Join us July 18-20, 2026 | The Sun Valley Pavilion Lawn | FREE
We want our local community to enjoy all that SVWC has to offer, which is why we have opened up select Pavilion Talks for FREE seating on the lawn of the Sun Valley Pavilion. Bring a picnic, blanket, and low-back chair and join us July 18-20 to hear from some of our country’s most inspiring minds.
Select presentations will be broadcast live to the large jumbotron on the Pavilion lawn. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis—no ticketing or registration is required. You can browse our Bookstore Tent to purchase books by each author and join us for book signings following the talk. If you would prefer to watch from inside the Sun Valley Pavilion, we have Pavilion Passes available for select talks.
See below for the schedule of talks. No registration required.
Saturday, July 18
Robert Macfarlane
“The Rivers of Robert Macfarlane”
Saturday, July 18 | 12:15pm – 1:30pm | Sun Valley Pavilion
We convene our 2026 gathering with the magical voice of ROBERT MACFARLANE, a man who has been called the greatest nature writer of this generation. No one writes with more knowledge, passion, and lyricism about the natural world and how we can be better stewards of all its bounty. That theme underlies his globally acclaimed books, including most recently Is a River Alive?, the moving story of three imperiled rivers around the world and the intrepid people who have fought to reclaim them. In conversation with JENNY EMERY DAVIDSON, Executive Director of The Community Library in Ketchum, Macfarlane will talk about his adventures, literal and literary, and reflect on our beautiful, fragile planet, and the rivers that run through it.
Ken Burns
“2026 Writer in the World”
Saturday, July 18 | 5:00pm – 6:15pm | Sun Valley Pavilion
We are honored to award the 2026 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Writer in the World Prize, in person, to KEN BURNS. For almost half a century, he has told us the story of America through some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, The Vietnam War, Country Music, and The American Buffalo. Each one has entertained and enlightened and often haunted us, none more so than his most recent, The American Revolution. Burns will talk about his passion for the documentary form and, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning military historian RICK ATKINSON, tell us about his latest project on the Revolution and about how, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding, the idea of democracy moves him as it did the leaders and foot soldiers who gave their lives fighting and dying for it.
Sunday, July 19
Jill Lepore & David E. Sanger with Abby Phillip
“The President’s Power”
Sunday, July 19 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm | Sun Valley Pavilion
Can a president of the United States unilaterally take the country to war or unilaterally impose global tariffs as the current president has done? What are the limits of presidential power and where are the guardrails? Presidents have often chafed at limitations to their power, though Donald Trump seems willing to buck the constitutional constraints and make end runs around Congress and the judiciary system. We have asked two deeply-informed, admired writers to reflect on the topic from their different perspectives. JILL LEPORE is a Harvard Professor of American History and Law and author of We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution; DAVID E. SANGER is a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist who has known many a president up close. In a conversation moderated by author and CNN anchor ABBY PHILLIP, they will offer their analyses of the power of the presidency and the uncharted territory the country is in.
Michael Pollan
“A World Appears”
Sunday, July 19 | 3:00pm – 4:00pm | Sun Valley Pavilion
What does it mean to be conscious—of the world, of yourself—and where does consciousness come from? These are the fascinating questions author MICHAEL POLLAN explores in his wondrous new book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness. For over three decades, we have been the beneficiaries of Pollan’s indefatigable curiosity about everything from food and farming to mind-altering drugs. Now comes his provocative and personal look into consciousness itself and what makes us human. In conversation with SVWC Literary Director JOHN BURNHAM SCHWARTZ, Pollan will talk about the scientists and seekers he interviewed for the book and how, in our hectic lives, we need to clear space in our consciousness in order to perceive the world and our connection to it—and to each other.
Amor Towles
“The Consummate Storyteller”
Sunday, July 19 | 4:30pm – 5:30pm | Sun Valley Pavilion
Since the publication of his first novel, writer AMOR TOWLES has been on everyone’s list of their favorite novelists. The world immediately recognized the irresistible new voice of a natural storyteller, someone with an innate instinct for drama and a tenderness for the foibles of his all-too-human characters. His novels, including Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, and The Lincoln Highway, have collectively sold more than six million copies and been translated into 30 languages. He will talk with JEFFREY BROWN, of the PBS NewsHour, about the genesis of the novels and his latest work of fiction, Table for Two, six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood, all marked by his gift for acute observations of people and places.
Monday, July 20
Ada Limón
“A Poetry Reading with the Former U.S. Poet Laureate”
Monday, July 20 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm | Sun Valley Pavilion
It is rare for someone to be both: a poet’s poet and a poet of the people. ADA LIMÓN is that rare writer, able to dazzle critics and readers alike. Over her seven books of poetry, she has woven a lyrical spell that is both sophisticated and also accessible. Her latest collection, Startlement: New and Selected Poems, from which she will read, includes radiant new poems and a selection of earlier ones. They remind us of her uncanny ability to trap a memory on the page, be it about youthful desire, the feel of a table, or the loss of love. But there is joy, so much joy, so much inhaling of the natural beauty of the universe. Separately and together, they are about time itself and how briefly we are here on this planet and our need to savor even our sorrows. To read Ada Limón’s poems is magical. To listen to her read them is a gift.
Simon Rich & Company
“Stories from All In: A Performance”
Monday, July 20 | 3:00pm – 4:00pm | Sun Valley Pavilion
Get ready for smiles and belly laughs as Emmy Award-winning humorist SIMON RICH presents live excerpts from his smash hit on Broadway, All In: A Comedy about Love—staged readings from some of his previously published stories in The New Yorker. Four terrific actors, MICHAEL J. FELDMAN, ZEKE NICHOLSON, MICHAEL RACHLIS, and MARY SOHN, will bring the colorful characters in those stories to vivid life, using all their dramatic gifts to portray the shenanigans and silliness, the communication and miscommunication, and the romantic ups and downs that bedevil love. It is a chance to appreciate Rich’s comedic gifts but also to marvel at just how much fun and feeling a talented quartet can stir up with script in hand.
Rick Atkinson
“The Momentous Fight for American Independence”
Monday, July 20 | 4:30pm – 5:30pm | Sun Valley Pavilion
Our final voice of the 2026 Conference belongs to the Pulitzer Prize-winning military historian RICK ATKINSON and his majestic The Revolution Trilogy, specifically the most-recently released second volume The Fate of the Day, which covers the years 1777-1780 when George Washington’s exhausted army struggled to hold on. Atkinson’s dramatic and detailed account offers a vivid portrait of General Washington’s crucial leaderhip and reminds us how brutally long the War for Independence actually was. Atkinson, who was featured in Ken Burns’s most recent documentary, will take us on to the battlefields and introduce us to the courageous commanders who led the fight and the often ragtag young soldiers—White, Black, and Indigenous—who fought and died under their command.
Our Commitment to Community Engagement
At the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference, accessibility is at the heart of our work. We are deeply committed to serving the Wood River Valley community, especially our students, teachers, librarians, and educators, and to ensuring that anyone who loves literature can find a place here.
That’s why we’ve developed a wide range of free events and community programs, additional venues, and digital experiences. From library talks and livestreaming to a Live Watch Party and our growing media library, there are more ways than ever to engage with SVWC—both in person and online.
Thank you for being a very important part of the SVWC community. And thank you to our donors who help make these outreach programs possible.
PLEASE NOTE:
By attending any Sun Valley Writers’ Conference event, you agree to our attendance & photo policy.