NOTE: This is the first-ever A Motley Vision reading. It’s a little rough in places, but overall — not a bad way to kick off a new feature.

In an attempt to create buzz for the early 2005 release of its movie “Church Ball,” Halestorm Entertainment has teamed up with LDS Living to offer an actual Church Ball-branded basketball (thanks to LDS Today and LDS Review for the heads up). According to an Aug. 25 Deseret Morning News article, “hundreds of the tongue-in-cheek [...]

I’ll need some time to absorb Michael Collings’ The Nephiad , a twelve book verse epic based on the story of Nephi obtaining the brass plates, before I can begin to discuss its literary value and (more interestingly) how it fits into the world of Mormon letters; however, I found the following excerpt interesting and [...]

Michael Collings, professor of English at Pepperdine, was kind enough to respond to an e-mail request for more information about his Book of Mormon-inspired epic poem The Nephiad, which A Motley Vision referenced in a recent post on another Book of Mormon-themed epic — Peter J. Sorensen’s The Mormoniad.
Collings is a rarity in the academic [...]

Mark over at Mo’ Boy Blog has the news that rock musician Tal Bachman has publicly announced his request to have his name removed from the membership rolls of the LDS Church (Orson’s Telescope and Our Thoughts also have coverage). I’m not a fan of Bachman’s work so I can’t say that I took this [...]

Dave has some interesting thoughts over at Mormon Inquiry on the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf and the Book of Mormon — specifically the oral transmission aspect to both works. He ends with: “Would that someone like Seamus Heaney would come along and translate the Book of Mormon from its rather dated rendition of the [...]

For readers who have enjoyed the Mormon folk songs that have appeared on A Motley Vision, check out Justin Butterfield’s blog Mormon Wasp for the lyrics to a song called The Reformation. Written by LDS convert Philip Margetts in 1856, it includes the priceless lines: ” God bless the wife that strives/ And [...]

The Association for Mormon Letters has announced the new focus, name and editorial team for its literary magazine Irreantum.
Name: Although the magazine retains the “Irreantum” name, it’s full title will now be Irreantum: A Review of Mormon Literature and Film, reflecting how important film has become to Mormon cultural studies. The announcement also includes [...]

Alan Rex Mitchell is the author of Angel of the Danube: Barry Monroe’s Missionary Journal, the winner of the Association of Mormon Letters 1998 Marilyn Brown Novel Award. Trained as an environmental soil physicist, Mitchell has taught courses in technical writing, chemistry, biology and soil science and conducted agricultural research with the USDA and Oregon [...]

Off-hand Mormon missionary references seem to be popping up in a lot of books these days. Or at least that’s what my Google news alerts seem to suggest.
My favorite so far occurs in a recent round-up review of travel books that ran in the New Zealand Herald. The following anecdote is included in the [...]