Saturday December 13, 2008

Special Event!

Mini-Literary Festival!

A Celebration of the Beat Writers

Saturday, December 13

5 to 9:30 PM

Ticket price includes a light supper

LOCATION:

Hotel Real de Minas

Recession priced!

On or before December 1:             $200 pesos or $20 USD

After December 1:                        $250 pesos or $25 USD

CLICK HERE to purchase tickets now!

Schedule of Events

5 to 7 PM              

Presentations by
Harry Burrus – Master of Ceremonies
John Cassady - Son of Neal Cassady
George Walker

Friend of Neal Cassady and one of the original "Merry Pranksters" on the bus with Ken Kesey and       David Mayes with stories of his childhood in San Miguel in the late 60s and early 70s.

7 PM           
Light supper with music from the Beat era

7:30 to 9:30 PM          
Interviews and discussion with John Cassady and George Walker

Tickets on sale NOW! 

Purchase tickets in person at
Mailboxes Etc.  —  Reloj #26

OR

CLICK HERE to purchase tickets on line http://www.celebrationofbeatwriters.eventbrite.com

San Miguel has special fascination with the Beats. Neal Cassady died in San Miguel in a mysterious  incident on the railroad tracks.

Hear intriguing first-hand stories from this historic period.

January 9, 2009

Terrence N. Hill

Terry will read from Two Guys Read Jane Austen, his most recent book in the 'Two Guys' series. Like the first two (Two Guys Read Moby-Dick and Two Guys Read the Obituaries), this book was co-written with his long time friend, the personal growth writer Steve Chandler. The subject matter of this third book gives Hill the opportunity to share with his readers his profound personal knowledge of women.
 
After graduating from law school and becoming a member of the Michigan Bar, Terry sold his soul to the Devil, happily working in advertising for more than 30 years. Lately he has been trying to buy it back, writing poetry, essays and plays as well as the three unclassifiable 'Two Guys' books.
 
In 2005, he won the Playhouse on the Green (Bridgeport, Conn.) playwriting award for his first play: Hamlet - The Sequel 

Andrea Adler

Andrea Adler is the founder of HolisticPR.com, an international speaker, and author of Creating an Abundant Practice and The Science of Spiritual Marketing: Initiation into Magnetism. She has written over 50 articles on Spiritual Marketing, translated in five languages, and has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows throughout the world. For 28 years, Andrea has supported authors, artists, cultural creatives and entrepreneurs throughout Europe, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States.

A recipient of the Axiom Business Book Award in 2008, and a speaker at Expo Ser in Mexico City with Deepak Chopra, and INATS, The International New age Trade Show, Andrea has also studied meditation for 30 years, living in ashrams and meditation centers in India, Paris, New York, and California. A Broadway actress, an author, and an ardent practitioner of meditation, Andrea continually integrates her writing, her theatrical background and her meditation discipline with her evolving expertise in PR and marketing.

She will read excerpts from The Science of Spiritual Marketing and provide an overview of Spiritual Marketing in preparation for an up-coming workshop in San Miguel during her stay. One on one consultations will be available with Andrea after the presentation. www.HolisticPR.com

Febuary 6, 2009

John Virtue

John Virtue is director of the International Media Center at Florida International University in Miami, as well as being an author of books dealing, in one way or another, with Mexico.
Besides Fred Taylor: Brother in the Shadows, he has written the Model American Abroad, a biography of Stirling Dickinson; Leonard and Reva Brooks: Artists in Exile in San Miguel; and South of the Color Barrier: How Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League Pushed Baseball Toward Racial Integration, which won the 2008 Robert Peterson award.  

Canadian artist Fred Taylor fled to San Miguel de Allende in 1958 to escape the ever lengthening shadow of his only sibling, Edward Plunket. Usually known as E.P., he was the leading industrialist in Canada from the 1940s through 1960s – while Fred was a member of the Communist Party.

Fred spent his youth trying to impress his father, while living in the shadow of  his successful older brother. He eventually separated himself from family members – although never from their financial support – and turned to art and clandestine politics. Fred’s Communism embarassed E.P. and caused a rift between the brothers that lasted for two decades.

A man who struggled to suppress his rage, Fred once shot and wounded a rival artist in a hunting incident in Mexico, leading friends to question whether the shooting had been accidental.

E.P. holdings eventually spread to Mexico, where he’d often visit and invite Fred to join him. When Fred did, he was said to have walked a pace behind his brother as if out of deference.

Mamie Spiegel

March 6, 2009

Joe Persico

April 3, 2009

Leigh Hyams

Leigh Hyams is an artist and art teacher from San Francisco whose drawings, paintings and artist’s books are in private, university, and museum collections in the U.S. and Europe. A resident of San Miguel for six years, she has solo exhibitions upcoming at San Francisco’s Meridian Gallery and El Museo de la Ciudad in Queretaro.

Leigh Hyams will read from her new book, “How Painting Holds Me on the Earth---Writings from a Maverick Painter and Artist/Teacher.” The book, including dozens of drawings, is a mixture of her thoughts, suggestions, attitudes and opinions on how the act of making art, if done with the right spirit, affects the lives of all people working in the arts. She will speak about authenticity, struggle, inventive ways to deal with periods of being blocked, and how teetering on the precarious, exciting edge of uncertainty is an uncomfortable, amazing and essential part of being an artist and a human being.

Iris Graville

Summer Moon

May 9, 2009

Works in Progress

June 12, 2009

Kathleen Hudson

Tim Hazel

July 11, 2009

August 7, 2009

September 11, 2009

October 9, 2009

November 13, 2009

Sandra Gulland

December 11, 2009

CM Mayo

January 9, 2010

Paul Headrick

Paul Headrick was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Concordia University, Montreal, and a PhD in English Literature from York University, Toronto. Before entering academics he worked in the forest industry and as a reporter in private radio. Paul’s short stories have been published in journals in the United States and Canada. His first novel, That Tune Clutches My Heart, was published this fall by Gaspereau Press. Paul teaches Creative Writing and English Literature at Langara College. He lives in Vancouver with his partner, novelist Heather Burt.

Reading: That Tune Clutches My Heart (a novel)  On the eve of her first day of senior high, May Sutherland’s mother gives her a diary in which to record her experiences. It’s 1948 and the entire student body at Magee High in Vancouver is divided by a surprisingly vicious conflict between the fans of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. After losing her two best friends overnight, May struggles between her disdain for the debate and her loneliness as one of only a handful of neutrals.

Heather Burt

Heather’s first novel, Adam’s Peak, was shortlisted for the 2008 Ethel Wilson Prize for fiction. Her short stories have been published in Canadian and American literary journals, and her second novel, Driving, is nearing completion.

Heather grew up in Montreal and Vancouver. She and her partner, novelist Paul Headrick, currently teach fiction writing and English literature at Langara College, Vancouver.

Adam’s Peak, shortlisted for the 2008 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, weaves back and forth between a Montreal suburb and a Colombo private school, between a Ceylon tea estate at the end of WWII and a small Scottish town in the early 1960s, its characters struggling desperately to come to terms with themselves and with their powerful connections to the people and places they have tried to escape.

For more information, or to get in touch, please visit www.heatherburt.ca