When I first started blogging for AMV I had a traditional post every December where I talked about what books I’d read that year by Mormon authors and ranked/recommended them. 2010 was a turbulent year so I missed doing it last year but there was no way I was going to 2011 end without making [...]
How to buy Monsters & Mormons and load it on to almost any ereading device: ereader, smartphone, tablet, latptop, netbook or desktop.
A guest post from Scott Hales explores common reactions to Mormon fiction and makes a plea for submissions that depict contemporary Mormon life.
Or, Mashing Up MoLit Redux: Redux
This past September, in response to Ken’s post about mashing up Mormon literature and the purposes behind the repurposing of language and literature, in general, Ardis asked a question that turned my wheels a-spinnin’. Asked she, “[W]hat’s the point of being deliberately, unrelentingly unoriginal” by taking others’ work, repurposing it, [...]
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Grant Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide is unquestionably the most important piece of Mormon criticism in the last few years. The way he has dissected the Book’s text and structure is remarkable. And while of course Book of Mormon criticism has been done before, I don’t think anyone has taken it [...]
I just submitted this proposal for next year’s AML Conference. The theme: ”Going Forth Into All the World: Mormon Literature in an International Church.” I hope it tastes international enough for the organizers’ palate.
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“Situating Sonosophy: De/constructing Alex Caldiero’s ‘Poetarium.’”
Contemporary Utah poet Alex Caldiero‘s performative mode of poetry and poetics, which he calls sonosophy, critiques conventional notions [...]
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Since I’ve been something of a negative nelly in this series so far, displaying a rich panoply of bad attitudes and an unpleasant irritability, I feel obliged, before saying anything about my previous experiences with Thayer’s work, that this story was a stunning read. And I mean that more literally than is usually intended in [...]
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Like Virginia Sorensen, Maureen Whipple is one who, as Eugene England says in this volume’s dedication to them, “taught us how.” And, like Virginia Sorensen, I’ve never read her. I know her reputation—or, more accurately, I know the towering reputation of The Joshua Tree, a book many people whose taste I respect admire greatly. Of [...]
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I’ve just read How to Read Literature Like a Professor and I’m pleased enough with it that I’m figuring out how to implement it into my classes. In essence, it’s all the stuff English majors should know by the end of their sophomore year of college—how to read a text to find patterns like journeys [...]
My story cycle Gentle Persuasions can be downloaded for free from Dialogue’s website.
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I recently was given a copy of Bright Angels & Familiars, a short-fiction collection edited by Eugene England (Signature Books, 1992). I rather wish someone had given me this book in high school. Who knows? Maybe I would have read it and who knows where I would be now!
Fascinatingly, this volume was published seven (seven!) [...]
Edit to add (11:55 am): Good news! Less than an hour after this post went live, Elizabeth got word that the print run of Monsters & Mormons has shipped. As soon as it arrives, she will start fulfilling orders. Thanks for patience!
I know that many of you are anxiously awaiting the print version of Monsters [...]
I had the following thought recently: does Mormonism need its own version of the Bechdel Test?
The Bechdel test (to quote from the BoingBoing post linked to above)…
asks three questions: 1. Are there two or more women in it that have names? 2. Do they talk to each other? 3. Do they talk to each other [...]
As I’ve looked at 19th century newspapers and other documents, I’ve come across literary works or references to literary works that I didn’t know about, and that, apparently, are unknown among those of us interested in Mormon literature. Yesterday, I discovered another.
