On Christmas morning 2020, the writer BARRY LOPEZ died in Eugene, Oregon, surrounded by his family, after a long battle with prostate cancer. Widely honored as one of our greatest writers about the natural world—in nonfiction classics such as Of Wolves and Men, Arctic Dreams, and Horizon—for half a century Lopez traveled the globe—High Arctic to Antarctica, Oregon to Kenya—bringing back stories etched in luminous prose that explored our profound connections to the diverse, fragile planet we inhabit.

Two weeks before his death, Lopez received the first Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Writer in the World Prize, given to a writer whose work expresses that rare combination of literary talent and moral imagination, helping us to better understand the world and our place in it.

In this Episode 19, “Leaning Into the Light,” SVWC Literary Director JOHN BURNHAM SCHWARTZ revisits Lopez’s 2019 Conference presentation. This episode is now available and can be played from the SVWC website on our Podcasts page or from other public podcast platforms, including Apple, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Narrated by SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz, and in partnership with LitHub, the SVWC Beyond the Page podcast explores past conference talks and catches up with our writer alumni, weaving together writers’ ideas in a half-hour episode twice a month.

Photo Credit: Nils Ribi