A Supreme Court Justice, an Oscar Award-wining actor, the U.S. poet laureate and several Pulitzer Prize winners are just a few of the attributes writers appearing at the 2010 Sun Valley Writers' Conference have among them.
This year's clan of writers know very well of what they pen and speak as travel writers, human-rights activists, poets and screenwriters. In addition, the 2010 conference is filled with men and women who represent a 21st century world, from the inner workings of U.S. government to deciphering the world's economy.
The group of presenters this year will include former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.—interviewed by 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Liaquat Ahamed—Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, economic historian Niall Ferguson, Academy Award-winning actor John Lithgow, poet and memoirist Mary Karr, travel writer and lifelong friend of the Dalai Lama Pico Iyer, human-rights activist and memoirist Ishmael Beah, and novelist and screenwriter Dennis Lehane.
Celebrating inspiration and diversity, the conference will take place at the Sun Valley Resort. A full event pass provides access to all lectures and breakout sessions as well as breakfast and lunch throughout the weekend. It costs $850. There are a limited number of full event passes still available for the event.
More writers and great thinkers are scheduled at the conference, which in the past has hosted 31 Pulitzer Prize winners, 10 National Book Award winners, and five winners of the elite Mann Booker Prize, given in Great Britain. Together, writers and readers freely exchange ideas, concerns, hopes and aspirations.
The audience will enjoy lectures presented in the Sun Valley Pavilion and smaller, more intimate sessions with favorite speakers, as well as theatrical and musical performances and films on opening day.
Tickets to individual lectures in the pavilion will go on sale in Ketchum bookstores for $35. The Sun Valley Writers' Conference is a nonprofit organization that always includes scholarship students and admits teachers and students free of charge. For details, visit www.svwc.com.
Sabina Dana Plasse: splasse@mtexpress.com
Photo by Barbie Reed Courtesy Sun Valley Writers' Conference
The 15th annual Sun Valley Writers’ Conference will take place Friday, Aug. 20, through Monday, Aug. 23.
