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Art of the Noun: People, Places, Things & Ideas

A Studio-Workshop For Writers

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
January 2 to 9, 2013

With Marianne Rogoff and Lavinia Spalding

ENJOY the first week of your Feliz Año Nuevo in a studio-workshop designed to animate and enliven your prose. Writing practice, craft conversations, and critique workshops take place on the grounds at our casitas, in walking distance to the lively town center. Start, revise, and aim to finish one new story - fiction or nonfiction - plus take away drafts, ideas, and desire to create more. Present your best draft at a Reading in the Garden at week’s end.

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE is a safe and vibrant cobblestone town of artists, expats, tourists, and locals set on a high desert plateau at the geographical center of mainland Mexico, with a pleasing climate, colonial architecture, great food and music, a spirited central plaza (called the jardin), parks and hills to walk, and thermal hot springs a short taxi ride away.

FOR YOUR COMFORT: Tucked behind high walls and iron doors, our casitas include private bath, kitchen, drinking water, wireless internet, heat, balconies, and patios around meandering gardens with stone paths, fountains, fish pond, and old towering palms.

OPTIONAL OUTINGS: on January 8, a scheduled free day, you can take a guided tour and hike to recently revealed Cañada de La Virgen Mesoamerican pyramids in the hills southwest of town. During other free times, you might attend Art Walk or open Studios at Fabrica La Aurora, a former textile factory converted into a working center for art and design; go salsa dancing; watch flamenco dancing; visit museums, crafts fairs, and artisan markets; shop till you drop.

Trip Package Includes:

Studio-Workshop Tuition (5 days, January 3-7), consisting of:

- AM guided writing sessions with Marianne

- PM critique workshops with Lavinia

- personally curated text of stories, poems, and essays to inspire your writing

- one-on-one consultations on work-in-progress when desired

- midday siestas to read, write, rest, revise, and roam

- one writing session held at La Gruta hot spring caves

- evening readings by prominent U.S. and Latin American poets at San Miguel Poetry Week

Casita, Seven Nights (triple, double, or single accommodations; your choice, rates below)

Seven Breakfasts at cafe on premises, from a menu of fruit, yogurt, egg burritos, cinnamon French toast, design-your-own omelets, mango-chipotle eggs, jalapeno-cheddar corn-cakes, and other tasty options

Round-Trip Leon Airport Shuttle (comfortable, reliable van service Viajes San Miguel, used many times); fly to Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, where driver will greet you for transport to town (1.5 hours). An SFo-BJX (Leon) flight will be recommended for group to arrive together, if possible. Please make your own flight reservations.

Trip Package Rates:

Triple $995 (three persons in casita)

Double $1,285 (two persons in casita)

Single $1,675 (one person in casita)

Flight, tips, other meals, and optional outings not included.

The trip is limited to 8 participants, and filling up fast, so please RSVP soon! To reserve your space, please send $500 deposit immediately. The balance is due December 1, unless other arrangements are made.

Ariba!