2024 Pavilion Talk Single Event Tickets | SOLD OUT

Our single event tickets for Pavilion Talks ($35 each) sold out in less than 10 minutes. But for select talks, you can still join us on the Pavilion Lawn for free or livestream for free (schedules for both will be announced soon). Stay tuned for details, and be sure to sign up for our email newsletter for important updates and announcements. Questions? Email [email protected].

THOSE WITH TICKETS PLEASE NOTE:

There will NOT be a Will Call desk with paper tickets in the Bookstore Tent.
The purchase confirmation email/attachment/link IS your ticket and you will need it for entry. We recommend either printing out and bringing the e-ticket with you or taking a photo of it on your phone or saving the email to show when you arrive.
Please go directly to the Pavilion main staircase entry (West side) with your e-ticket(s). We will be scanning tickets/QR codes there.
Doors open for entry 30 minutes prior to each talk.

Saturday, July 20

Margaret Atwood with Ayad Akhtar – $35

“Margaret Atwood: Writer in the World”

5:15-6:15 PM

MARGARET ATWOOD, author of more than 60 books in almost every conceivable genre, recipient of more than 100 literary prizes from around the world, is a global icon. Like Kafka and Orwell before her, she and her writing have become part of the public discourse, wherever we live and whatever our age. Atwood’s intelligence is that vital and exacting, her wit that mischievous, her concerns—from birds to the human condition, from environmentalism to feminism, from the lessons of history to social justice—that urgently relevant. She has quoted a Polish resistance fighter from the Second World War who once told her: “Pray that you will never have the occasion to be a hero.” As it has turned out, Atwood has indeed had the occasion, not just once, and never has she failed to rise to its challenges. She is our hero. After receiving the 2024 Sun Valley Conference Writer in the World Prize, Atwood will talk to Pulitzer Prize-winning writer AYAD AKHTAR about her life, her work, and some of the many wonders and terrors of the world we are living in.

SOLD OUT

Sunday, July 21

Judy Blume with Jeffrey Brown – $35

“The Radical Honesty of Judy Blume”

2:30-3:30 PM

There are writers who continue to feel bold, and magical, and necessary decade after decade. So it is with the legendary JUDY BLUME, the author of twenty-five books for young readers and four novels for adults that have sold more than ninety million copies in forty languages. Her cherished, groundbreaking young adult novel, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, has captivated and enlightened girls (and their parents) from 1970, the year it was published, right through last year, when the adaptation of that book hit movie screens. In a warm, wide-ranging conversation with her friend JEFFREY BROWN of the PBS NewsHour, Blume will talk about her life and work.

Niall Ferguson with Evan Osnos – $35

“What Would Kissinger Do?”

4:00-5:00 PM

No U.S. secretary of state ever achieved such celebrity while in office as Henry Kissinger; immersed in the philosophy of Kant and the diplomacy of Metternich, he was hailed as one of the most important strategic thinkers America has ever produced. Yet no former secretary of state has been more vehemently criticized, most notably for sins of omission and commission in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chile, and East Timor. Renowned historian NIALL FERGUSON, now completing the second of his two-volume biography of Kissinger, talks to journalist EVAN OSNOS about his subject’s complicated legacy and, casting a hard eye at. current crises around the world, considers what Kissinger might have made of our current foreign policy landscape.

Erik Larson – $35

“Erik Larson: Never Say Never”

5:15-6:15 PM

How does a guy who swore repeatedly that he would never write about the Civil War end up writing a book about the Civil War? ERIK LARSON, a master of narrative nonfiction, will talk about how, contrary to his own conviction, he ended up writing The Demon of Unrest, his enthralling account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Fort Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. The book is a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.

SOLD OUT

Monday, July 22

Niall Ferguson, David Miliband, Clarissa Ward with Jeffrey Goldberg – $35

“On the Frontlines of Chaos”

3:00-4:00 PM

There are many days now when parts of the world order seem to be well and fully coming apart at the seams. Join four of our most engaged and perceptive thinkers: historian NIALL FERGUSON, author of Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe; JEFFREY GOLDBERG, editor in chief of The Atlantic; DAVID MILIBAND, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee; and CLARISSA WARD, CNN’s chief international correspondent for an honest and illuminating conversation about the root causes of recent wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the humanitarian crises that they have sparked, and what the West should and can do to relieve them.

Anne Lamott – $35

“Paper Ships: Reading, Writing, and Reason to Live”

4:30-5:30 PM

We close our 30th anniversary gathering with the singular voice of ANNE LAMOTT, giving the 2024 Frank McCourt Memorial Lecture, an appropriate grace note as both were beloved foundational members of this Conference. Over the past decades, Lamott’s many fiction and nonfiction books have touched on faith and family and loss and love, moving millions with their signature humor and honesty. She will reflect on what books, poetry, and good writing have meant to all of us, and their essential place in our lives, offering salvation and community, the very reason we are here together in Sun Valley.

SOLD OUT