In mid-July, many literate-loving folks will descend on the Sun Valley Pavilion and lawn for one of the most anticipated events of the Sun Valley summer—the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference (SVWC). With many options to enjoy and engage, SVWC’s diverse audience brings together those who seek Sun Valley’s beautiful mountain summer setting with today’s most compelling writers and thinkers.
The SVWC roster consistently features many award-winning and notable fiction and nonfiction writers, journalists, playwrights, poets, historians, and filmmakers. Past attendees include Doris Kearns Goodwin, David Brooks, Abraham Verghese, Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong, and Salman Rushdie. For 2026, the lineup brings together an extraordinary range of voices at the intersection of culture, history, and science.
Writers include Susan Choi, whose fiction explores identity and moral complexity, and Kiran Desai, the Booker Prize-winning author known for incisive examinations of globalization and belonging. Others attending include Susan Orlean, celebrated for her genre-defying narrative journalism, and Atul Gawande, whose work bridges medicine, ethics, and public life. Beth Macy, acclaimed for her reporting on social justice and the opioid crisis, will present, along with Michael Pollan, a leading voice on food, health, and the environment. And Amor Towles, beloved for his elegant, immersive novels exploring ambition, history, and human connection, will also take the stage.
Inspired by the rivers and streams that wind through the Wood River Valley, SVWC 2026’s theme is “Currents of Change,” and as SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz explained, “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? Join us as we consider how stories both reflect and drive the political, social, and technological currents of our time, helping us understand where we’ve been…and where we’re headed.”
SVWC also brings new authors, including British author Barbara Wansbrough, who lives in Los Angeles and whose work in the film industry includes “U2: Rattle and Hum,” “Priscilla,” “Queen of the Desert,” Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” and as Jessica Lange’s development executive at Prairie Films.
Wansbrough’s Wild Things: A Geography of Grief is her first published work and is inspired by her sister, who shortly before the pandemic was diagnosed with cancer and was unable to visit her in London.
“I have spent my life in close proximity to artists and writers, many of them very accomplished and successful,” Wansbrough shared. “I hold the written word in such high regard because books have enriched my life in such a way that I cannot imagine a world without them. I think what has surprised me most is that the response to Wild Things has been so widespread and so heartfelt. It is a dream come true to have joined the ranks of ‘published writers,’ although, obviously, I wish I had never had to write this book.”
Amor Towles is the author of New York Times bestsellers Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, The Lincoln Highway, and Table for Two. His four books have collectively sold more than eight million copies and have been translated into more than 40 languages. His approach to his work is not just educated—it’s mindful of the artistic integrity of many writers who have informed him.
“When you write a book, the approaches and talents you’ve seen in other work influence the decisions you make. You are picking and choosing styles that best tell your story,” said Towles. “You are designing a book that can be read by many different people over a long period of time.” He added, “I’m wary of writing timely work. I’m more interested in writing timeless work. I start with a story that intrigues me and explore it as best I can.”
For more than 30 years, the SVWC has challenged and inspired audiences through thoughtful conversation and exceptional programming. In 2026, the SVWC continues its tradition of quality, intimacy, and intellectual playfulness—connecting readers and writers through a shared love of literature and reaffirming its place as one of the country’s most beloved literary gatherings.
In recognition of the country’s 250th anniversary, SVWC will present its 2026 Writer in the World Prize to iconic documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. To honor his body of work, SVWC recognizes Burns’s narrative brilliance combined with a moral imagination that deepens the viewer’s understanding of history, humanity, and our shared future.
For more than half a century, Burns has been making documentary films. Since his Academy Award-nominated “Brooklyn Bridge” in 1981, he has directed and produced some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including “The Civil War;” “Baseball;” “Jazz;” “The War;” “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea;” “Prohibition;” “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History;” “The Vietnam War;” “Country Music;” “The U.S. and the Holocaust;” “The American Buffalo;” and “Leonardo da Vinci.”
Burns will often balance several productions at once, working with award-winning actors alongside historians, professors, and researchers, and compiling important papers, images, art, and significant documents to create a living history for each subject he approaches. His work is so monumental in depth and appearance that Steve Jobs created the “Ken Burns Effect,” a video-editing technique that “wakes up an old photograph visually and orally.”
Burns’s films have received 17 Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Oscar nominations. At the 2008 News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Burns was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2022, he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Set near Idaho, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s three-part, six-hour documentary series “Hemingway” examines the visionary work and turbulent life of one of the greatest and most influential American writers, Ernest Hemingway. As an auteur, Burns has shaped how generations understand the American story, and with his most recent release, “The American Revolution,” he offers valuable and possibly new perspectives on the country’s history.
“In some ways, the American Revolution was a civil war,” said Burns. “It was bloody and also a global war. We wanted to understand this land, inhabited by Native peoples, and its complexities.” He added, “Everyone up to the time of the American Revolution had been a subject under authoritarian rule. The American Revolution was radical and one of the most important events in world history. Thomas Payne says that not since the time of Noah’s ark had there been such a reset.”
Burns describes his approach to documentary filmmaking as a subtractive process, developed over years of working with scholars, historians, archivists, actors, and other creative collaborators.
“At a time when we are so existentially compromised, it is important for a country, just as it is for an individual, to go back in a moment of crisis and try to understand its origin story,” said Burns. “There’s a very big question: Why would people have spent years and years fighting for an abstract idea and concept that has never been tried?” He added, “It’s really impressive. The fact that our country was created is amazing and more important than whatever is going on at the present moment. We’re also celebrating our country’s 250th, and we must remember to celebrate that.”
SIDE BAR
How to Attend
Full conference passes are sold out, but there are many ways to participate in SVWC 2026.
Live Watch Party
$25 per day
The Argyros | Ketchum
Pavilion Pass Tickets
$50 | Single talk
$100 |Two-talk package
Sun Valley Pavilion
Free Livestreaming
Watch from anywhere in the world
svwc.com
Free Lawn Talks
Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis
Sun Valley Resort – Pavilion Lawn
Free Community Speaker Series
The Community Library | Ketchum | 5:30pm
comlib.org
JULY 15
Julian Brave NoiseCat
JULY 21
Virginia Evans
Free Pavilion Talks
For local students, teachers, and library staff if space is available. Check in at the Bookstore Tent Info Desk 30 minutes prior to each talk to get your pass. ID is required.
Sun Valley Pavilion
Free Digital Media Library
Enjoy the best of SVWC anytime. More details and the full schedule is available online.
svwc.com
July 18-20
Sun Valley Writers’ Conference
Sun Valley Resort
svwc.com
