Sunstone, quietly and without any fanfare that I’m aware of, has made it’s archives (save the few most recent issues) available for free online.

! ! !

Including the comics issue I edited! Which is primo content, I assure you.

! ! !

Sunstone has just provided an incredible resource which I encourage you to check out.

For free!

Although, speaking of money, Sunstone could use yours even if they’re being coy about it. Considering thanking them for the pdf bonanza with some lucre.

I believe that Mormon Artist has indeed shown that this is true. But shouldn’t the goal be something more? While we do have a few literary publications, I don’t think there is any other publication comparable to Mormon Artist. In particular, the Mormon visual arts have no other publication, as far as I know.

Crowder does hint that some of his editors plan another publication. Lets hope what they have in mind can take the place of Mormon Artist. And that their goal is something more than just showing that Mormon Arts are significant.

This move ends one of the more consistent and long-term sources of information about Mormon literature, which makes up a significant portion of Cracroft’s coverage. The columns mention as many as a dozen titles, meaning that over 20 years Cracroft has covered something approaching a thousand books. His column was especially valuable for the first decade of its existence, before the AML review archive was started and reviews of LDS books became much more common.

Most of the columns are available online in the BYU Magazine archives, which go back to 1996. For the first 5 years of Cracroft’s Book Nook column, you’ll have to find them in a library or private collection.

If I get a chance, I’ll call BYU Magazine later today and ask if the column will be continued by someone else. [I called -- see comment #11 below.]

Every month I also plan on setting little spotlights on little news items and tidbits about Mormon Drama along with the monthly Scripting Mormon Drama spot. So here goes our first crop of notables for the month of January:

- The Book of Mormon Musical… by the creators of South Park!

Some of us who have had the misfortune of seeing one of Trey Parker’s and Matt Stone’s strangely malicious AND strangely affectionate lampoons about Latter-day Saint religion, history, and culture on their  irreverent and crude show South Park . At least the tongue in cheek South Park segment about the people in hell being told, “The correct answer was… the Mormons,” has some healthy appreciation among Mormons and is often quoted with nervous laughter. There is also a relatively positive spin on Mormon family life and FHE in one episode, but their distorted and erroneous version of Mormon history shows Martin Harris as a duped idiot, with Lucy Harris being the smart one (of course neglecting to mention that Martin Harris and the three witnesses report to seeing the plates and an angel) and showing Joseph Smith as a charlatan offends Mormon sensibilities, making us all seem as much of stupid dupes  as their version of Martin Harris. And don’t get me started on their “Super Friends” spoof of creating a super hero team out of major religious figures, including Joseph Smith, Jesus, and Mohammed (at least we’re not the only ones in their cross hairs).  Parker and Stone were also the creators of the purportedly filthy film  Orgasmo, about an LDS missionary who becomes a porn star to pay for his mission (uh… what?!). So for some of us, the news about Parker and Stone making a Broadway musical about Mormons came with a certain amount of dread and morbid curiosity.

I’ve had my high school students authoritatively quote these twisted, offensive segments to me as if they were true, penetrating exposes on Mormonism,  so I’m a little afraid of where these two creators’ morbid fascination with our religion is going to take them this time and how it will again capitalize on us for a few cheap laughs and some dirty jabs. Of course, they’ll do it while stating it with enough of a smile and sense of pretended understanding that will illicit comments like this from Vogue Magazine:

“It is, hands down, the filthiest, most offensive, and—surprise—sweetest thing you’ll see on Broadway this year, and quite possibly the funniest musical ever.”

Here’s a couple of news items about the upcoming show (which begins Feb. 24th), including a filmed interview with Trey and Parker with the New York Post:

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/popwrap/from_south_park_to_broadway_okelmt8N33qQOG1MvR15QK

http://www.playbill.com/playblog/2011/01/the-book-of-mormon-promo-video/

The premise of the musical:  two Mormon missionaries serving in Africa, seems benign enough until it’s revealed that one of them is a closet homosexual (of course pairing Mormons with this divisive issue hasn’t been done before! Here we go again…) and until you realize that nothing by these two satirists is ever benign.

New Play Project’s Two Upcoming Plays: He and She Fighting, A Love Story and WWJD

On a happier note, New Play Project continues its commitment to producing new Mormon Drama, with upcoming plays by Eric Samuelsen and Anna Christina Kohler Lewis.

He and She Fighting: A Love Story, written by Eric Samuelsen and directed by Davey Morrison, is first up to bat, being presented at the Provo Theater (105 East, 100 North, Provo, UT) from February 10-February 21 at 7:30 pm. A segment of this play (”The Exact Total Opposite”) was included in NPP’s recent anthology: Out of the Mount: 19 From New Play Project. The blurb advertising the event bills the play as, “Boy meets girl. Boy dates girl. Boy argues endlessly with girl. A painfully funny (and sometimes just painful) look at one couple’s relationship as chronicled by the times they hate each other most, playwright Eric Samuelsen’s new full-length comedy is the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day OR Singles Awareness Day. Either way, you won’t want to miss it.”

Soon after that (the first two weeks of April),  Anna Christina Kohler Lewis’s WWJD will be performed by NPP, again at the Provo Theatre. I just finished reading the posted script this morning and, after some initial trepidition about the premise (a skateboarding Jesus visits and subtly helps a bunch of college room mates, while remaining involved in their day to day activities, including washing dishes, miniature golfing, dancing at a bar, among other atypical things for the Son of God to do). After the initial shock from the audacity of the script, I found myself warmed by Lewis’s down to earth Jesus (you know, the one who dined with sinners and consistently pushed against people’s preconceived notions). In her approach Lewis’s play is much more akin  to It’s a Wonderful Life than The Last Temptation of Christ.  If people can get past the initial prejudice against its anachronistic, populist Jesus, then I think people could be quite spiritually moved by this play (with the possibility of lots of nervous laughter, as it’s quite funny, too).  It will have to overcome several hurdles, though. The first, and probably most major, obstacle being getting enough people in Utah Valley who are comfortable with the premise enough to  want to buy tickets. However, although the premise seems brazen and possibly blasphemous, once you get to the end of the play, you discover quite the opposite. It’s practically old fashioned and, strangely, that fact plays as one of the script’s greatest strengths.

Matched

Dutton began with a 250,000 copy first printing and booksellers responded to the buzz around the novel. As a result the novel started at #2 on the ABA’s bestseller list (representing sales at independent bookstores). This morning it was ranked #223 on Amazon. The buzz has extended overseas, as foreign rights have been sold into 30 countries. Given that, it should come as no surprise that Disney has purchased an option for the film rights.

Sound familiar? The Wall Street Journal also noticed the parallel.

Unlike Meyer’s work, however, the subject matter of Matched boils down to a concept with philosophical heft, and one dear to Mormonism: freedom of choice. But it is also a dystopian novel, which, as far as I know, is unusual in Mormon literature (anyone know of other Mormon dystopian works? Is Meyer’s Twilight dystopian? Anything else?).

The novel, the first volume in a trilogy, is told from the perspective of a young girl nearing the age of marriage. She lives in a society in which nothing is left to chance–her food, work, and marriage are planned for her by “the Society,” the ruling religion in her world. Believing that the Society knows best, she accepts all this, until one day she is presented with evidence of the unthinkable: that the Society doesn’t know best.

I haven’t read Matched, but the descriptions have already enticed my 16-year-old daughter, so I’m sure it will be around the house within the next few weeks (who knows, the season of the year may have something to do with that). If nothing else these descriptions make me hopeful that this will be not only as popular as Meyer’s work, but have more substantial ideas to explore.

The tour hopes to explore the place of Mormon women writers in the 21st century through a series of readings at Claremont Graduate University (March 22nd), Arizona State University (March 23rd), Southern Utah University (March 25th), Utah Valley University (March 26th) and the University of Utah (March 27th). It is the brainchild of Dr. Joanna Brooks of San Diego State University and Dr. Holly Welker of Salt Lake City, who want to explore a broad range of Mormon women’s writing, regardless of the writer’s religious tradition within Mormonism.

Organizer Brooks, , a professor of English who is also known on the Internet for her “Ask Mormon Girl” website, says, “This is about creating common ground. We want to create a space for women to share their writing and reflect on what it might mean to be a Mormon woman in the 21st century.”

Participants in the event will include: Susan Scott, Lisa Van Orman Hadley, Joanna Brooks, Holly Welker, Elisa Pulido, Judith Curtis, Whitney Mower, Whitney Nelson, Danielle Dubrasky, Zoe Murdock, Laura Nielsen Baxter, Julie Nichols, Lee Mortenson, Terisa Humiston, Elizabeth Pinborough, Kathryn Lynard Soper, Cassandra Eddington and Angela Sweat Hallstrom.

More information about locations along with biographies of the participants can be found on the Mormon Women Writers blog.

By now, I’m sure all of AMV’s readers have seen the announcement of this year’s finalists for the Whitney Awards. Congratulations to AMV’s Jonathan Langford for being selected as a finalist in the General Fiction category. He is also eligible for the best novel by a new author award. Full disclosure: I am not a Whitney voter. I believe Theric is. I don’t know if anybody else associated with AMV is. Updated disclosure, 3/21/2010: Rob Wells convinced me to be a Whitney Awards voter. I will be for sure voting in the Speculative Fiction and Historical Fiction categories. It is also quite likely that I will be able to finish reading the novels in the General Fiction category, as well.

I’ve compiled a quick breakdown of who published the finalists. It’s a pretty decent mix, actually:

Covenant:  8

Deseret Book/Shadow Mountain: 5

Small/Indie/Self-Publishers: 8

National/International Publishers: 9

The YA category is dominated by national publishers as is Speculative Fiction. Covenant dominates Mystery/Suspense and splits Historical  with DB/Shadow Mountain (in fact David Farland’s self published In The Company of Angels is the only historical novel not published by a DB-owned imprint). Both General Fiction and Romance have a mix, with fully 4/5 of the Romance novels coming out of smaller Mormon presses. Notable titles not selected for the General Fiction category are Rift by Todd Robert Petersen (Zarahemla Books) and The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury). Since I’ve only read one novel in that category (No Going Back), I don’t know if that’s an oversight or not and don’t really care — in any awards process some titles are going to be left out.

Out of the finalists, there are three that I’m very interested in reading: Alma by H.B. Moore, Gravity vs. the Girl by Riley Noehren and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. And since I have yet to read any of Gerald Lund’s novels and DB sent me an unsolicited review copy, I plan on getting to The Undaunted as soon as I finish my book on the Etruscans. It’s a very hefty tome which means I can’t take it with me on my commute, which is where I get most of my reading done.

Irreantum’s new submissions policy

From Irreantum co-editor Angela Hallstrom:

Our submission window for our fiction and essay contests is from January 1 to May 31 each year.  Beginning in January 2010, all unsolicited fiction and creative nonfiction submissions received during our submission window will be considered for that year’s Irreantum Fiction Contest and the Charlotte and Eugene England Personal Essay contest, respectively, and must be submitted according to contest rules. Any submission received outside the submission window will not be considered; however, we encourage authors to consider resubmitting the following year after January 1st.

So, in short: we will only accept unsolicited fiction and creative nonfiction during our submission window (Jan 1-May 31); all unsolicited fiction and creative nonfiction will be considered for our annual contest; all submissions must adhere to contest rules. In addition, simply because a story or essay does not place in our annual contest does not mean that we might not consider publishing that piece.

Poetry, critical essay, and review submissions will still be considered year-round and are not associated with any contests.

I suppose this makes sense, especially since with two issues per year, one is already filled with the contest winners so all you really need are 3-5 additional pieces of fiction and 1-3 pieces of creative nonfiction to round out the year. The comment about resubmitting is nice, too. But since that’s the new plan: any chance we could get the word count upped to 10k? Or how about 17,500 (the word count the SFWA considers a novelette)?

Mormon Artists Group profiles Hildebrando de Melo

Finally, Mormon Artists Group has posted an interview with LDS Angolan painter Hildebrando de Melo (click on what’s new — from some strange reason MAG doesn’t provide direct URLs to its individual pages). You can view de Melo’s work at the Agora Gallery website.

P.S. Andrew scooped me, but in case you didn’t see his comment — Signature Books is back in publishing mode and has posted a list of forthcoming titles. I’m very much looking forward to the collection of Jack Harrell short stories that is due out this May.

First, one from AML’s Nan McCulloch, who is one of my favorite theatre reviewers (and not just because she’s generally very supportive of my plays). Nan’s just one of the more insightful and intelligent theatre critics I’ve come across… and it doesn’t hurt that she always seems to “get” my plays. :] Here’s the link to her review on the AML discussion board:

http://www.forums.mormonletters.org/yaf_postsm1967_STEWART-Farewell-to-Eden.aspx#1967

Second, one from the Deseret News. For the record, although the reviewer Sharon Haddock thought the play lacked some “hope,” I would respectfully disagree. I just think the hope in the play is more subtle than she would have liked… perhaps she would have preferred a more wrapped up ending, so we’ll just have to disagree artistically. Otherwise, she was very complimentary. Here’s the link:

 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705359376/Farewell-to-Eden-absorbing-but-bleak.html

  For those who are interested in seeing the closing performances, you can make reservations by sending an e-mail to zion.theatre.company@gmail.com , with your name, how many tickets you want, and for which performance you want. Performances start at 7:30 on evenings, and 2 pm for the matinee.

• Cedar Fort saw unexpected promotional success with Melissa Moore’s book, Shattered Silence, which will be the subject of an Oprah episode that airs September 17th.
• Deseret Management announced that the websites of Deseret Book, KSL, the Deseret News, LDS Church News, and Mormon Times will now all be managed by a new division in the company, Deseret Digital.
• A 17-year-old American Fork teenager M’Lin Rowley, signed a 10-book deal with Deseret Book’s Shadow Mountain imprint.

Cedar Fort, in an email to its customers, the company trumpeted its success:

With the September 1st release of Shattered Silence, by Melissa G. Moore and Bridget Cook, we are excited to let you know that Oprah has filmed her story and featured the book on an upcoming show that airs SEPTEMBER 17th. Shattered Silence tells the story of Melissa’s experience of growing up with her father, who is now known as the “Happy Face Serial Killer”. It relates her remarkable journey of hope. Throughout her life she always looked for light and truth. Many times she felt guided by a Higher Power, she realized that there was a God and He did know her and watch out for her. When she was introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ she rejoiced and accepted the truth she had been seeking. Shattered Silence is a remarkable story of hope. Regardless of where or how you were raised and what you have experienced you can be happy and successful.

We reviewed Shattered Silence here. See also Cedar Fort’s PR Blog entry for September 9th.

Deseret Management’s creation of its new Deseret Digital division is a bit of a mystery to me. Its led by former Harvard Business School professor Clark Gilbert, who is an expert in digital news media innovation, which explains why DeseretNews.com, KSL.com, LDSChurchNews.com and MormonTimes.com were included. But digital news media innovation doesn’t really cover online retail, so I wonder what will happen to DeseretBook.com. It has loads of traffic, but hasn’t ever implemented the kind of features that will allow it to compete with other online retailers effectively. Perhaps this will make it change, but I also wonder what will happen when innovation tries to get Deseret Book to include those items it hasn’t wanted to sell but should. A complete version of the company’s press release is here.

Is Deseret Book pulling a publicity stunt, you have to wonder after reading the headlines about its 10-book deal with a 17-year-old. Of course, the books are short (roughly 70 pages according to the Salt Lake Tribune article) and aimed at 6-10-year-old beginning readers, so perhaps Deseret Book’s editors think they don’t have to be as careful with children’s books (which, in my experience, are substantially more difficult than they seem. And, I think Deseret Book has blundered in this area on more than one occasion, and been protected by its position in the LDS market). I suppose it is also possible that the fact that Rowley’s mother is also a Deseret Book author (although not a major one, as far as I can tell) might have something to do with it.

Twilight is going virtual. The production company for the Twilight films, Summit Entertainment, licensed the property to the teen-oriented virtual world Habbo, which will launch a Twilight-specific virtual world to coincide with the launch of the second movie in the series, New Moon.

Publishing Industry News

Here’s the news I found interesting that might impact Mormons in the books and art:

• Challenges to Google’s $125 million settlement with authors and publishers over its Google Books service multiplied before a court deadline this week.  Those objecting included Amazon.com, leading settlement supporter , the Author’s Guild, to slam Amazon’s “choke hold” on books, saying “Amazon’s hypocrisy is breathtaking.” Google tried to defend the settlement, offered to allow competitors to resell the works it has digitized (Amason said it will pass), and offered concessions (here also) in Europe to win support there. In testimony before a House subcommittee, the U.S. Register of Copyrights slammed the settlement as “fundamentally at odds with the law.”
• Publisher marketing budgets are down 50-70% this year. Efforts are moving toward web, cooperative advertising with retailers. For small publishers that may level the playingfield somewhat.
• Market share for the Kindle continues to expand: The Kindle accounted for 23.5% of ebook downloads in the 1st quarter of this year, and by the end of July accounted for 28% of downloads. Desktop and laptop computers were 48% of downloads then and were 40% in July. Also in July, the iPod was 6.5% of downloads and Sony’s Reader was 6% of downloads. All other devices were 19.5% of downloads in July.
• Do Book Blogs sell books? wonders an author at the Denver Post in this article.
• Here’s an idea: Have the readers write the footnotes!
• Think ebook prices are too high? Hachette’s CEO is warning that they may be too low!
• Apple’s Jobs says won’t make an “iBook.” “Right,” says UK’s Guardian.
• Whence the ISBN? Will it survive the digital age? Apparently it will be cheaper to get next year.
• UK Research: ebooks problem in content, not hardware. Readers complain not enough books and not enough good books.
• Google says its developing a micropayment system to allow publishers to charge for online content. Should AMV start charging by the post?

1. The winners of the Irreantum Fiction Contest and the Charlotte and Eugene England Personal Essay Contest have been announced. Irreantum co-editor Angela Hallstrom wrote in to the AML-list and said that while winning the contest is no guarantee of publication in Irreantum, most likely most of the winners will see their work featured in the magazine. Of note, for the first time the organizers revealed the number of entries — 71 for the fiction contest and 42 for the personal essay contest.

2. There’s a new edition of Mormon Artist. It includes a fascinating feature article by Iconia blogger (and artist and critic) Menachem Wecker titled “Are scholars and museums ignoring Mormon artists?” Mormon Artist editor Ben Crowder also announced that their fiction contest results and special issue should be available soon and that Mormon Artists is moving from a bi-monthly to quarterly schedule. As we’ve come to expect, this edition of Mormon Artist features great photography and illustration. In general, the Mormon publications have stepped up their game the past few years with their visual appeal — although some could still use better design and graphics.

3. The Mormon Review, a blog/online journal devoted to cultural criticism from a Mormon perspective, launched yesterday with a look at the two versions of Battlestar Galactica by James Bennett. I like that you can download PDF versions of the file. I think it’s weak that discussion on the articles is slotted over to time Times & Seasons. I’m not sure how The Mormon Review is going to carve out its own identity when most of the publicly viewed energy is directed towards T&S.  But it’s off to a rollicking start, and it’ll be interesting to see what future articles bring us.