BY KATE ELGEE HAASE
The Sun Valley Writers' Conference will provide a weeklong celebration of literary arts featuring some of the country's brightest minds and most influential authors, innovators, scientific experts, playwrights, poets, and policymakers beginning Wednesday, Sept. 16.
Those speaking include Max Boot, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Liz Moore, Vivek H. Murthy, Ocean Vuong, and a special surprise speaker—Salman Rushdie, the recipient of the 2025 Writer in the World Prize—that you won’t want to miss!
Full Conference Passes and Special Series Pavilion Passes have sold out, but there is a lengthy lineup of free talks. Passes for the second annual Live Watch Party at The Argyros theater in downtown Ketchum are also on sale for $25 at svwc.com/watchparty. The watch party comes with state-of-the-art audio-visuals, air-conditioning, special guest appearances, music and more.
For more information about all the ways to join SVWC for free in 2025, including free Pavilion lawn talks, free at-home livestreaming, the free Community Speaker Series and free online audio and video recordings in the Writers’ Conference digital media library—visit svwc.com/free.
Thanks to generous donations, SVWC has also been able to create a free scholarship program for local students and teachers, expand free outreach programs in schools and libraries and develop a free fellowship program for budding MFA writers from across the nation. Local students, teachers and library staff are invited to attend select talks for free.
The lineup:
WEDNESDAY, July 16, 5:30 p.m., Community Library
Sonia Purnell--“Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue.” This free talk, part of the free Community Speaker Series in partnership with The Community Library, is full. Join waitlist or livestream.
SATURDAY, July 19, Sun Valley Pavilion
12:30 p.m.--Doris Kearns Goodwin, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s”
The revered and respected Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and biographer will discuss a moving memoir of her long marriage to Richard “Dick” Goodwin, a presidential speechwriter and close adviser to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, the latter of whom he worked with to develop the Great Society.
Free livestream. Live watch party.
2:15 p.m.--Andre Dubus III, Griffin Dunne & Sloane Crosley, “The Art of Memoir”
These brilliant memoirists will discuss the hard business of writing one’s own life story (well and artfully). In conversation with SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz, they will unpack their respective literary journeys, mapping some of the greatest obstacles confronted and deepest joys experienced along the way.
Free livestreaming. Live watch party.
3:45 p.m.--Dan Jones, “The Life and Times of Henry V”
Dan Jones is not only an exceptional historian but also a riveting storyteller. In his new book, Henry V, he delivers a master class on the dramatic life and leadership of England’s preeminent medieval monarch.
Free livestreaming and watch party.
5:30 p.m.--“Writer in the World Presentation”
Salman Rushdie, the 2025 Writer in the World Prize recipient, will be giving the evening keynote talk.
Free livestreaming. Live watch party.
SUNDAY, July 20
9:30 a.m.--Ruth Reichl, “The Paris Novel”
Ruth Reichl, a well-loved food writer, is the author of five memoirs, including Tender at the Bone and Save Me the Plums. She is also a captivating novelist, and, as you might imagine, her fiction is full of many sensory pleasures.
Free livestreaming. Live watch party.
11 a.m.--Admiral James Stavridis, Edward Luce & Jonathan Blitzer, “America and the World”
These wise, deeply informed voices will strive to help the audience understand the conflicts around the globe. Admiral James Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and Edward Luce, US National Editor and columnist at the Financial Times, will be in conversation with The New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer as they analyze current global hot spots, like Ukraine, the Middle East, and China.
Free livestreaming. Live watch party.
1:30 p.m.--Ocean Vuong, “The Emperor of Gladness”
In works of piercing beauty and heartrending grace, in poetry and prose, Ocean Vuong has become one of his generation’s most necessary and unforgettable literary voices. With his singular ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness, Vuong will discuss the novel and his writing with SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz.
Free lawn talk and livestreaming. Live watch party.
3 p.m.--The Improvised Shakespeare Company® “You Have to See It to Believe It”
They come courtesy of the one-and-only Improvised Shakespeare Company®, a performing troupe that will put on a never-before-seen and never-to-be-been-again fully improvised Shakespearean masterpiece using imput from the audience.
Free lawn talk. Live watch party.
4:30 p.m.--Doris Kearns Goodwin, Max Boot & Evan Osnos, “Our Transformative Presidents and How They Changed the Office and the Country”
A few of the occupants of the highest office in the land have changed the nature and reach of the presidency and, therefore, the country itself. We have asked two preeminent presidential historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Max Boot, in conversation with award-winning journalist Evan Osnos, to reflect upon the impact of transformative presidents and what combination of drive, vision, and charisma informed their White House tenure.
Free lawn talk and livestreaming. Live watch party.
MONDAY, July 21
9:30 a.m.-- Dr. Theodore H. Schwartz, “Identity and the Brain: The Story We Tell Ourselves”
One of America’s preeminent neurosurgeons and the author of Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery, Dr. Theodore H. Schwartz has spent his career investigating some of the most complex and perplexing questions about the three-and-a-half pounds of tissue that determines the very nature of ourselves and our lives.
Free livestreaming. Live watch party.
11 a.m.-- Griffin Dunne & Todd S. Purdum, “The Friday Afternoon Club”
At eight, Sean Connery saved him from drowning. At thirteen, he attended his Aunt Joan Didion and Uncle John Gregory Dunne’s legendary LA launch party for Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. In his early twenties, he shared a Manhattan apartment with his best friend and soulmate Carrie Fisher. A few years later, he produced and starred in Scorsese’s After Hours. Amidst it all, Griffin Dunne’s sister Dominique, just 22 and a rising star in Hollywood, was brutally murdered by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. Now Griffin Dunne has produced a memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan, finding humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances.
Free livestreaming. Live watch party.
1:30 p.m.--Colum McCann, “Twist”
Colum McCann has sought ways to channel the biggest stories of our age into resonant, elliptical, poetic works of fiction. His latest novel tells the story of a journalist sent to report on the complex work of repairing underwater cables that carry the world’s information. Dazzling on every level, human and technological, it is McCann at his best, finding beauty and mystery on the front lines of danger.
Free lawn talk and livestreaming. Live watch party.
3 p.m.--Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, “From the Heart”
During his tenure as the Surgeon General of the United States, Vivek H. Murthy, MD became, in effect, our national healer. In a soft but strong voice, he spoke about the country’s maladies like addiction, depression, and violence, and he made the passionate case that loneliness was the contributor to many of those ills, including our over-dependence on social media
That message is at the heart of his book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection. In conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Andrea Elliott, Murthy will talk about the book, about his own bouts of loneliness, and how we can each learn to be a healer in our own lives.
Free lawn talk and livestreaming. Live watch party.
4:30 p.m.--Carl Hiaasen, “Fever Beach”
The 2025 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference will close on a note of high hilarity with Carl Hiaasen, talking about his brand-new novel Fever Beach, another classic based—where else—in his home state of Florida. He has readers from the opening sentence, when a man named Dale Figgo picks up a hitchhiker on Gus Grissom Boulevard in Tangelo Shores, Fla.
Free lawn talk and livestreaming. Live watch party.
TUESDAY July 22
5:30 p.m. Ruth Reichl, “The Paris Novel” at The Community Library
This free talk is part of the SVWC free Community Speaker Series in partnership with The Community Library. In-person registration is full, but you can join the waitlist or livestream for free.
For more details, visit https://svwc.com/.