Our Student/Author Luncheon is a collaboration between Sun Valley Writers’ Conference and the local high schools, offering students the opportunity to engage directly with an author from the Conference each year.

This year, at the 2025 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference, local high school Language Arts students sat down to a private luncheon with Norwegian explorer and author Erling Kagge.

Kagge was the first in history to reach the North Pole, South Pole, and the summit of Mt. Everest on foot. In addition, he crossed New York City from north to south, mainly through its sewage, water, train, and metro tunnels, sailed across the Atlantic, around Cape Horn, and to Antarctica, and was the first to walk alone to the South Pole. He has written nine books on exploration, philosophy, and art collecting.

In spring of this year, SVWC donated copies of his latest book, After the North Pole: A Story of Survival, Mythmaking, and Melting Ice for students to read as part of their language arts curriculum. Students were also invited to come to Kagge’s talk on July 20, as well as the private Student / Author Luncheon the same day. They had the opportunity to ask burning questions, get books signed, and dive deeper into the lessons within their text directly with the author.