About UTV
Magda Bogin. Director & Founder UTV
Celebrating our 25th season
Founded by writer Magda Bogin in 2003 to identify talented writers from across the English- and Spanish-speaking worlds, Under the Volcano is a two-week international residency that convenes every January in Tepoztlán, Mexico, an hour from Mexico City in the foothills of the great volcanoes. We strongly encourage participants to stay on for an unstructured extra week or more as part of a vibrant ongoing community.
Our nearly 500 graduates have published novels, stories, poetry collections, memoirs and investigative pieces, been admitted to top MFA programs, signed with leading literary agents and won prizes and honors that include a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, a Sidney Hillman award, an Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellowship, the Premio Nacional de Novela Corta Amado Nervo, the Premio Nacional de Novela Tamaulipas, the Premio Quimera Literatura Queer, the Write Stuff competition at the London Book Fair, a Fulbright Fellowship and fellowships for books-in-progress from Breadloaf, MacDowell, the De Groot Foundation, the Hawthornden Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, and the Center for Fine Arts in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
What’s it like to be part of Under the Volcano?
It’s about your writing, of course. Past participants consistently mention the way the schedule is designed to prioritize the creation of new work.
But it’s also an exhilarating global community, with shared meals and ample opportunities to explore the village and its legendary surroundings. Climb the mountains, visit nearby ruins and museums, sample the irresistible market food, go dancing when you’ve spent enough time writing: Tepoztlán has it all!
On workshop days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday in most cases), you’ll meet with your group from 10 to 1 and then join the larger community for a copious lunch. Afternoons and evenings and the rest of the week you’re free to make the residency your own.
What’s it like to be part of Under the Volcano?
It’s about your writing, of course. Past participants consistently mention the way the schedule is designed to prioritize the creation of new work.
But it’s also an exhilarating global community, with shared meals and ample opportunities to explore the village and its legendary surroundings. Climb the mountains, visit nearby ruins and museums, sample the irresistible market food, go dancing when you’ve spent enough time writing: Tepoztlán has it all!
On workshop days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday in most cases), you’ll meet with your group from 10 to 1 and then join the larger community for a copious lunch. Afternoons and evenings and the rest of the week you’re free to make the residency your own.
What makes our program unique?
Where else will you find a bilingual residency that brings together poets and journalists, novelists and writers of literary nonfiction from across the globe?
Expect endless conversations, cross-pollination and projects that take off before your eyes.
Talent
We go to the ends of the earth to find writers whose work inspires us and who we believe will inspire future readers. Whether published or not, the writers we accept stand out for their originality and passion.
Time
Under the Volcano can be slow or fast: long enough for a deep dive into your work but also fast for those who find themselves suddenly possessed and can’t stop writing!
Tepoztlán
Tepoztlán is an extraordinary place. We don’t take its beauty or centuries of tradition for granted. We’re grateful every day for the generosity of its people and the spaces we fill each January with a village of our own.
In Their Own Words
