The literary community of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, lost one of its most active and passionate members when Maia Williams, 69, died on July 30, 2024. She was born in 1955.
Maia was the Co-Director of the San Miguel Writers’ Conference from 2014 to 2020.
One memorable event was when the Literary Sala entertained the daughter of Diego Rivera, Guadalupe Rivera Marin, for a weekend. In her honor, Maia created a formal banquet using recipes from a book Guadalupe wrote called, Frida’s Fiestas: Recipes and Reminiscences of Life with Frida Kahlo.
Maia was founding editor for San Miguel’s bilingual arts and culture magazine Crossroads, published from 2015–2020. She also founded the Prose and Poetry Café, a monthly reading series featuring accomplished local and visiting writers. She conducted writing workshops called “Wild Muse: Show Up and Write,” offering inspiration to several hundred aspiring authors over the years. They grew to include year-round, in-person and online courses for writers of short-form creative nonfiction, resulting in the publication of the anthology, Memory as Muse: Then and Now.
Maia and her husband, Rev. Wyman Rousseau, arrived in San Miguel in 2011 from Charlotte NC, for what they called “a year of living creatively,” and they never left. Maia topped off her U.S. career as CEO of a sales and management consulting firm in the Carolinas, growing annual client revenues from $500 to $750 million over five years. She volunteered across North Carolina as an advocate for creative arts organizations, including the board of Charlotte’s renowned Arts & Science Council and as annual fundraising chair for The Echo Foundation, an educational organization focused on social justice, with strong ties to the late Elie Wiesel, humanitarian, literary icon, and Nobel peace laureate.
The common threads throughout her career were building community, growing businesses, supporting social justice efforts and the arts. Maia celebrated love, laughter, friendship, equity, and kindness in all she did.
We offer our condolences to Wyman, son Landon, daughter-in-law Tracy, and three grandchildren.
Contributions to the GoFundMe campaign for Wyman’s ongoing care needs will be greatly appreciated. The site also allows you to leave words of support and sympathy, which Wyman will see.