BY KAREN BOSSICK

Ken Burns, who mesmerized America with his series on the Civil War and who just recently presented a look at the American Revolution, will be honored as the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference 2026 Writer in the World Prize recipient.

Burns will be the latest in a line of distinguished artists who have included Salman Rushdie and Barry Lopez.

The conference will be held July 18-20 at the Sun Valley Resort and Pavilion. Passes go on sale at 10 a.m. Mountain Time Tuesday, Feb. 24, at https://svwc.com/.

This year’s  Sun Valley Writers’ Conference will also feature Michael Pollan, a leading voice on food, health and the environment with such books as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “The Botany of Desire;” British nature writer Robert Macfarlane, who has written such New York Times-bestsellers as “Is a River Alive?” “The Wild Places” and “Mountains of the Mind,” and Harvard historian Jill Lepore, author of “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution.”

Other writers will include:

***Susan Choi, whose fictional books such as “Flashlight” explores identity and moral complexity

***Kiran Desai, the Booker Prize-winning Indian author known for her examinations of globalization and belonging in such novels as “The Inheritance of Loss”

***Susan Orlean, known for her genre-defying narrative journalism in such books as “The Orchid Thief,” about orchid poachers in Florida

***Atul Gawande, a surgeon whose works, including “Complications,” “Better,” “The Checklist Manifesto” and “Being Mortal,” bridge medicine, ethics and public life

Beth Macy, known for her reporting on social justice and the opioid crisis in such books as “Factory Man,” “Dopesick” and her latest--“Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America.”

Amor Towles, an investment professional whose immersive novels, including the New York Times bestseller “Rules of Civility,” explore ambition, history and human connection.

Additional writers and presenters will be announced in the coming months.

This year’s theme is “Currents of Change” with presenters reflecting on how stories drive the political, social and technological currents of our time, helping readers to understand where we’ve been and where we’re headed, said John Burnham Schwartz, the SVWC literary director.

“As we approach our nation’s 250th anniversary, this theme invites us to explore important questions: What forces shape our writers’ work? What changes have shaped, and are shaping, our country and world? And what role does literature play in helping us navigate them?” he said.

The Sun Valley Writers’ Conference, has challenged and inspired audiences through thoughtful conversation for more than 30 years.

An Idaho-based nonprofit, it offers a wide range of free events and reduced-cost programming, including free lawn talks on the Sun Valley Pavilion lawn, free livestreaming from anywhere in the world, free library talks in partnership with The Community Library, discounted series passes to select Pavilion Talks and an ADA-accessible Live Watch Party at the air-conditioned Argyros Center for Performing Arts in Ketchum.

Donor support funds scholarships for local students, educators and librarians, takes writers into local schools and provides fellowships for aspiring young writers from around the country.