BY KAREN BOSSICK
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert, known for “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History,” will be among the speakers at the 2022 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
She will be joined by two dozen other speakers, including:
- Anthony Doerr, a Boise author whose novel “All the Light We Cannot See” won a Pulitzer Prize and whose new book “Cloud Cuckoo Land” finds an imaginative way to link past, present and future.
- Heather McGhee, whose book “The Sum of Us” analyzes how America arrived divided, self-destructing, materially rich but spiritually starved and vastly unequal.
- New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos who published “Joe Biden: The Life, the Run and What Matters Now” and Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury,” about profound cultural and political changes occurring between 9-11 and Jan. 6, 2021.
- Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong, winner of the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize.
- Novelist Lauren Groff, whose books include “Fates and Furies.”
- Erich Schwartzel, author of “Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy.”
- Rita Dove, the first African American to serve as poet laureate of the United States
- Terry Tempest Williams, a Utah writer and conservationist who is well known to Ketchum readers for such books as “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place.”
Additionally, the smash hit hip-hop comedy improv group Freestyle Love Supreme will perform at the conference. Co-created by Lin Manuel Miranda, it will be coming straight from Broadway.
The 2022 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference will be held Saturday, July 16, through Monday, July 18, at the open-air Sun Valley Pavilion and in tents on the Pavilion lawn.
Due to high demand for passes, the Writers’ Conference is implementing a lottery system this year. Signups are open through 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, at https://svwc.com/lottery. Winners will be notified via email by Friday, Feb. 25.
The Writers’ Conference is offering two types of passes this year. A Full Conference Pass for $1,100 provides access to all Pavilion talks and breakout sessions, as well as breakfasts and lunches served at Sun Valley Resort.
The new Next Generation Pass costs $550 and is for those under 35 years of age. It provides the same access as a full pass.
Wood River Valley teachers, students and librarians will be admitted free of charge to all Pavilion talks as space is available.
The conference’s executive director Robin Eidsmo said she and her board were delighted to bring literature, journalism, public policy and performance to Sun Valley again this summer.
“We will be enjoying everything from engaging fiction to thoughtful international analysis to storytelling to hip-hop improv,” she said. “And, most importantly, we will have fun, as we always do.”
For a complete list of speakers, visit https://svwc.com/writers-presenters
For more information, visit https://svwc.com