BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Sun Valley Writers Conference is attempting to expand its local schools outreach program with its Eye on the Future project.
The conference has invited Wood River Valley high school students to meet with novelist and memoirist Dave Eggers over lunch and to attend his talk in the Sun Valley Pavilion. The Conference has also donated 65 copies of Eggers’ novel “The Circle,” a suspenseful novel about a woman hired to work for the world’s most influential company, to high schools to include in their Language Arts curriculum.
The Writers’ Conference Eye on the Future Scholarship has expanded this year to award full conference passes to three local high school students who demonstrate academic excellence, a love of learning and a desire to share their knowledge with others.
Conference organizers believes that hearing talks by important literary thinkers will help develop and shape these students’ thought as they themselves become important voices for humanity.
The 2019 Eye on the Future Scholarship recipients are Tallulah Gilbreath from Sun Valley community School, Clara Harding from Wood River High School and Makyla R. Wilson from Silver Creek High School. They will join scholarship recipients from the Fulfillment Fund in Los Angeles as conference attendees.
Local students and teachers are invited to attend all Pavilion presents for free through the eye on the Future Project.
To date the Writers Conference has featured 50 Pulitzer Prize winners, 22 National Book Award winners and six winners of the elite Mann Booker Prize given in Great Britain.
This year’s Sun Valley Writers Conference—the 25th--will be held July 20 through 23 at Sun Valley Resort.For information, visit www.svwc.com.