Who We Are
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PUERTO VALLARTA WRITERS GROUP
The idea to start a writers group in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, originally emerged sometime in 1989 during a conversation between Anthony Duncan Williams and Gordon Robbins. (Our collective memories get fuzzy at this point. It was a long time ago and some of us are older than we would like to believe.) In the beginning, the meetings seemed more like “Writers Anonymous” frequented hit-or-miss by ex-pat “recovering writers,” and sometimes no one would show up at all. The group even disbanded for a short while when someone absconded with the group’s meager funds collected to purchase books for a writing reference library.
It was a struggle, but slowly and surely we got our act together and began meeting with a purpose, to better our writing. Early on, the Puerto Vallarta Writers Group was very small, sometimes only two or three people, meeting in the courtyard at Casa de Tequila, a noisy place. The leadership came from members who took turns selecting a topic, sharing something learned from a favorite book on writing, or reading a work in progress. We were an eclectic bunch. (Still are today.) Our interests in writing and literature covered a broad spectrum and we had no permanent meeting place.
 Casa De Tequila
Don Gallery joined the group in 1996, sometimes finding only Dan Mc Cool at the appointed time and place. Before coming to Puerto Vallarta, Don was active in Round Table West, a group of writers meeting at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, so he knew how such groups should operate and the experience gave him the vision to see what the group could become.
In addition to Don, the founding members included colorful writers like Dan McCool, a teacher and journalist who wrote for Vallarta Voice and Guadalajara Reporter; French Canadian Bertrand Boudreau who had ridden his bicycle around the world and wanted to write about his sometimes hair-raising adventures; New Zealander Maggie Stoffels who wrote hilarious short stories about her Mexican experiences; Steve Wood, who had written a bestseller on computers and Pat Henry who was struggling to write about her solo voyage around the world in a small sailboat.
Slowly, very slowly, the numbers grew, as did interest in topics for specific programs. We thought we had found a permanent home when we moved to the back room upstairs at Oro Verde. It felt like a 50’s coffee house, until the coffee grinding machine cranked up once too many times in the middle of an important reading. Wayne McLeod, Alex Curtis, Jeannie Hearth, Duncan Williams, Bruce MacDonald, Tom Colvin, Susan Quinn, Rick Rykes, Doug Danielson, David Lyons, Ginger Tindal, a Brit named Stewart Howard and literary agent Sally Conley, would drop in from time to time to see what was happening, and most became regulars.
 Cafe Oro Verde
As the group got larger and the coffee machine nosier, we outgrew the crowded little backroom space at Oro Verde. That’s when Don Gallery took it upon himself to negotiate with restaurant operators for a larger space and also publicized the group’s activities in the local press.
If we were to reveal the sometimes hilarious reasons why our group’s quite diverse, persistently transient, frequently feuding, often eccentric participants were constantly being reprimanded and prodded to move on by weary restaurant operators during this turbulent time it would make great fodder for a light-hearted farcical comedy. Determined to keep the group intact and find a home, Don finally secured the International Friendship Club meeting room as a permanent location where we meet to this day.
Volunteers keep the group running from week to week, but Don Gallery is the glue that holds things together, and that is why he was presented the first annual SALLY CONLEY MEMORIAL AWARD at the PV Writers Conference in 2009. Tragically, Sally had died suddenly at the end of 2008 ending her very valuable input and encouragement to members.
 Meeting At The IFC
Each year the Puerto Vallarta Writers Group sponsors a Writers Conference in February that attracts writers, readers and thinkers from around the world.
- 2006— Writers Weekend, Chairman, Doug Danielson. One presenter (Jeffrey Marks). Focus: Writing and marketing the genre novel.
- 2007—Writers Weekend Workshop. Chairman, Dan Grippo. Three presenters (Karen Blomain, Alejandro Grattan, Susan Page). Focus: Living the writer’s life, finding the format for your material, marketing your work.
- 2008—Writers Weekend Workshop. Chairman, David Lyons. One presenter (Dan Poynter). Focus: Self publishing and marketing your own work.
- 2009—Puerto Vallarta Writers Conference (co-sponsored by Biblioteca Los Mangos). Chairpersons: Karen Blomain and Norma Schuh. Keynote speaker: Linda Ellerbee. Six workshop presenters and Eight seminar presenters. Focus: The craft of writing.
- 2010—Puerto Vallarta Writers Conference (co-sponsored by Biblioteca Los Mangos). Chairman, Doug Danielson. Keynote Speaker, Elizabeth Kadetsky. Featured Speakers: Marcon McPeek Villatoro and Dave Lieber. Seven seminars. Focus: Creative nonfiction.
Today the Puerto Vallarta Writers Group has more than 250 individuals on its email list. Some thirty people regularly attend Saturday meetings during the off-season (summer months), and the ranks swell to over eighty attendees during high season when visitors return to Puerto Vallarta for the winter. Occasionally there is standing room only, with retuning writers coming to meetings during their stays in Vallarta and newcomers seeking out the group to see what it is like. A solo writer from New York in town for only two weeks will enjoy the group for social contact with people of like mind. Another will sail into town on his boat, making the marina his home for a month, and seek out the location of the Writer’s Group.
Don Gallery notes, “A lot of folks who live on the boats come to our meetings. We are in a unique location and cruising writers and traveling vacationers often have interesting stories to tell. Writer’s groups, found all over the globe, afford a kind of fellowship from one port or locale to another. As well the Puerto Vallarta Writers’ Group is sought out by the diverse body of folks who love the work and play of words and enjoy the chance to share the achievements and angst of their craft.”
Thanks to the following people for their help in piecing this information together: Susan Hosmer, Duncan Williams, Pat Henry, Don Gallery, Wayne McLeod, Ginger Tindall, David Lyons, Barbara Sands, Joy Eckel, and Doug Danielson.
Additional Information Online
We are very proud of our published authors
Their works can be purchased through our bookstore.
For more information on Don Gallery’s amazing life.
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