January 29, 2020 | Distinguished Speaker Series

Legendary ABC News Anchor Sam Donaldson
To Appear in Person in San Miguel

by Susan Page

Many of us in San Miguel are the generation who spent a lot of years receiving much of our news from Sam Donaldson. He is the White House correspondent who was willing to be a bit more confrontational than others had been, thereby changing White House press conferences forever. He covered every Presidential election since 1964, beginning with Barry Goldwater, and he covered the war in Vietnam, the First Gulf War, and Watergate.

For Sam Donaldson to come here to give a talk feels like having an old friend show up in town. He will present a talk, entitled “Rambling Through Washington: 52 Years of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” which will no doubt take us back to familiar times and stories, but told from the insider’s point of view. Sam is a great storyteller with a voice so distinctive and so familiar that we are sure to smile to hear it in person.

In addition to co-anchoring the ABC magazine program “Prime Time Live” with Diane Sawyer, he co-anchored the Sunday program “This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts” and was the founding anchor of “Politics Live,” the first regularly scheduled Monday through Friday news program in the United States on the Internet. His awards include four Emmys, two Peabodys and the Edward R. Murrow Award. samdonaldsonlive.com

Intimate Brunch with Sam Donaldson

The day after Sam Donaldson’s lecture, a lavish brunch at the Rosewood Hotel will give a limited number of people the opportunity for an up-close-and-personal experience with Donaldson. The brunch is a benefit for the Literary Sala’s many community outreach projects. It will be held on Thursday morning, January 30 at 11:00 AM.

Alison Wright

Sharing the podium with Sam Donaldson on January 29 at 5:00 PM will be seasoned and celebrated photojournalist Alison Wright, who will open the event. Alison has spent a lifetime traveling to all corners of the globe documenting indigenous cultures. She was on assignment in Laos when, on January 2, 2000, her life was nearly cut short during a devastating bus accident on a remote jungle road. Alison sat right at the point of impact and suffered massive injuries once pulled from the burning bus. It would be more than fourteen-hours before she received any real medical care. She managed to survive but when airlifted back to the States was told she would most likely never walk again. Alison’s response was to declare that she was going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, a goal she reached two years after the accident. She has since returned to the career she loves, as an intrepid and peripatetic visual storyteller. Her photo lecture promises to be breathtaking. alisonwright.com

Tickets

Tickets for the double bill with Sam Donaldson and Alison Wright and also for the Rosewood brunch with Sam Donaldson are available at Eventbrite:

BUY TICKETS HERE

For questions, contact Nathan Feuerberg at
nathan@sanmiguelwritersconference.org.