About Us
Over 30 years ago, the founders of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference (SVWC) sat around a kitchen table and dreamt up what would become today’s premier literary conference. Each summer, some of the world’s best writers and thinkers—including fiction and nonfiction writers, journalists, playwrights, poets, historians, and filmmakers—descend upon the small town of Sun Valley, Idaho, for a week-long literary celebration. During the event, SVWC hosts mind-expanding talks and performances, intimate dinners, book signings, lawn talks, and dazzling exhibitions—as well as free community events in partnership with local bookstores, libraries, and schools. Sun Valley Resort, the venue for SVWC, is nestled almost 6,000 feet high, in a stunning snow-capped valley of the Rocky Mountains.
Past presenters have included Pulitzer Prize winners such as Anthony Doerr, Colson Whitehead, and Frank McCourt; National Book Award winners such as Imani Perry and Congressman John Lewis; U.S. Poet Laureates such as Rita Dove and Billy Collins; and winners of the elite Booker Prize such as Margaret Atwood.
An Idaho nonprofit organization founded in 1994, SVWC’s mission is “to bring together readers, writers, and artists of diverse age, background, and experience to be informed, enlightened, challenged, and inspired by a world-class literary program in the great outdoors.”
Conference History
The Sun Valley Writers’ Conference (SVWC) began with a conversation among four friends – journalist Reva B. Tooley, Sun Valley Community School leaders Jon and Leslie Maksik, and venture capitalist Gordon Russell, who sat around a kitchen table in 1994 and fantasized about starting a writers’ conference. One year later, SVWC held its first event in a tent at Sun Valley Community School, featuring 12 writers, 108 attendees, and an opening talk by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, David Halberstam.
Propelled by the vision of Reva Tooley, SVWC’s Executive Director for the first 20 years, the initial group was joined by Mary Anne Dolan and Brandon Stoddard, Linda Sherwood, Barbara and Ethan Canin, Anne and Karl Fleming, Barbi Reed, Diane Peavey, and Van Gordon Sauter and Kathleen Brown, as well as a growing Founders Circle that included Helen and Peter Bing and Julie Wrigley, among other supporters and friends. Three Pulitzer Prize winners – memoirist Frank McCourt, U.S. Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin, and journalist David Halberstam – went on to serve for many years as literary advisors.
The Conference became a 501 (c)(3) Idaho nonprofit corporation with a small board of directors who provide guidance and direction. It grew dramatically over a short period of time and eventually decamped for the breathtaking venues at the Sun Valley Resort.
By the start of SVWC’s third decade, a young management team had moved into the leadership role. Robin Eidsmo, Executive Director since 2014, provides leadership and heads up a professional staff. Working alongside Robin, novelist John Burnham Schwartz, essayist Anne Taylor Fleming, and Pulitzer Prize winner Liaquat Ahamed have shaped the programs that have enriched the lives of thousands of attendees over the years, including Idaho scholars, students, teachers, and librarians who now attend the annual event as our guests.
SVWC Mission Statement
The Sun Valley Writers’ Conference strives to bring together readers, writers, and artists of diverse age, background, and experience to be informed, enlightened, challenged, and inspired by a world-class literary program in the great outdoors.
The SVWC Experience
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“I have to say that the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference is the best writers’ conference I’ve ever been to . . . I came away from the Conference with new friendships and remarkable offers of future collaboration. In short, I came home lit up.”
—Barry Lopez