Sundance Resort Author Series

Norman Ornstein is a longtime observer of Congres and politics and is known for a bi partisan approach to public policy. It's Even Worse than it Looks identifies two overriding problems that hav led Congress to the brink of institutional collapse. The book alos takes a hard look at a political system that was once committed to comproise for the sake of democracy, now becoming increasignly polarized.

Maria Semple, Author of "Where'd You Go Bernadette" visits Sundance Resort to discuss her book.

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she'd lost everything when her mother died young of cancer. Her family scattered in their grief, her marriage was soon destroyed, and slowly her life spun out of control. Four years after her mother's death, with nothing more to lose, Strayed made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. Wild is the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again. “Spectacular . . . Gripping . . . A breathtaking adventure tale and a profound meditation on the nature of grief and survival . . . A literary and human triumph.” —Dani Shapiro, New York Times Book Review. Wild, a New York Times bestseller, was the first selection of Oprah Winfrey for her new Oprah's Book Club 2.0. It has recently been optioned for a film by Reese Witherspoon. Cheryl Strayed is also the bestselling author of Tiny Beautiful Things and the novel Torch.

What does it mean to have a voice? This is the question posed by Terry Tempest Williams' book, When Women Were Birds, which was inspired by her mother's journals - journals that were carefully covered in cloth, placed discreetly on shelves for her to read, and had been left blank. The award winning author discusses When Women Were Birds at the Sundance Resort Author Series.The journals set Williams off on a quest to delve into the emptiness and discover its meaning. The book is about discovering and owning one's own voice and the responsibility that brings. What she seems to know so deeply is that it is the unknowable that lurks beyond the mind that ultimately reveals truth. Perhaps this is what her mother knew and wanted her to discover through her unwritten texts. Were the unwritten texts an act of defiance or simply the act of a private woman, who once said she "didn't like people knowing my thoughts"? Or, did she want to be true to herself in a culture that asked of her only two things; to bear children and record her thoughts in journals?Williams graceful, meditative essays illuminate truth as only she can in her own soulful and eloquent voice. "Once upon a time," Terry Tempest Williams Writes" when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy."

Stephanie Nielson began writing about her life in 2005, in what soon became a very popular blog (nieniedialogues.com).  In August 2008 she and her husband were in a horrific plane crash in which Stephanie suffered burns to 80% of her body and spent four months in a coma. In her book, Heaven is Here, Stephanie shares the extraordinary story of her unlikely survival and the love that helped her along the way – from a gripping account of the crash to her courageous battle to overcome the odds and return to her family.

Author Series - Ann Packer-1

John Feinstien, Author of One on One:Behind the Scenes with the Greats in the Game visits the Sundance Author Series on June 16,2012. Having interviewed and interacted with the legends in sports as well as the unsung, unknown heroes of the game, Feinstein shares some of his most personal stories as he's grown from an intern at the Washington Post to a national best selling author.

Conversation and Q & A on March 24, 2012 at Sundance Resort with author Gretchen Morgenson about her book Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led To Economic Armageddon

Conversation and Q & A on December 11, 2010 at Sundance Resort with author Kathryn Stockett about her best selling book "The Help."

Conversation and Q & A on August 14, 2010 at Sundance Resort with author David Finkel about his book "The Good Soldiers."

Conversation and Q & A on May 22, 2010 at Sundance Resort with author Shelton Johnson about his book "Glory Land."

Conversation and Q & A on June 26, 2010 at Sundance Resort with author Jonathan Alter about his book "The Promise: Year One, President Obama."

Conversation and Q & A on August 14, 2010 at Sundance Resort with author Ann Patchett about her book "Run."

Heidi Durrow joined us at Sundance Resort on June 18, 2011 to discuss her New Your Times best-selling book "The Girl Who Fell From the Sky."  Heidi's book received writer Barbara Kingsolver's 2008 Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change, and is already a book club favorite. This debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white.

Conversation and Q & A with author Ishmael Beah about his book "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier."