Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood

An Evening with Cheryl Strayed

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Join The Community Library and The Sun Valley Center for the Arts at the Church of the Big Wood in Ketchum for evening with Cheryl Strayed, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Wild. At age 22, Strayed found herself shattered by two major life events: her mother’s sudden death from cancer and the end of her young marriage. After hitting rock bottom, Strayed decided to confront her emotional pain by trekking over 1,000 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail. Strayed is also the author of The New York Times bestseller Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of her widely popular Dear Sugar columns for TheRumpus.net, and the critically acclaimed novel Torch, a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award. Her writing has appeared in The Best American Essays, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine and elsewhere. Cheryl Strayed holds an MFA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. She is a founding member of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, and serves on its board of directors.

Tickets can be purchased through the Sun Valley Center for the Arts ($20/$30 nonmembers) beginning August 29 as a Center member. Beginning September 13 tickets will be available to the general public.

CLICK HERE to visit the Center’s website for ticketing information.

Tickets are available to students and educators for $15 (limit one per educator). 

Part of The Center’s BIG IDEA project The Bottomlessness of a Pond: Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit, Jan 17–Mar 11, 2020.

This lecture is presented in partnership with the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and has been generously supported by an anonymous gift.

 

 

Jon Meacham: “The Soul of America”

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This lecture is presented in partnership with The Sun Valley Center for the Arts and has been generously supported by an anonymous gift and Marcia and Don Liebich.

Presidential historian, Pulitzer Prize-winner, and contributor to TIME and The New York Times Book Review, Jon Meacham is one of America’s most prominent public intellectuals. He is known as a skilled raconteur with a depth of knowledge about politics, religion, and current affairs. Meacham brings historical context to the issues and events impacting our daily lives. His new book, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, examines the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in U.S. history when hope overcame division and fear. A contributing editor at TIME, Meacham writes for the magazine’s Ideas section. He also pens “The Long View” column in The New York Times Book Review in which he “looks back at books that speak to our current historical and cultural moment.” He served asNewsweek‘s managing editor from 1998 to 2006 and editor from 2006 to 2010.

Tickets go on sale in September through SVCA.

$25/$35 nonmember

$15 student/educator (limit to one per educator)

Part of BIG IDEA We the People: Protest and Patriotism

“An Evening with Viet Thanh Nguyen”

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Venue: The Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum

Tickets: $35 through the Sun Valley Center: https://sunvalleycenter.org/event-calendar/lecture-viet-thanh-nguyen-evening-viet-thanh-nguyen/

Award-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen continues 
to gain recognition for his bold, elegant, and fiercely honest writing. His remarkable debut novel, The Sympathizer, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016 and made the finalist list for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner award. His collection of short stories titled The Refugees was released in 2017. Nguyen and his family came to the United States as refugees during the Vietnam War. As he grew up in America, he began to notice that most movies and books about the war focused on Americans while the Vietnamese were silenced and erased. He was inspired by this lack of representation to write about the war from a Vietnamese perspective. The New York Times says that his novel, “fills a void…giving voice to the previously voiceless while it compels the rest of us to look at the events of forty years ago in a new light.” His voice is refreshing and powerful as he urges readers to examine the legacy of that tumultuous time and its aftermath from a new perspective. He is currently the Chair of the English Department at the University of Southern California where he is also an associate professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity.

In October 2017, Viet Thanh Nguyen was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant.

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s lecture is presented in partnership with the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and has been generously supported by an anonymous gift and Marcia & Don Liebich.

Hemingway Distinguished Lecture by Sherman Alexie: SOLD OUT

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Author, poet, and screenwriter Sherman Alexie connects readers around the world to the American Indian experience, making them laugh, cry, and think through his semi-autobiographical writings. One of The New Yorker’s 20 top writers for the 21st century, Alexie was described by Men’s Journal as “the world’s first fast-talking, wisecracking, mediagenic American-Indian superstar.” His National Book Award-winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a #1 New York Times bestseller, was named the best Young Adult Book of all time by TIME. 
 
Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington, but it wasn’t until a college professor recognized his “intensity of language, passion, and energy” that he fully committed to writing. Shortly after, his first books of poetry were published, and he began developing into a gifted orator, telling tales of contemporary American Indian life with razor-sharp humor, unsettling candor, and biting wit.
 
His novels, such as Reservation Blues, Indian Killer, and The Toughest Indian in the World, have won numerous awards and accolades, including Booklist’s Editor’s Choice Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, and Publishers Weekly’s Book of the Year. His anthology of new stories and beloved classics, Blasphemy, was included on Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times, and NPR’s lists of 2012’s best books. 

Forbes proclaimed Alexie’s latest New York Times Best Seller, Thunder Boy Jr, “a new classic.” In its starred review, Kirkus called it “an expertly crafted, soulful, and humorous work that tenderly explores identity, culture, and the bond between father and son.” Thunder Boy Jr. was also listed as one of the Best Picture Books of 2016 by Publishers Weekly.

In 1998, Alexie wrote and produced the film Smoke Signals, which won the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival.  He made his directorial debut with 2002’s The Business of Fancydancing. Alexie is also a co-host on the popular podcast series A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment with best-selling author Jess Walter.

While working on sequels to both The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Alexie is also working with Temple Hill (The Fault in our Stars) and producers Donners’ Company (Deadpool) on the film adaption of True Diary of a Part-time Indian, with Hugh Jackman signing on to play in a supporting role.

Alexie received Washington State University’s Highest Alumni Award, recognizing the importance of his Native American voice to a broad audience, the Katherine Anne Porter Award in Literature, and Pushcart Prize. He was awarded a 2014 Literature Award by The American Academy of Arts and Letters.  

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