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Voices of Freedom in Eastern Europe: “Spring” and “Winter” in Prague: Some Thoughts on the Human Spirit

Czechoslovakia is much colder and darker now than it was last year. Not that the meteorological phenomena have been all that different: Prague has consistently registered temperatures as warm as or warmer than those of…

Voices of Freedom in Eastern Europe: An Hour with Milovan Djilas—Heroic Yugoslav Intellectual

By the time he was twenty-five, Milovan Djilas had already served three years in prison for communist activities. His keen mind, energetic spirit, and Partisan valor endeared him to Josip Broz Tito, and before he reached…

A Survey of Current Literature

A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing.  Samuel Butler the Younger, Life and Habit Reader who…

A Survey of Current Literature

Over a year ago this column called attention to three new journals which in one way or another would be of interest to Mormons or bibliophiles of Mormonism. The journals noted were Mormon History, The Carpenter: Reflections on Mormon Life and The Western Historical Quarterly. Mormon History and The Carpenter are of unique Mormon interest and the latter journal has published a third issue, the contents of which are reported below. Mormon History (a journal of reprints) is now in its second volume.

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The bibliographical listing which follows includes books, pamphlets and reprints on Mormon topics, most of which were published in 1970. Because of the time lag between the last book bibliography printed in Volume 5, No. 1 and this issue the following bibliographical listing is longer than usual. We could have eliminated some of the ephemera but decided that this would detract from the value of our service. Rather than resort to paring the bibliography, the superfluous introduction has been minimized and concludes here. 

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The world of Mormon-directed periodicals continues to thrive as new journals appear and old (those that began within the last few years) journals struggle for continued existence

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

“Among the Mormons” is Dialogue’s ongoing effort to keep its readers abreast of Mormon bibliography. Three times a year we present bibliographical listings containing, in separate columns, theses and dissertations, books and related publications, and periodical articles. This issue’s listing contains books, pamphlets and records that have come to our attention during 1971 and 1972. 

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, And think they grow immortal as they quote. —Edward Young, Love of Fame  It has been this writer’s practice in the past to single out a sample of theses…

Jonathan Livingston Seagull: An Ornithologist’s Rod McKuen | Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Listen-up bird-lovers, Hindus, Eddy Rickenbacker, Father Schillebeechx, and Unitarians everywhere: Jonathan Livingston Seagull has arrived! Somewhat sooner and with greater flurry than many of us would have wished, perhaps, but, then, that’s his style, and…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Life, Look and now Courage are gone but presumably not forgotten. Courage, for those of you not familiar with this periodical, was the RLDS counterpart to Dialogue which ceased publication in 1973 after three hopeful volumes. I bring this fact to the reader’s attention only to emphasize the tenuous existence faced by periodicals in this inflationary era. The problems are simple to describe but difficult to overcome.

All Content

“What if . . .?” and “How so . . .?” and “I wonder . . .” Mix with LDS Doctrine and Culture to Generate Each Story in The Darkest Abyss | William Morris, The Darkest Abyss: Strange Mormon Stories

“Mormon speculative fiction” must surely be one of the most niche genres available, and William Morris’s new story collection, The Darkest Abyss: Strange Mormon Stories, published by BCC Press, is a standout and quirky addition…

The Last Day

“Scott Eccles?” “Yes!” “Please follow me.” Scott Eccles leapt from his seat, straightened his tie, and surreptitiously placed his fists on his hips in the Superman pose, for he had watched a video online that…

A Very Bad Dog Steven L. Peck, Heike’s Void

Among the benefits to reading authors with large, proven oeuvres is trust. We can trust Steven L. Peck. Remember that through the provocations of the opening of his astonishing new release from BCC Press, a…

Sodom and Gomorrah

Listen to the interview about this piece here. Listen to the audio version of this piece here. A man stands naked on the rubber of a checkout counter’s clnveyer belt, face smeared with something red.…

Second Place: Dispatches from Kolob

Listen to the Out Loud audio version of this article here. Listen to the interview about this piece here. Dear President Russell M. Nelson, For centuries, the pope has been addressed as Your Holiness, and they…

Honorable Mention: Butterflies

Trying to get to the nursery proper and all of the blooming plants—bright colors, heady smells, early summer at its best—Mona almost walked past his table. It was one of those fold-­up numbers with foldout…

Vardis Fisher Pioneered Literary Mormon Writing Michael Austin, Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist

Grappling with LDS Identity Formation: A Review of Recent Young Adult Novels Rosalyn Eves, Beyond the Mapped Stars James Goldberg and Janci Patterson, The Bollywood Lovers’ Club

The Private Investigator

Listen to the podcast version here. The doorbell rang as I hung up the phone, and then I heard my father’s deep, imposing voice fill our entryway. I stood and walked slowly into the unlit…

The New Calling

Podcast version of this piece. No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be,Am an attendant lord, one that will doTo swell a progress, start a scene or two,Advise the prince; no doubt,…

The Promise and Limitations of Working-Class Male Protagonists

The ten stories that comprise Losing a Bit of Eden sustain Levi Peterson’s position as one of the most adept scribes of the twentieth-century American West. Each story is well grounded in a particular time…

Q&A with James Goldberg, Co-founder of Mormon Lit Blitz

The Mormon Lit Blitz contest has tapped into a rich reservoir of Mormon short-short fiction, reaching a milestone this year with the publication of its first anthology. With a 1000-word limit, final winners selected by…

Lucky Wounds

Old George sat on an upturned half-barrel cleaning his gun. It only ever shot blanks these days, but that didn’t matter much. A fellow outlaw’d once told him the state of your gun’s the state…

Sisterhood and the Divine Feminine Twila Newey, Sylvia

Like a mother opening her arms to embrace her children, the span of mountains and trees that look over my childhood home in Salt Lake City extend to the south and cradle also the homes…

LePetit Richards and the Big Dipper Carpet—An Amusement Based on a Reworking of Whittle’s Research Notes

Podcast version of this fiction piece. This was not the only time that Richards, originally born Neville Colyer, the son of a millwright in Oxfordshire, had worked through the imagery of the stars. He had…

Review: Delightful Futuristic Mormon Morality Tale Offers Teaching Tool for Progressive Parents Matt Page, Future Day Saints: Welcome to the New Zion

After his death and resurrection on Earth, Jesus Christ traveled to New Zion—a planet in the Kolob star system—and appeared to its six-eyed alien inhabitants, whom he named the Othersheep. He explained to the Othersheep…

Tatau

Uncle Akumu has tattoos. Big, thick pe’a lines shout his ancient Samoan genealogy as they crisscross his thighs. On his arms he carries his own story. There’s Aunty Lani’s name surrounded by vines and pua…

Excerpt from Eleusis: The Long and Winding Road, Translated and introduced by James Goldberg.

Dean Hughes, Muddy: Where Faith and Polygamy Collide Phyllis Barber, The Desert Between Us

Mormon Saga

Lessons in Scriptural Origami James Goldberg. Remember the Revolution.James Goldberg. The First Five Dozen Tales of Razia Shah and Other Stories

I first discovered James Goldberg when a friend from my mission shared a blog post from the Mormon Midrashim entitled “Explanation, Justification, Sanctification.” In it, the author shares some profound theology with his ten-year-old daughter in a…

As Above, So Below: Mormonism Mattathias Singhin D. J. Butler’s Kaleidoscopic Cosmological Fantasy D. J. Butler. Witchy Eye D. J. Butler. Witchy Winter D. J. Butler. Witchy Kingdom

There are many different ways to construct a fantasy universe. Some are flowers, carefully grown from a single seed. Some are mirrors, with each element corresponding to a specific parallel in our own world for…

The Cunning Man and Fiction of the Mormon Corridor D. J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey. The Cunning Man

On December 6, 2019, the Western Mining and Railroad Museum in Helper, Utah hosted a release party for The Cunning Man. The novel, which has scenes in the city and in the old coal mines nearby…

A Rising Generation: Women in Power in Young Adult Novels Jo Cassidy. Good Girls Stay Quiet Emily King. Before the Broken Star Julie Berry. Lovely War

When Was the Last Time You Read a Romance Novel? Ilima Todd. A Song for the Stars.

In the Garden of Babel

Eldria is a technician on a team that has unlocked the secret to prayer. The learning machine has labored for years. It has uttered prayers both ancient and fresh, rote and random, then monitored weather…

Review: “Is this the Promised End?” Steven L. Peck. The Tragedy of King Leere, Goatherd of the La Sals.

The Maidservant’s Witness Mette Harrison. The Book of Abish.

An Astonishing String of Stories Steven L. Peck. Tales from Pleasant Grove.

Review: Welcome Additions Karen Kelsay. Of Omens that Flitter. Javen Tanner. The God Mask.

Sonnet: On His Blindness to Autumn

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Continuing our bibliographical coverage of Mormon material, we turn our attention in this issue to dissertations and theses written to fulfill requirements for graduate degrees.

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The historian, essentially, wants more documents than he can really use . . .  Henry James. The Aspern Papers  History is bunk.  Henry Ford The books, periodicals, and manuscripts listed in bibliographies are of little value…

Articles and Essays in Mormon Studies

The perversion of the mind is only possible when those who should be heard in its defense are silent.  Archibald MacLeish  A decade ago one might have been hard pressed to compile a sizable bibliography of…

Hugh Nibley: A Short Bibliographical Note

The name Hugh Nibley has become common coin of the Mormon realm. The household quality of the name in part depends upon the frequency with which his work appears in the Improvement Era. Since 1948…

A Survey of Current Literature

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.  Robert Louis Stevenson  As is all too evident from the newspapers, we are again approaching that quadrennial time when nominations for the…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.  Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act iii, sc. 2, 1. 78 [Antony]  As in the past years, the spring bibliographical survey is concerned…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The difficulty in life is the choice.  George Moore, Bending of the Bough In this year’s survey of theses and dissertations on Mormon or Utah subjects the reader’s attention is called to the vastly expanded…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

I would the gift I offer hereMight graces fro thy favor take.  John Greenleaf Whittier, Songs of Labor  An article in the June 1, 1968, Church News entitled “BYU Gets Rare Books” described items of…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Are Mormons Christians? The official name of the Church includes the words “Jesus Christ” within it, and we consider Him our Savior. Our scriptures include the Bible, and, as Anthony Hoekema suggests, “Many people have the impression that the Mormon teachings are not basically different from those of historic Christianity.” Yet Dr. Hoekema has decided that “The Christ of Mormonism is not the Christ of Scripture.” The good doctor came to this conclusion by asking—and himself answering—the following ten questions: …

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Write on your doors the saying wise and old, ‘Be bold! Be bold!” and everywhere, “Be bold; be not too bold!” Yet better the excess than the defect; better more than less . . . .  Longfellow, Morituri…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

In an effort to keep Dialogue’s readers abreast of current research on the subject “Mormons and Mormonism,” the second issue of each volume (Summer issue) is devoted to a listing of theses and dissertations accepted by Ameri can colleges and universities on the aforementioned subject. Our sources of information are primarily Mormon Americana, a bi-monthly bibliography prepared at Brigham Young University, Dissertation Abstracts, a publication of University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and commencement programs of the Utah universities.

Literature, Mormon Writers, and the Powers That Be

For the better part of a month, I was with a group of young Mormons bent on giving the Church a vigorous expression in all the arts. We were not very clear as to just what we would do. We would do something. We felt the Church deserved this. It was such a fine Church, everything considered. And it deserved us. Not in its (then) present state, maybe; but we had faith that it could puff up to us. There was the son of an official sculptor, a yearn ing scientist from Alberta, two or three others who do not congeal into iden tities in the twenty-three-year-old mist I am looking into; and there was me, an ink-stained veteran of a year of writing C to C-plus freshman themes at Weber College. We all met near the end of our term at Biarritz American University in the south of France, the winter after one of the wars had ended. 

Virginia Sorensen: A Saving Remnant

Nearly fifteen years have passed since I, in looking around for a thesis topic, began to read “Mormon novels.” It seems odd to remember how electrifying were the “forbidden” Vardis Fisher and others I hadn’t heard of: Scowcroft, Whipple, Robertson, Blanche Cannon, even Samuel Taylor. It must be a clue to our culture that a girl could get through graduate school without such an awakening, especially when many of those writers seem so bland today that I wonder along with Sam Taylor “if most of them weren’t mainly victims of bad timing.” What my awakening really consisted of was a refreshing realization that some of those giants from our past were really human beings after all (“saints by adoption”). 

Vardis Fisher and the Mormons

The New York Times article reporting the death of Vardis Fisher in 1968 said, predictably, that Fisher was “perhaps most widely known as the author of Children of God, a historical novel about the Mormons.”[1]…

Beowulf and Nephi: A Literary View of the Book of Mormon

Dialogue 4.3 (Fall 1971): 42–45
It is tempting, of course, to redress the Book’s limited literary impress by recourse to history, sociology, psychology, and demonology. It is tempting to say that a hundred and forty years in the literary marketplace is too limited a test for such a grand design — but entire literary movements, like the pre￾Raphaelites, have come and gone in the same period

Little Did She Realize: Writing for the Mormon Market

So you want to write a Mormon novel? Great! Here’s a story for you:—

It’s about a Mormon bishop and his family, see, so you can get in all the little inside details about the L.D.S. people. The bishop’s wife is an extremely devoted mother of three children, two lovely daughters and a son who is a genius. The mother is so excessively devoted to her genius son that she drives him into a madhouse. But before he is locked up he has an incestuous affair with a sister which ruins her life, he causes his best friend’s suicide and drives his other sister into an unhappy marriage with a Gentile. His own disintegration causes his father, the bishop, to die of a broken heart.

Literature in the History of the Church: The Importance of Involvement

Against my better judgment, I have been persuaded to discuss the place of literature in the history of the Mormon Church in the context of this special issue of Dialogue. That the topic is too…

The Imagination’s New Beginning: Thoughts on Esthetics and Religion

While it is true that there has been no substantial literary tradition among the Mormons, there are indications that one is beginning. For the first time there is a sufficient number of Mormon scholars and critics who can help establish the climate for a legitimate literature and there are more and more creative writers who are turning their talents to Mormon subjects. Therefore, it is not my purpose to lament the fact that a Mormon literature does not now exist. Rather, I choose to discuss how the literary esthetic can serve religion and how a rebirth of the imagination can and should serve the Church today. For if anything would militate against acceptance of an emerging Mormon literature it would be our continued distrust of the imagination. 

On Words and the Word of God: The Delusions of a Mormon Literature

A poet, a painter, a musician, an architect: the man or woman who is not one of these is not a Christian. William Blake Observers of the Church must think it odd that for all…

Voices of Freedom in Eastern Europe: “Spring” and “Winter” in Prague: Some Thoughts on the Human Spirit

Czechoslovakia is much colder and darker now than it was last year. Not that the meteorological phenomena have been all that different: Prague has consistently registered temperatures as warm as or warmer than those of…

Voices of Freedom in Eastern Europe: An Hour with Milovan Djilas—Heroic Yugoslav Intellectual

By the time he was twenty-five, Milovan Djilas had already served three years in prison for communist activities. His keen mind, energetic spirit, and Partisan valor endeared him to Josip Broz Tito, and before he reached…

A Survey of Current Literature

A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing.  Samuel Butler the Younger, Life and Habit Reader who…

A Survey of Current Literature

Over a year ago this column called attention to three new journals which in one way or another would be of interest to Mormons or bibliophiles of Mormonism. The journals noted were Mormon History, The Carpenter: Reflections on Mormon Life and The Western Historical Quarterly. Mormon History and The Carpenter are of unique Mormon interest and the latter journal has published a third issue, the contents of which are reported below. Mormon History (a journal of reprints) is now in its second volume.

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The bibliographical listing which follows includes books, pamphlets and reprints on Mormon topics, most of which were published in 1970. Because of the time lag between the last book bibliography printed in Volume 5, No. 1 and this issue the following bibliographical listing is longer than usual. We could have eliminated some of the ephemera but decided that this would detract from the value of our service. Rather than resort to paring the bibliography, the superfluous introduction has been minimized and concludes here. 

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The world of Mormon-directed periodicals continues to thrive as new journals appear and old (those that began within the last few years) journals struggle for continued existence

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

“Among the Mormons” is Dialogue’s ongoing effort to keep its readers abreast of Mormon bibliography. Three times a year we present bibliographical listings containing, in separate columns, theses and dissertations, books and related publications, and periodical articles. This issue’s listing contains books, pamphlets and records that have come to our attention during 1971 and 1972. 

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, And think they grow immortal as they quote. —Edward Young, Love of Fame  It has been this writer’s practice in the past to single out a sample of theses…

Jonathan Livingston Seagull: An Ornithologist’s Rod McKuen | Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Listen-up bird-lovers, Hindus, Eddy Rickenbacker, Father Schillebeechx, and Unitarians everywhere: Jonathan Livingston Seagull has arrived! Somewhat sooner and with greater flurry than many of us would have wished, perhaps, but, then, that’s his style, and…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Life, Look and now Courage are gone but presumably not forgotten. Courage, for those of you not familiar with this periodical, was the RLDS counterpart to Dialogue which ceased publication in 1973 after three hopeful volumes. I bring this fact to the reader’s attention only to emphasize the tenuous existence faced by periodicals in this inflationary era. The problems are simple to describe but difficult to overcome.

Gambit in the Throbs of a Ten-Year-Old Swamp: Confessions of a Dialogue Intern

How does an English graduate student who wants a visit to the East Coast, instruction in the American political system and an introduction into the Mormon publishing world satisfy these three ambitions in one two-month…

The Rise and Fall of Courage, an Independent RLDS Journal

Dialogue 11.1 (Spring 1978): 115–119
Although Courage struck a responsive chord in quite a few hearts, its readers did not support it to the extent the editors had expected. Appealing only to a minority in a small church, and without either sufficient subscribers or a financial “angel/  Courage died after its eleventh number (Winter/Spring 1973).

Windmill Jousting and Other Madness: Century 2

Jousting with windmills is a bit out of fashion nowadays, insanity even more so. But every now and then some glittering-eyed individual comes by with an idea most people do best to ignore. 

The New Messenger & Advocate

A magazine is supposed to be one of the easiest businesses to start. It requires no office, no equipment (printing and even mailing can be farmed out to local businesses), no staff as long as…

Sunstone

“Oh,” lamented Job, “that mine adversary had written a book.” Logic and syntax—even basic facts—which are unmistakably clear and irrefutable in manuscript form have a way of breaking down when committed to print. And when…

A Wider Sisterhood: Exponent II

Many readers were surprised and delighted when Exponent II burst upon the scene. “You have lifted my thoughts from the mundane and sweetened my dreams of fulfillment,” wrote one. Another commented, “A newspaper for Mormon…

BYU Studies, How She Is

People are always asking me how I like working at BYU Studies. I say . . .

Gospel by the Month: Ensign

In 1971, all official church magazines were literally swept away and replaced by three colorful, professional, slick publications, each aimed at a different age group—the Ensign for adults, the New Era for young people and…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

“Of making of books there is no end.” These words from Ecclesiastes could as well be applied to the more than thirty thousand doctoral dissertations and an even larger number of master’s theses completed in…

Insights from the Outside: From a Commentator’s Note Pad

At the second annual meeting of the Association for Mormon Letters, as at the first, two literary concerns seemed to have emerged. Not so surprisingly, at the bottom of both these issues was the question…

I, Eye, Aye: A Personal Essay on Personal Essays

In A Believing People, Richard Cracroft and Neal Lambert lament that the essay “has not been as vital a literary force in Mormondom as might be expected.” Early Mormons, they note, kept forceful diaries, wrote…

Literary Dimensions of Mormon Autobiography

Among Mormons, autobiography has been for decades one of the most widespread modes of literary expression and can be related to the larger tradition of the genre in terms of the nineteenth-century origin of the…

The Representation of Reality in Ninteenth Century Mormon Autobiography

Some have suggested that the most successful writing about the Mormon experience in the nineteenth-century comes from the frail and fading pages of the personal accounts recorded by first generation Mormons. From the first it…

Excavating Myself

Somewhere a book is waiting to be written—somewhere, deepburied in the Mormon unconscious, and all we Mormon writers are hard at work digging up the back yards of our past trying to find it.  It…

Three Essays: A Commentary

Mormons are perhaps not as interesting to other people as they think they are. True, we have our history of strange practices and our epic migration to recommend us to the wider community, but the…

The Vocation of David Wright: An Essay in Analytic Biography

[1]David L. Wright did not begin to exist for me until more than a year after his death—in 1968 when I saw his play, Still the Mountain Wind. For other portions of the Mormon audience,…

Halldor Laxness, the Mormons and the Promised Land

When the all-seeing eye on the facade of Zion’s Mercantile winked at him, beckoning him with its self-assured commingling of matter and spirit to write a novel about the Promised Land, Halldor Laxness had already…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Woodrow Wilson, while still a professor at Princeton, told his students in 1900 that he “would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

As Hemingway put it, “A writer’s problem does not change. He himself changes and the world he lives in changes but his problem remains the same. It is always how to write truly and, having…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Only rarely does a piece of writing capture the imagination of both novice and professional alike. Even more infrequently does such a work begin as a Ph.D. dissertation or master’s thesis. Certainly the most renowned…

Among the Mormons: Periodical Articles on Mormons and Mormonism

General Barlow, Phillip L. “On Moonists and Mormonites.” Sunstone 4 (January/February 1979): 37-41. Kenney, Scott. “Mormonism and the Fold.” Sunstone 3 (March/April 1978): 24-25.  Agriculture Bitton, Davis and Linda P. Wilcox. “Pestiferous Ironclads: The Grasshopper…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

“Of all the religious sects to emerge out of nineteenth-century America,” as Newsweek’s religion editor Kenneth L. Woodward recently observed, “only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has developed into a worldwide faith.”…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

1981 is destined to be remembered as a year of indelible significance in Mormondom. Within a two-month period early in the year, stories about the Church twice achieved front-page status. During March the discovery of…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

If we are to believe what we see before us, we must conclude that authors interested in writing and selling books about Mormonism have boundless opportunities. Although most of the newly released volumes are modest…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

As Mormonism embarked upon the 1980s, it appeared, at least outwardly, that the Church might be well advised to prepare for a new era of journalistic sensationalism and criticism. To combat this anticipated struggle, a…

A Survey of Current Literature: Selected Bibliography of Recent Articles

From its early years on the social fringe,” U.S. News & World Report I recently told its readers, the Mormon Church “has become America’s largest and wealthiest home-grown religion by offering shelter in stormy times.”…

The Function of Mormon Literary Criticism at the Present Time

Don’t Fence Me In: A Conversation About Mormon Fiction

When the Brightness Seems Most Distant

“It might not be a problem,” she said to her husband before rolling onto her stomach with a pillow clutched in her arms. She was tired from crying and wished sleep would overcome her. Though…

Bash: Latter Day Plays: Bash by Neil LaBute

Anne Perry’s Tathea: A Preliminary Consideration: Tathea by Anne Perry

Surviving with Hope: Survival Rates by Mary S. Clyde

Heart, Mind, and Soul: The Ethical Foundation of Mormon Letters

Wanderings and Wonderings: Contemporary Autobiographical Theory and the Personal Essay

The Lyric Body of Emma Lou Thayne’s Things Happen

“Easy to be Entreated:” Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent and Christian Communication

Modern Postmodernism: Worlds Without End in Young’s Salvador and Card’s Lost Boy

The Mormon Fiction Mission

Toward a Mormon Criticism: Should We Ask “Is This Mormon Literature?”

Danger on the Right! Danger on the Left! The Ethics of Recent Mormon Fiction

The State of Mormon Literature and Criticism

from Falling Toward Heaven

The next morning Allison dropped Howard at the Mormon church in Rockwood, which, except for the thin spire, was shaped like a large, sub urban house. Though he had asked, she refused to go inside…

Sanctuaries

It’s been ten weeks since Liz (my mother) came to collect me from the islands and pack me back to Michigan. She wanted me to tally my losses and get on with things. Liz has…

A Good Sign

Bobbie wants to marry me again. Fourteen months now I’ve been pointing out the kids, our wedding pictures, our marriage certificate. Gosh, I even show him the mail—”Mr. and Mrs. Robert Franklin,” right there on…

Wolves

When he was seventeen, David Thatcher Williams and his cousin Cleon, who was also seventeen, hopped a freight in the Provo yards to start a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit David’s Aunt Doris, his…

From Three Jacks

Sunrise, Friday, November, 22,1963, not yet but about to be one ugly day in U.S. history, and standing over there about to climb into the family Nova was my dad, Jack, the man suffering—in words…

Havesu

Now and at the Hour of Our Death

Luis strained his ears, watching bare jacaranda branches twitch in silhouette against the bedroom wall. The bedroom window was sliding up. It was not a dream. A human shadow was nearly indivisible from the web…

Brothers

About a year and a half after Mitch fell, he decided on a comeback climb. Understandably, his wife was less than enthusiastic about it. Everyone agreed the fall should have killed Mitch or, worse, made…

Saturday Evening, Sunday Afternoon

At thirty-eight I’m still single. Actually, let me be perfectly frank: Possibly Steve Young and I are the only people in the Western Hemisphere who have remained celibate until such an advanced age, and he…

The Siege of Troy

Do not expect, Hera, to know all my thoughts, even though you are my wife. What I find fitting to reveal, no god or man will know before you. But beware of finding out what…

Who Brought Forth This Christmas Demon

Listen to the piece here. Tim’s wife left him with three dozen blue spruce still trussed up on the truck and better than fifty juniper, Scotch, red cedar, and Douglas on the lot. She left…

The Gilded Door

It sat on a quiet end of Main Street, just a block down from the Shore line State Bank and the Sunshine Laundry. Within its dark cavern, you could lose yourself in fantasy. It was…

A Spiritual Awakening Amid a Hippie Faith : Coke Newell, On the Road to Heaven

Marrow: A Review of Richard Dutcher’s Mormon Films

Gazing Into the Face of the Other

Insight Inside

When Your Eternal Companion Has Fangs

Reading the Mormon Gothic

The Widower

The Widower  Eric W Jepson  Four years had passed since Mary had died; Torrance still wasn’t comfortable dating and yet here he was, getting married. Five years with Mary may have been too short, but…

Triptych: Plural

I Nora bears the tray of hors d’oeuvres she spent three hours this afternoon preparing. Mushroom caps stuffed with chopped and sauteed artichoke hearts, onion, garlic, bread crumbs, and three cheeses. She approaches the door;…

At the Cannery

The Education of a Bible Scholar

Richard Golightly: A Novel

Conception  “They’re up there now,” Bishop Gray croons from the pulpit. His eyes move to the chapel ceiling. “Billions and billions of spirits waiting to inhabit mortal bodies, warriors saved for these last days, ready…

The Dream

Niles awoke from a strange dream to find that his snoring had once again driven his wife from their bed. On his way to the bathroom, he peered into the darkened living room and, as…

American Trinity

The other two are more patient than I am. They bide their time. What’s worse, Jonas is always telling me that I am shirking my duty. I haven’t talked to him in over a century.…

The Birth of Tragedy

For Neal Chandler, il miglior fabbro  “Is Mormonism still part of your Weltanschauung?” Aunt Doris asks me every time she sees me. She knows that at 2:15 on Sunday afternoons I’m blessing the sacrament like…

Grandpa’s Hat

Recompense

Why Joseph Went to the Woods: Rootstock for LDS Literary Nature Writers

Mormon Scholars in the Humanities Conference: Savior, silver, psalms, and sighs, and flash-burn offerings

Hank Toy’s Devil

A devil came to an old Mormon on an icy winter night when mounds of snow outside, as big as cars, lay black and cold, nearly invisible. Having searched since the beginning of the world,…

Sandrine

These things happened fifty years ago. It was 1962, the year of the World’s Fair in Seattle. I was twenty-one and had just finished my junior year at Utah State University in Logan. My forestry…

What It Means

I was looking at the morning through the window in the front room like a bear in a cage remembering somewhere there are meadows, and I noticed how much water was running down the gutter…

Dark Watch

“And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.” Isaiah 34:13 “I will make a wailing…

Trying to Keep Quiet: A Poem Constructed Around Fragments of Leslie Norris’s “Borders”

What Kind of Truth Is Beauty?: A Meditation on Keats, Job, and Scriptural Poetry

Two-Dog Dose

Jarring bang. Wheels leap up, rattling the heavy load of black piping destined for the oilrig. The truck rolls on. Oblivious to what it left behind.  On the macadam, a coyote. From its sacrum back…

Acute Distress, Intensive Care

Barb’s dying, Carma thinks, and she steadies herself against the chest of drawers as Dan, kneeling beside his sister’s bed, strokes Barb’s face. Barb’s head seems to be rocking slightly on the pillow. Her eyes…

Moving On

So I’m down in Payson helping my father, Wymond, move his new wife’s things into storage. The landowner Peg has been renting from is selling out to developers who want the farmland. It’s early on…

Vardis Fisher’s Mormon Scars: Mapping the Diaspora in the Testament of Man

Review: The Mormon Murder Mystery Grows Up Mette Ivie Harrison. The Bishop’s Wife Tim Wirkus. City of Brick and Shadow

Review: Mormons Are a Different Country Mette Ivie Harrison. The Bishop’s Wife

Spring Hill

Section Title  Spring Hill  Luisa Perkins  Becca was taking too long. Emma huddled against the iron fencepost and hugged her knees. The chilly breeze had dried her tears, but her nose was still running. She…

“Slippery”

The sun streamed unimpeded through the kitchen window, warming Jake’s back as he ate a bowl of cereal. It was a pleasant feeling, but also strange. Usually the light couldn’t get in. His RV blocked…

Mormon Lit Blitz Introduction

Every Mormon writer has heard Orson F. Whitney’s claim that “we will yet have Shakespeares and Miltons of our own.” Mormon writers have been so excited, overwhelmed, and preoccupied by this statement that we still…

The Rose Jar

What the Call of the Deep Teaches

The Thirteenth Article of Faith as a Standard for Literature

“What if . . .?” and “How so . . .?” and “I wonder . . .” Mix with LDS Doctrine and Culture to Generate Each Story in The Darkest Abyss | William Morris, The Darkest Abyss: Strange Mormon Stories

“Mormon speculative fiction” must surely be one of the most niche genres available, and William Morris’s new story collection, The Darkest Abyss: Strange Mormon Stories, published by BCC Press, is a standout and quirky addition…

The Last Day

“Scott Eccles?” “Yes!” “Please follow me.” Scott Eccles leapt from his seat, straightened his tie, and surreptitiously placed his fists on his hips in the Superman pose, for he had watched a video online that…

A Very Bad Dog Steven L. Peck, Heike’s Void

Among the benefits to reading authors with large, proven oeuvres is trust. We can trust Steven L. Peck. Remember that through the provocations of the opening of his astonishing new release from BCC Press, a…

Sodom and Gomorrah

Listen to the interview about this piece here. Listen to the audio version of this piece here. A man stands naked on the rubber of a checkout counter’s clnveyer belt, face smeared with something red.…

Second Place: Dispatches from Kolob

Listen to the Out Loud audio version of this article here. Listen to the interview about this piece here. Dear President Russell M. Nelson, For centuries, the pope has been addressed as Your Holiness, and they…

Honorable Mention: Butterflies

Trying to get to the nursery proper and all of the blooming plants—bright colors, heady smells, early summer at its best—Mona almost walked past his table. It was one of those fold-­up numbers with foldout…

Vardis Fisher Pioneered Literary Mormon Writing Michael Austin, Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist

Grappling with LDS Identity Formation: A Review of Recent Young Adult Novels Rosalyn Eves, Beyond the Mapped Stars James Goldberg and Janci Patterson, The Bollywood Lovers’ Club

The Private Investigator

Listen to the podcast version here. The doorbell rang as I hung up the phone, and then I heard my father’s deep, imposing voice fill our entryway. I stood and walked slowly into the unlit…

The New Calling

Podcast version of this piece. No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be,Am an attendant lord, one that will doTo swell a progress, start a scene or two,Advise the prince; no doubt,…

The Promise and Limitations of Working-Class Male Protagonists

The ten stories that comprise Losing a Bit of Eden sustain Levi Peterson’s position as one of the most adept scribes of the twentieth-century American West. Each story is well grounded in a particular time…

Q&A with James Goldberg, Co-founder of Mormon Lit Blitz

The Mormon Lit Blitz contest has tapped into a rich reservoir of Mormon short-short fiction, reaching a milestone this year with the publication of its first anthology. With a 1000-word limit, final winners selected by…

Lucky Wounds

Old George sat on an upturned half-barrel cleaning his gun. It only ever shot blanks these days, but that didn’t matter much. A fellow outlaw’d once told him the state of your gun’s the state…

Sisterhood and the Divine Feminine Twila Newey, Sylvia

Like a mother opening her arms to embrace her children, the span of mountains and trees that look over my childhood home in Salt Lake City extend to the south and cradle also the homes…

LePetit Richards and the Big Dipper Carpet—An Amusement Based on a Reworking of Whittle’s Research Notes

Podcast version of this fiction piece. This was not the only time that Richards, originally born Neville Colyer, the son of a millwright in Oxfordshire, had worked through the imagery of the stars. He had…

Review: Delightful Futuristic Mormon Morality Tale Offers Teaching Tool for Progressive Parents Matt Page, Future Day Saints: Welcome to the New Zion

After his death and resurrection on Earth, Jesus Christ traveled to New Zion—a planet in the Kolob star system—and appeared to its six-eyed alien inhabitants, whom he named the Othersheep. He explained to the Othersheep…

Tatau

Uncle Akumu has tattoos. Big, thick pe’a lines shout his ancient Samoan genealogy as they crisscross his thighs. On his arms he carries his own story. There’s Aunty Lani’s name surrounded by vines and pua…

Excerpt from Eleusis: The Long and Winding Road, Translated and introduced by James Goldberg.

Dean Hughes, Muddy: Where Faith and Polygamy Collide Phyllis Barber, The Desert Between Us

Mormon Saga

Lessons in Scriptural Origami James Goldberg. Remember the Revolution.James Goldberg. The First Five Dozen Tales of Razia Shah and Other Stories

I first discovered James Goldberg when a friend from my mission shared a blog post from the Mormon Midrashim entitled “Explanation, Justification, Sanctification.” In it, the author shares some profound theology with his ten-year-old daughter in a…

As Above, So Below: Mormonism Mattathias Singhin D. J. Butler’s Kaleidoscopic Cosmological Fantasy D. J. Butler. Witchy Eye D. J. Butler. Witchy Winter D. J. Butler. Witchy Kingdom

There are many different ways to construct a fantasy universe. Some are flowers, carefully grown from a single seed. Some are mirrors, with each element corresponding to a specific parallel in our own world for…

The Cunning Man and Fiction of the Mormon Corridor D. J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey. The Cunning Man

On December 6, 2019, the Western Mining and Railroad Museum in Helper, Utah hosted a release party for The Cunning Man. The novel, which has scenes in the city and in the old coal mines nearby…

A Rising Generation: Women in Power in Young Adult Novels Jo Cassidy. Good Girls Stay Quiet Emily King. Before the Broken Star Julie Berry. Lovely War

When Was the Last Time You Read a Romance Novel? Ilima Todd. A Song for the Stars.

In the Garden of Babel

Eldria is a technician on a team that has unlocked the secret to prayer. The learning machine has labored for years. It has uttered prayers both ancient and fresh, rote and random, then monitored weather…

Review: “Is this the Promised End?” Steven L. Peck. The Tragedy of King Leere, Goatherd of the La Sals.

The Maidservant’s Witness Mette Harrison. The Book of Abish.

An Astonishing String of Stories Steven L. Peck. Tales from Pleasant Grove.

Review: Welcome Additions Karen Kelsay. Of Omens that Flitter. Javen Tanner. The God Mask.

Sonnet: On His Blindness to Autumn

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Continuing our bibliographical coverage of Mormon material, we turn our attention in this issue to dissertations and theses written to fulfill requirements for graduate degrees.

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The historian, essentially, wants more documents than he can really use . . .  Henry James. The Aspern Papers  History is bunk.  Henry Ford The books, periodicals, and manuscripts listed in bibliographies are of little value…

Articles and Essays in Mormon Studies

The perversion of the mind is only possible when those who should be heard in its defense are silent.  Archibald MacLeish  A decade ago one might have been hard pressed to compile a sizable bibliography of…

Hugh Nibley: A Short Bibliographical Note

The name Hugh Nibley has become common coin of the Mormon realm. The household quality of the name in part depends upon the frequency with which his work appears in the Improvement Era. Since 1948…

A Survey of Current Literature

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.  Robert Louis Stevenson  As is all too evident from the newspapers, we are again approaching that quadrennial time when nominations for the…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.  Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act iii, sc. 2, 1. 78 [Antony]  As in the past years, the spring bibliographical survey is concerned…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The difficulty in life is the choice.  George Moore, Bending of the Bough In this year’s survey of theses and dissertations on Mormon or Utah subjects the reader’s attention is called to the vastly expanded…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

I would the gift I offer hereMight graces fro thy favor take.  John Greenleaf Whittier, Songs of Labor  An article in the June 1, 1968, Church News entitled “BYU Gets Rare Books” described items of…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Are Mormons Christians? The official name of the Church includes the words “Jesus Christ” within it, and we consider Him our Savior. Our scriptures include the Bible, and, as Anthony Hoekema suggests, “Many people have the impression that the Mormon teachings are not basically different from those of historic Christianity.” Yet Dr. Hoekema has decided that “The Christ of Mormonism is not the Christ of Scripture.” The good doctor came to this conclusion by asking—and himself answering—the following ten questions: …

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Write on your doors the saying wise and old, ‘Be bold! Be bold!” and everywhere, “Be bold; be not too bold!” Yet better the excess than the defect; better more than less . . . .  Longfellow, Morituri…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

In an effort to keep Dialogue’s readers abreast of current research on the subject “Mormons and Mormonism,” the second issue of each volume (Summer issue) is devoted to a listing of theses and dissertations accepted by Ameri can colleges and universities on the aforementioned subject. Our sources of information are primarily Mormon Americana, a bi-monthly bibliography prepared at Brigham Young University, Dissertation Abstracts, a publication of University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and commencement programs of the Utah universities.

Literature, Mormon Writers, and the Powers That Be

For the better part of a month, I was with a group of young Mormons bent on giving the Church a vigorous expression in all the arts. We were not very clear as to just what we would do. We would do something. We felt the Church deserved this. It was such a fine Church, everything considered. And it deserved us. Not in its (then) present state, maybe; but we had faith that it could puff up to us. There was the son of an official sculptor, a yearn ing scientist from Alberta, two or three others who do not congeal into iden tities in the twenty-three-year-old mist I am looking into; and there was me, an ink-stained veteran of a year of writing C to C-plus freshman themes at Weber College. We all met near the end of our term at Biarritz American University in the south of France, the winter after one of the wars had ended. 

Virginia Sorensen: A Saving Remnant

Nearly fifteen years have passed since I, in looking around for a thesis topic, began to read “Mormon novels.” It seems odd to remember how electrifying were the “forbidden” Vardis Fisher and others I hadn’t heard of: Scowcroft, Whipple, Robertson, Blanche Cannon, even Samuel Taylor. It must be a clue to our culture that a girl could get through graduate school without such an awakening, especially when many of those writers seem so bland today that I wonder along with Sam Taylor “if most of them weren’t mainly victims of bad timing.” What my awakening really consisted of was a refreshing realization that some of those giants from our past were really human beings after all (“saints by adoption”). 

Vardis Fisher and the Mormons

The New York Times article reporting the death of Vardis Fisher in 1968 said, predictably, that Fisher was “perhaps most widely known as the author of Children of God, a historical novel about the Mormons.”[1]…

Beowulf and Nephi: A Literary View of the Book of Mormon

Dialogue 4.3 (Fall 1971): 42–45
It is tempting, of course, to redress the Book’s limited literary impress by recourse to history, sociology, psychology, and demonology. It is tempting to say that a hundred and forty years in the literary marketplace is too limited a test for such a grand design — but entire literary movements, like the pre￾Raphaelites, have come and gone in the same period

Little Did She Realize: Writing for the Mormon Market

So you want to write a Mormon novel? Great! Here’s a story for you:—

It’s about a Mormon bishop and his family, see, so you can get in all the little inside details about the L.D.S. people. The bishop’s wife is an extremely devoted mother of three children, two lovely daughters and a son who is a genius. The mother is so excessively devoted to her genius son that she drives him into a madhouse. But before he is locked up he has an incestuous affair with a sister which ruins her life, he causes his best friend’s suicide and drives his other sister into an unhappy marriage with a Gentile. His own disintegration causes his father, the bishop, to die of a broken heart.

Literature in the History of the Church: The Importance of Involvement

Against my better judgment, I have been persuaded to discuss the place of literature in the history of the Mormon Church in the context of this special issue of Dialogue. That the topic is too…

The Imagination’s New Beginning: Thoughts on Esthetics and Religion

While it is true that there has been no substantial literary tradition among the Mormons, there are indications that one is beginning. For the first time there is a sufficient number of Mormon scholars and critics who can help establish the climate for a legitimate literature and there are more and more creative writers who are turning their talents to Mormon subjects. Therefore, it is not my purpose to lament the fact that a Mormon literature does not now exist. Rather, I choose to discuss how the literary esthetic can serve religion and how a rebirth of the imagination can and should serve the Church today. For if anything would militate against acceptance of an emerging Mormon literature it would be our continued distrust of the imagination. 

On Words and the Word of God: The Delusions of a Mormon Literature

A poet, a painter, a musician, an architect: the man or woman who is not one of these is not a Christian. William Blake Observers of the Church must think it odd that for all…

Voices of Freedom in Eastern Europe: “Spring” and “Winter” in Prague: Some Thoughts on the Human Spirit

Czechoslovakia is much colder and darker now than it was last year. Not that the meteorological phenomena have been all that different: Prague has consistently registered temperatures as warm as or warmer than those of…

Voices of Freedom in Eastern Europe: An Hour with Milovan Djilas—Heroic Yugoslav Intellectual

By the time he was twenty-five, Milovan Djilas had already served three years in prison for communist activities. His keen mind, energetic spirit, and Partisan valor endeared him to Josip Broz Tito, and before he reached…

A Survey of Current Literature

A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing.  Samuel Butler the Younger, Life and Habit Reader who…

A Survey of Current Literature

Over a year ago this column called attention to three new journals which in one way or another would be of interest to Mormons or bibliophiles of Mormonism. The journals noted were Mormon History, The Carpenter: Reflections on Mormon Life and The Western Historical Quarterly. Mormon History and The Carpenter are of unique Mormon interest and the latter journal has published a third issue, the contents of which are reported below. Mormon History (a journal of reprints) is now in its second volume.

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The bibliographical listing which follows includes books, pamphlets and reprints on Mormon topics, most of which were published in 1970. Because of the time lag between the last book bibliography printed in Volume 5, No. 1 and this issue the following bibliographical listing is longer than usual. We could have eliminated some of the ephemera but decided that this would detract from the value of our service. Rather than resort to paring the bibliography, the superfluous introduction has been minimized and concludes here. 

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

The world of Mormon-directed periodicals continues to thrive as new journals appear and old (those that began within the last few years) journals struggle for continued existence

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

“Among the Mormons” is Dialogue’s ongoing effort to keep its readers abreast of Mormon bibliography. Three times a year we present bibliographical listings containing, in separate columns, theses and dissertations, books and related publications, and periodical articles. This issue’s listing contains books, pamphlets and records that have come to our attention during 1971 and 1972. 

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, And think they grow immortal as they quote. —Edward Young, Love of Fame  It has been this writer’s practice in the past to single out a sample of theses…

Jonathan Livingston Seagull: An Ornithologist’s Rod McKuen | Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Listen-up bird-lovers, Hindus, Eddy Rickenbacker, Father Schillebeechx, and Unitarians everywhere: Jonathan Livingston Seagull has arrived! Somewhat sooner and with greater flurry than many of us would have wished, perhaps, but, then, that’s his style, and…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Life, Look and now Courage are gone but presumably not forgotten. Courage, for those of you not familiar with this periodical, was the RLDS counterpart to Dialogue which ceased publication in 1973 after three hopeful volumes. I bring this fact to the reader’s attention only to emphasize the tenuous existence faced by periodicals in this inflationary era. The problems are simple to describe but difficult to overcome.

Gambit in the Throbs of a Ten-Year-Old Swamp: Confessions of a Dialogue Intern

How does an English graduate student who wants a visit to the East Coast, instruction in the American political system and an introduction into the Mormon publishing world satisfy these three ambitions in one two-month…

The Rise and Fall of Courage, an Independent RLDS Journal

Dialogue 11.1 (Spring 1978): 115–119
Although Courage struck a responsive chord in quite a few hearts, its readers did not support it to the extent the editors had expected. Appealing only to a minority in a small church, and without either sufficient subscribers or a financial “angel/  Courage died after its eleventh number (Winter/Spring 1973).

Windmill Jousting and Other Madness: Century 2

Jousting with windmills is a bit out of fashion nowadays, insanity even more so. But every now and then some glittering-eyed individual comes by with an idea most people do best to ignore. 

The New Messenger & Advocate

A magazine is supposed to be one of the easiest businesses to start. It requires no office, no equipment (printing and even mailing can be farmed out to local businesses), no staff as long as…

Sunstone

“Oh,” lamented Job, “that mine adversary had written a book.” Logic and syntax—even basic facts—which are unmistakably clear and irrefutable in manuscript form have a way of breaking down when committed to print. And when…

A Wider Sisterhood: Exponent II

Many readers were surprised and delighted when Exponent II burst upon the scene. “You have lifted my thoughts from the mundane and sweetened my dreams of fulfillment,” wrote one. Another commented, “A newspaper for Mormon…

BYU Studies, How She Is

People are always asking me how I like working at BYU Studies. I say . . .

Gospel by the Month: Ensign

In 1971, all official church magazines were literally swept away and replaced by three colorful, professional, slick publications, each aimed at a different age group—the Ensign for adults, the New Era for young people and…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

“Of making of books there is no end.” These words from Ecclesiastes could as well be applied to the more than thirty thousand doctoral dissertations and an even larger number of master’s theses completed in…

Insights from the Outside: From a Commentator’s Note Pad

At the second annual meeting of the Association for Mormon Letters, as at the first, two literary concerns seemed to have emerged. Not so surprisingly, at the bottom of both these issues was the question…

I, Eye, Aye: A Personal Essay on Personal Essays

In A Believing People, Richard Cracroft and Neal Lambert lament that the essay “has not been as vital a literary force in Mormondom as might be expected.” Early Mormons, they note, kept forceful diaries, wrote…

Literary Dimensions of Mormon Autobiography

Among Mormons, autobiography has been for decades one of the most widespread modes of literary expression and can be related to the larger tradition of the genre in terms of the nineteenth-century origin of the…

The Representation of Reality in Ninteenth Century Mormon Autobiography

Some have suggested that the most successful writing about the Mormon experience in the nineteenth-century comes from the frail and fading pages of the personal accounts recorded by first generation Mormons. From the first it…

Excavating Myself

Somewhere a book is waiting to be written—somewhere, deepburied in the Mormon unconscious, and all we Mormon writers are hard at work digging up the back yards of our past trying to find it.  It…

Three Essays: A Commentary

Mormons are perhaps not as interesting to other people as they think they are. True, we have our history of strange practices and our epic migration to recommend us to the wider community, but the…

The Vocation of David Wright: An Essay in Analytic Biography

[1]David L. Wright did not begin to exist for me until more than a year after his death—in 1968 when I saw his play, Still the Mountain Wind. For other portions of the Mormon audience,…

Halldor Laxness, the Mormons and the Promised Land

When the all-seeing eye on the facade of Zion’s Mercantile winked at him, beckoning him with its self-assured commingling of matter and spirit to write a novel about the Promised Land, Halldor Laxness had already…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Woodrow Wilson, while still a professor at Princeton, told his students in 1900 that he “would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

As Hemingway put it, “A writer’s problem does not change. He himself changes and the world he lives in changes but his problem remains the same. It is always how to write truly and, having…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Only rarely does a piece of writing capture the imagination of both novice and professional alike. Even more infrequently does such a work begin as a Ph.D. dissertation or master’s thesis. Certainly the most renowned…

Among the Mormons: Periodical Articles on Mormons and Mormonism

General Barlow, Phillip L. “On Moonists and Mormonites.” Sunstone 4 (January/February 1979): 37-41. Kenney, Scott. “Mormonism and the Fold.” Sunstone 3 (March/April 1978): 24-25.  Agriculture Bitton, Davis and Linda P. Wilcox. “Pestiferous Ironclads: The Grasshopper…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

“Of all the religious sects to emerge out of nineteenth-century America,” as Newsweek’s religion editor Kenneth L. Woodward recently observed, “only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has developed into a worldwide faith.”…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

1981 is destined to be remembered as a year of indelible significance in Mormondom. Within a two-month period early in the year, stories about the Church twice achieved front-page status. During March the discovery of…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

If we are to believe what we see before us, we must conclude that authors interested in writing and selling books about Mormonism have boundless opportunities. Although most of the newly released volumes are modest…

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

As Mormonism embarked upon the 1980s, it appeared, at least outwardly, that the Church might be well advised to prepare for a new era of journalistic sensationalism and criticism. To combat this anticipated struggle, a…

A Survey of Current Literature: Selected Bibliography of Recent Articles

From its early years on the social fringe,” U.S. News & World Report I recently told its readers, the Mormon Church “has become America’s largest and wealthiest home-grown religion by offering shelter in stormy times.”…

The Function of Mormon Literary Criticism at the Present Time

Don’t Fence Me In: A Conversation About Mormon Fiction

When the Brightness Seems Most Distant

“It might not be a problem,” she said to her husband before rolling onto her stomach with a pillow clutched in her arms. She was tired from crying and wished sleep would overcome her. Though…

Bash: Latter Day Plays: Bash by Neil LaBute

Anne Perry’s Tathea: A Preliminary Consideration: Tathea by Anne Perry

Surviving with Hope: Survival Rates by Mary S. Clyde

Heart, Mind, and Soul: The Ethical Foundation of Mormon Letters

Wanderings and Wonderings: Contemporary Autobiographical Theory and the Personal Essay

The Lyric Body of Emma Lou Thayne’s Things Happen

“Easy to be Entreated:” Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent and Christian Communication

Modern Postmodernism: Worlds Without End in Young’s Salvador and Card’s Lost Boy

The Mormon Fiction Mission

Toward a Mormon Criticism: Should We Ask “Is This Mormon Literature?”

Danger on the Right! Danger on the Left! The Ethics of Recent Mormon Fiction

The State of Mormon Literature and Criticism

from Falling Toward Heaven

The next morning Allison dropped Howard at the Mormon church in Rockwood, which, except for the thin spire, was shaped like a large, sub urban house. Though he had asked, she refused to go inside…

Sanctuaries

It’s been ten weeks since Liz (my mother) came to collect me from the islands and pack me back to Michigan. She wanted me to tally my losses and get on with things. Liz has…

A Good Sign

Bobbie wants to marry me again. Fourteen months now I’ve been pointing out the kids, our wedding pictures, our marriage certificate. Gosh, I even show him the mail—”Mr. and Mrs. Robert Franklin,” right there on…

Wolves

When he was seventeen, David Thatcher Williams and his cousin Cleon, who was also seventeen, hopped a freight in the Provo yards to start a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit David’s Aunt Doris, his…

From Three Jacks

Sunrise, Friday, November, 22,1963, not yet but about to be one ugly day in U.S. history, and standing over there about to climb into the family Nova was my dad, Jack, the man suffering—in words…

Havesu

Now and at the Hour of Our Death

Luis strained his ears, watching bare jacaranda branches twitch in silhouette against the bedroom wall. The bedroom window was sliding up. It was not a dream. A human shadow was nearly indivisible from the web…

Brothers

About a year and a half after Mitch fell, he decided on a comeback climb. Understandably, his wife was less than enthusiastic about it. Everyone agreed the fall should have killed Mitch or, worse, made…

Saturday Evening, Sunday Afternoon

At thirty-eight I’m still single. Actually, let me be perfectly frank: Possibly Steve Young and I are the only people in the Western Hemisphere who have remained celibate until such an advanced age, and he…

The Siege of Troy

Do not expect, Hera, to know all my thoughts, even though you are my wife. What I find fitting to reveal, no god or man will know before you. But beware of finding out what…

Who Brought Forth This Christmas Demon

Listen to the piece here. Tim’s wife left him with three dozen blue spruce still trussed up on the truck and better than fifty juniper, Scotch, red cedar, and Douglas on the lot. She left…

The Gilded Door

It sat on a quiet end of Main Street, just a block down from the Shore line State Bank and the Sunshine Laundry. Within its dark cavern, you could lose yourself in fantasy. It was…

A Spiritual Awakening Amid a Hippie Faith : Coke Newell, On the Road to Heaven

Marrow: A Review of Richard Dutcher’s Mormon Films

Gazing Into the Face of the Other

Insight Inside

When Your Eternal Companion Has Fangs

Reading the Mormon Gothic

The Widower

The Widower  Eric W Jepson  Four years had passed since Mary had died; Torrance still wasn’t comfortable dating and yet here he was, getting married. Five years with Mary may have been too short, but…

Triptych: Plural

I Nora bears the tray of hors d’oeuvres she spent three hours this afternoon preparing. Mushroom caps stuffed with chopped and sauteed artichoke hearts, onion, garlic, bread crumbs, and three cheeses. She approaches the door;…

At the Cannery

The Education of a Bible Scholar

Richard Golightly: A Novel

Conception  “They’re up there now,” Bishop Gray croons from the pulpit. His eyes move to the chapel ceiling. “Billions and billions of spirits waiting to inhabit mortal bodies, warriors saved for these last days, ready…

The Dream

Niles awoke from a strange dream to find that his snoring had once again driven his wife from their bed. On his way to the bathroom, he peered into the darkened living room and, as…

American Trinity

The other two are more patient than I am. They bide their time. What’s worse, Jonas is always telling me that I am shirking my duty. I haven’t talked to him in over a century.…

The Birth of Tragedy

For Neal Chandler, il miglior fabbro  “Is Mormonism still part of your Weltanschauung?” Aunt Doris asks me every time she sees me. She knows that at 2:15 on Sunday afternoons I’m blessing the sacrament like…

Grandpa’s Hat

Recompense

Why Joseph Went to the Woods: Rootstock for LDS Literary Nature Writers

Mormon Scholars in the Humanities Conference: Savior, silver, psalms, and sighs, and flash-burn offerings

Hank Toy’s Devil

A devil came to an old Mormon on an icy winter night when mounds of snow outside, as big as cars, lay black and cold, nearly invisible. Having searched since the beginning of the world,…

Sandrine

These things happened fifty years ago. It was 1962, the year of the World’s Fair in Seattle. I was twenty-one and had just finished my junior year at Utah State University in Logan. My forestry…

What It Means

I was looking at the morning through the window in the front room like a bear in a cage remembering somewhere there are meadows, and I noticed how much water was running down the gutter…

Dark Watch

“And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.” Isaiah 34:13 “I will make a wailing…

Trying to Keep Quiet: A Poem Constructed Around Fragments of Leslie Norris’s “Borders”

What Kind of Truth Is Beauty?: A Meditation on Keats, Job, and Scriptural Poetry

Two-Dog Dose

Jarring bang. Wheels leap up, rattling the heavy load of black piping destined for the oilrig. The truck rolls on. Oblivious to what it left behind.  On the macadam, a coyote. From its sacrum back…

Acute Distress, Intensive Care

Barb’s dying, Carma thinks, and she steadies herself against the chest of drawers as Dan, kneeling beside his sister’s bed, strokes Barb’s face. Barb’s head seems to be rocking slightly on the pillow. Her eyes…

Moving On

So I’m down in Payson helping my father, Wymond, move his new wife’s things into storage. The landowner Peg has been renting from is selling out to developers who want the farmland. It’s early on…

Vardis Fisher’s Mormon Scars: Mapping the Diaspora in the Testament of Man

Review: The Mormon Murder Mystery Grows Up Mette Ivie Harrison. The Bishop’s Wife Tim Wirkus. City of Brick and Shadow

Review: Mormons Are a Different Country Mette Ivie Harrison. The Bishop’s Wife

Spring Hill

Section Title  Spring Hill  Luisa Perkins  Becca was taking too long. Emma huddled against the iron fencepost and hugged her knees. The chilly breeze had dried her tears, but her nose was still running. She…

“Slippery”

The sun streamed unimpeded through the kitchen window, warming Jake’s back as he ate a bowl of cereal. It was a pleasant feeling, but also strange. Usually the light couldn’t get in. His RV blocked…

Mormon Lit Blitz Introduction

Every Mormon writer has heard Orson F. Whitney’s claim that “we will yet have Shakespeares and Miltons of our own.” Mormon writers have been so excited, overwhelmed, and preoccupied by this statement that we still…

The Rose Jar

What the Call of the Deep Teaches

The Thirteenth Article of Faith as a Standard for Literature