The LDS Church formally announced yesterday that it is publishing an LDS version of the Bible in Spanish. Formally called the Reina-Valera 2009 edition, this version not only brings the footnotes, chapter headings, cross-references and other material that English-speaking members take for granted, it also provides a “conservative” LDS-oriented update to the well-regarded 1909 version [...]

As I mentioned a little while ago, my wife and I were asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. At Theric’s request (and because I decided to approach the topic of Latter-day Saints and language and discuss Angela Hallstrom’s Bound on Earth), I’m posting a slightly revised version of my talk here.
* * [...]

I like the building where I attend sacrament meeting. The chapel is amphitheater-like because all of the side benches face the pulpit at an angle. Another thing I like about it: the library has been around long enough to be stocked with some pretty good stuff.

Introduction to Textual Variants
Part III
In Part II I discussed John Gilbert’s omission of two letters to justify a line. In this part I want to look at two other instances that may involve missing letters.
Joseph Smith began his discourse of Sunday October 15, 1843 with a comment on his love for the Constitution and its [...]

This will be our last Short Story Friday for a bit — this feature is going on hiatus for a month so that AMV can celebrate National Poetry Month (more on that when April hits). This week, we’re circling back to Popcorn Popping for a story by Eugene Woodbury.
Title: A Picture of My Father as [...]

For the complete list of columns in this series, click here.
It is a well-established fact that any writer, in possession of a manuscript, must also be in need of readers to review and critique his or her work. However, actually getting those critiques – and then deciding what to do with them once you have [...]

Hi all. Chris Bigelow has provisionally agreed to publish No Going Backward, my novel about a gay Mormon teen coming out and coming of age, with Zarahemla Books. I’m looking for readers who would be willing to look over the MS within a relatively short timeframe (my revised MS is due to Chris for editing [...]

What do the following Mormon market novels have in common: Angel of the Danube, Brother Brigham, Hunting Gideon, Kindred Spirits, On Second Thought and Salvador*?

I have read all of them and like all of them.
They each have something wrong with their endings — generally minor things, but they each have a moment (or moments) that [...]

When I read Kristen D. Randle’s Slumming–which I found on the AMV Book Club list– I was completely surprised. The main characters were not vapid gossip girls looking to lose their virginity or angst ridden, beer drinking, wannabe boys (also looking to lose their virginity), like the characters in so many popular bestsellers aimed [...]

Switching back to something very old school this week — next week will be something by one of the AMV crowd.
Title: Mother’s Day
Author: Nephi Anderson
Publication Info: The Relief Society Magazine, January 1916
Submitted by: Theric Jepson
Why?: Theric writes — “.
This is an extra short story from Nephi Anderson at his preachiest. It gives a nice taste [...]

Introduction to Textual Variants
Part II
Typographical errors are not the only source of textual variants, typographical practices also contribute. Take a piece of paper and fold it horizontally in the middle, then fold it again vertically in the middle. This gives you 8 pages. Go through and write the page number on each page. Now [...]

Or as I was tempted to call it: apropos of everything.
Father in Israel screening March 25
An advance screening of Christian Vuissa’s film “Father in Israel” will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, at the Megaplex 8 at Thanksgiving Point. Click here for details. The film’s theatrical release is planned for this fall.
“Little Happy [...]

This is me losing a game of chicken for the second time in a row.

LDS publisher Windriver Publishing has purchased another LDS publisher, Mapletree Publishing, according to a message posted on the websites of both companies. The merger consolidates two smaller publishers active in the LDS market, and borders on creating a new medium-sized publisher.

For the record: If AMV doesn’t post about some work or author or event or interWebs kerfluffle related to Mormon arts and culture, it’s probably for one or more of the following reasons:

We’re totally snubbing you/it/him/her/them.
All of us our way too busy to turn our precious attention to The Thing (whatever it may be at [...]

So after pouncing on the opportunity presented by the AML Awards, we’re picking back up with submissions to Short Story Friday. Some of these early submissions are some of us active AMVers talking up each other’s and our own work. But that’s okay because there are some good short stories involved.
Title: Talk
Author: S.P. Bailey
Publication Info: [...]

For the complete list of columns in this series, click here.
My wife cleans one room at a time. This, she insists, is the normal, the sane way to clean a house. You start with one room, you pick things up, you sort things, and then you vacuum (or mop, as the case may be). And [...]

Introduction to Textual Variants
Part One
One of the more disheartening things when you’re looking through back issues of Time and Newsweek from the 1970-71 school year to find the story about the Pakistani soldiers who came into a Bangladeshi village searching for blood donors–they simply strapped the young men down and drained all their blood (it [...]

Wm writes: Every year since 2000, Andrew Hall has put together a Year in Review for all of the major genres of Mormon letters.  AMV is pleased to bring you Andrew’s Year in Review for 2008. The review concludes today with a look at poetry and short fiction. Read the other entries in the series.
Part [...]

Here’s the thing I’ve discovered about Zarahemla Books: always, always read the back cover–especially any comments made by editor Chris Bigelow. His comments are like codes and if you can break the code then you will know what is really waiting for you when you crack the cover.

Wm writes: Every year since 2000, Andrew Hall has put together a Year in Review for all of the major genres of Mormon letters.  AMV is pleased to bring you Andrew’s Year in Review for 2008. Today — a look at the Mormon market for books. Read the other entries in the series.

Andrew Hall’s Mormon [...]

As mentioned in my post on the 2008 AML Awards, this week’s Short Story Friday features the 2008 winner for short fiction — it’s awesome that the story is available online because oftentimes the winners aren’t. Next week something from Popcorn Popping and the week after that another story from Dialogue. Still looking for someone [...]

For the complete list of columns in this series, click here.
Think about what passes through your mind when you’re reading a story. Do you see pictures illustrating the various scenes? A movie, perhaps?
Most people have a largely visual response to written text. Some of us, however, are more auditorily inclined. In my case, when I [...]

Wm writes: Every year since 2000, Andrew Hall has put together a Year in Review for all of the major genres of Mormon letters.  AMV is pleased to bring you Andrew’s Year in Review for 2008, continuing in this post with the second part of his look at Mormon authors being published in the national [...]

Wm writes: Every year since 2000, Andrew Hall has put together a Year in Review for all of the major genres of Mormon letters. It is an amazingly detailed work that is both fun to read and important both as a bibliography and as a gauge of the state of Mormon literature. AMV is pleased [...]

The Association for Mormon Letters has released the awards it presented at its Feb. 28 meeting:

Poetry:
Neil Aitken, The Lost Country of Sight (Anhinga Press)
Warren Hatch, Mapping the Bones of the World (Signature Books)

Short Fiction:
Stephen Tuttle, “Amanuensis” (Hayden’s Ferry Review)

The Novel:
Angela Hallstrom, Bound on Earth (Parables)

Youth Fiction: [...]

For the complete list of columns in this series, click here.
Edward Gorey – in a marvelous little piece titled The Unstrung Harp; or, Mr Earbrass Writes a Novel – describes the conditions under which his protagonist writes: “Mr Earbrass belongs to the straying, rather than to the sedentary, type of author. He is never to [...]