narrative verse and rhyme, Oscar Plazola will instruct participants in writing verse and setting it to music and will expose them to great poets and rappers. The workshop will discuss aspects of meter, including the sonnet, the romance, the couplet and tenths, and how to apply them to structures used in rap music.
• July 23, 5–6 p.m.: Gabrielle Brie. Part of the Literary Sala’s “In Focus” Series. Fine artist and poet Gabrielle Brie will read from her debut memoir, Tap Dancing on a Hot Skillet. Brie’s new novel is a coming-of-age story about growing up in a Jewish family of six in the Deep South.

For tickets and more information on these events, visit the San Miguel Literary Sala website.

Mexico News Daily