Literature, lectures, art, discussions, food, and fellowship

Join us September 5-7, 2024, to delve into Hemingway’s 1937 novel, To Have and Have Not. The story follows fishing boat captain Harry Morgan between Depression-era Key West and Cuba as he turns to running contraband in order to make ends meet. Over three days we’ll explore the novel’s social and political contexts, its creation and critical reception, and the art it inspired.

Speakers include, Dr. Kirk Curnutt, author of Reading Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not (Kent State University Press, 2017), Florida Keys historian Brad Bertelli, a Boise State University panel with Dr. Clyde Moneyhun and Dr. Stacey Guill, Rob Wilson, and more to be announced.

The seminar will open on Thursday, September 5 with an evening reception at 5:00 p.m. and keynote presentation from 6:00-7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, September 6-7, we’ll hear from speakers and enjoy films and breakout discussions from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day. A full schedule of events will be available this summer. Registration for in-person attendance at the full seminar is $95, and registration for virtual-only attendance is $30.

Registration opens Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

Register to attend IN PERSON here.

Register to attend VIRTUALLY only.

This free, three-day event provides participants an opportunity to strengthen their writing, explore new methods and topics, and connect with others. The event features public programs and writing workshops led by Idaho writers. Breakouts are limited in size but open to all levels.

Presented in partnership with Boise-based Story Forward.

Registration opens April 1. More here.

… with John Lundin

Thursday, March 28, 2024
5:30-6:30 p.m..
John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall
The Community Library

Register here.

Historian and author John W. Lundin will explore Ernest Hemingway’s relationship to skiing, from the Alps to Idaho, and how skiing was an important part of the writer’s life, key to his coming of age, and provided themes he incorporated into his later writings.

Hemingway developed his love for skiing in the Alps during the 1920s while dealing with gruesome injuries suffered during World War I and living as an expatriate in Paris as a member of the “lost generation.” Between 1922 to 1926, he spent winters in the Alps, perfecting his craft and writing his first works, and skiing in the afternoons with his first wife Hadley Richardson. Hemingway threw himself into skiing, excited by the physically demanding nature of the sport in the 1920s, the challenge of climbing mountains using skins, and racing down glaciers in untracked snow, experiencing avalanches and crevasses, perhaps as a way of dealing with troubled memories of his traumatic war years.

His association with Sun Valley, Idaho, began in 1939 when he accepted an invitation to stay at the resort compliments of Union Pacific in exchange for its right to use his image for publicity. He fell in love with the area, returning often over the next twenty years. His fourth wife Mary Welsh learned to ski in Sun Valley, while Hemingway skied on Bald Mountain a few times with friends, but was more often found writing. His athletic pursuits and writing were affected by failing health in the 1950s before his death by suicide in 1961.

John W. Lundin is a lawyer, historian and author, founding member of the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum, and splits his time between Seattle and Sun Valley. He is the author of numerous magazine articles and four award winning books: Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass (2017); Sun Valley, Ketchum and the Wood River Valley (2020); Skiing Sun Valley: a History from Union Pacific to the Holdings (2020), (recipient of three national book awards); and Ski Jumping in Washington State: a Nordic Tradition (2021). John helped organize two exhibits on ski jumping: “Sublime Sights: Ski Jumping in Nordic America” at Seattle’s National Nordic Museum in 2021; and “Skiers in Flight: Sun Valley’s Ski Jumping Roots” at The Community Library’s Regional History Museum in 2022. He won the 2023 Western Heritage Prize from the Far West Ski Association and Steamboat Springs Resort for his multi-year “Work to Preserve Ski Jumping History, Expressing Norwegian Identity and Its Role in the Development of Skiing History.”

A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Unmasked with Jonna Mendez

Thursday, March 21, 2024
5:30pm – 6:30pm
John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall

The bestselling co-author of The Moscow Rules and Argo tells her riveting, courageous story of being a female spy at the CIA and battling against the prevailing culture of sexism at the time, all while undertaking dangerous missions for America’s safety during the height of the Cold War.

Jonna Hiestand Mendez began her CIA career as a “contract wife,” a second-class citizen who was hired as a convenience to her husband’s career, a young officer stationed in Europe. She needed his permission to open a bank account or shut off the gas to their apartment, and she performed secretarial duties for the CIA.

Mendez’s talent for espionage was clear, and she soon took on bigger and more significant roles at The Agency. She lived under cover and served tours of duty all over the globe, as well as at CIA Headquarters. She confronted dangerous situations that called on her spy training: coming face to face with a rogue Jihadi who had brought down an American plane, and helping steal a top-secret encryption machine from a Soviet embassy, among other high stakes situations. She became an international spy and ultimately Chief of Disguise at CIA’s Office of Technical Service–a kind of female American version of James Bond’s famous “Q.”

In this breakthrough memoir, Mendez recounts not only the drama of her international spy career but the grit and good fortune it took for her to navigate a misogynistic world. She was undermined, harassed, and intimidated,  all while maintaining a patriotic mission and working to advance her own career.   She was a firsthand witness to the cost of this gendered culture, both to the women who worked there, and to the interests of the agency and the nation it serves.

In True Face is both clear-eyed and dramatic: the story of an incredible spy career, and what it took to achieve it.

In partnership with Dent. Registration required to save a seat. A book signing will follow. This program will be livestreamed, but will not be available to view later.

More/register here.

…and Status in the Valley with Sierra Robatceck 

Thursday, March 14, 2024
5:30pm – 6:30pm
John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall

Sierra Robatcek, Idaho Fish & Game Regional Wildlife Biologist, joins us to discuss wildlife migration and the current status of big game in the Wood River Valley. Robatcek’s research has focused on modeling pregnancy rates of elk in Idaho, as a function of habitat quality and habitat use. Robatcek holds a MS in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho.

This program will be livestreamed and available to watch later.

The final lecture in the annual Thinking Globally, Acting Locally Speaker Series, in partnership with the Wood River Land Trust.

More/register here.

Ketchum Remote Collective aims to bridge the intangible gap between the Wood River Valley’s physical community and the remote workplace for many of its residents. Come meet and spend part of your week working alongside other remote workers. Drop in Fridays between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m.