On Saturday, November 29, I participated in activities at the Bluff Arts Festival in Bluff, Utah.  This little town of just a few hundred people really knows how to throw a party.  I took my eighteen-year-old son, an aspiring writer, to this celebration of the arts, sciences, and the human spirit, and having him with me deepened my [...]

Here’s how it all went down:

I had just graduated with a bachelor’s in English from USU and was pregnant with my first baby. I wasn’t going to be “one of those women” who just lets her education go for home and hearth (whatever that means! Thank you liberal/feminist education!) so I joined the ward [...]

Several months ago my lovely wife Anne and I had the privilege to go to a retreat hosted twice a year by the Mormon Artists Foundation. Founded by James Christensen (rightfully famous for his art of fantasy and his fantastic art) and Doug Stewart (playwright of the groundbreaking Saturday’s Warrior), it’s always one of the [...]

When my friend and mentor Leslie Norris died on April 6, 2006, I was unable to attend his funeral or participate in Irreantum’s “Readers Write” feature addressing the topic, ”Leslie Norris Among the Mormons.”  With this post I’m making up for lost time.  It runs long, and I beg your indulgence, dear reader. 
If we pay any attention at all to where we’re going and to [...]

Disclaimer: I am not a practiced reviewer.  This review slants heavily toward my own interests and biases and is meant as a personal response to the material at hand rather than as a professional grade commentary. And if that, dear reader, isn’t enough to cast doubt upon my objectivity, I have work published in this issue.  With all that in mind, then…      
About a [...]

Laraine Wilkins died yesterday at 2 a.m. She had been in an induced coma at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center since Aug. 26 where she was taken after a terrible auto accident involving a jack-knifed semi.
I know my AMV colleagues join me in expressing our condolences to Laraine’s family and friends. Her life ended much [...]

Those with a connection to or interest in Mormon and/or Utah arts and culture are invited to attend a Sunstone Symposium session and submit a short essay to Irreantum in honor of poet Leslie Norris.

One of the more interesting events in Mormon Literature this year is the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Backslider, perhaps the finest LDS novel published to date. (The other novel widely considered for this designation is Maureen Whipple’s The Giant Joshua. Personally, I prefer The Backslider).