I must admit I would find it difficult to talk badly about this story if it deserved it (it doesn’t) as Karen is a friend of mine and, arguably, a large part of the reason life has resulted in me doing story-by-story reviews of a two-decade-old Mormon-short-story collection.

After graduating from BYU I joined the AML-List and took a menial job. With my brain untaxed at work, I aimed my thinking at the AML-List. Which ignored me. Sometimes the email I rewrote three times couldn’t get past the moderators because the day’s volume had already been capped off with a pair of three-sentence witticisms from Richard Dutcher; but I kept trying to get attention, jumping and waving my arms from the back of the room.

Anyway, fastforward a couple years and Karen Rosenbaum, then fiction editor at Dialogue, picked up my short story “The Widower,” and edited it to a new level of excellence. This was an important learning experience for me; plus, it let me feel that maybe the world of Mormon letters had a place for me after all.

Karen was friends with Eugene England and he approached her to write fiction for Dialogue in its early days. The second piece of fiction Dialogue published was one of Karen’s stories and she’s been a staple on the scene ever since. This particular story was published by Dialogue in 1978 and received an honorable mention in short fiction at the AML Awards that year.

The voice is extremely conversational—to the point many details are utterly lost as the speaker clearly assumes you can see what she sees and that you know what she knows. I was worried about this at first, but in the end it proved a sensible choice. The story is very meta (the protagonist is grading creative-writing assignments throughout, to say nothing of the final paragraph or the early discussion of cliches reflected in the title), signaling which tropes could have filled in the gaps had such filling been necessary.

The story might also be somewhat autobiographical (Karen’s husband is named Ben, though I don’t know if they were married in 1978; Karen taught college-level creative writing, though I don’t know if was doing so in 1978), but this too just serves to suggest ways to fill in gaps that don’t need to be filled.

But I was not certain what was going on in those gaps until the story ended unexpectedly and all that was left was for me to smile and say aloud, in genuine surprise, that was just right.

It’s short. Check it out.

* not sure exactly what to call them, but in the series are short short stories, creative exegesis, anecdotes, extended jokes — many of them some or all of those at once. I use prose poem because I approach each one by looking for the rhetorical conceit and poetic rhythm and language that I would with poetry.

Sunstone writing contests

The deadline is Oct. 31*. Winners will be announced no later than Feb. 28, 2011. Full details on Sunstone’s Facebook page. One of the great things about this contest is that it includes a prize for short-short story (less than 1,500 words) in addition to short story (fewer than 6,000 words). I heartily applaud Sunstone’s commitment to the short-short form.

LDS Film Script Contest

The LDS Film Festival has also announced its contests, and this year there will be a Feature Script Contest.  R. Don Oscarson has also put up $600 in prize money (three scripts will win $200 each). Scripts are due Nov. 15.

AMVers in Dialogue

Dialogue has been very good to AMV-associated folks the past few years (and I guess you could say vice versa). I’m pleased to report that S.P. Bailey has two poems in the Fall 2010 issue, which also features reviews of Jonathan Langford’s novel No Going Back ( Amazon ) and Theric Jepson and co’s collection The Fob Bible ( Amazon ).

Narratives of Family exhibit

Art History student Emily Larsen and BYU faculty member James R. Swensen have curated the exhibit “Nature and Nurture: Narratives of Family” for the B.F. Larson Gallery at the Harris Fine Arts Center. Here’s what Emily says about the exhibit:  ”The exhibition … explores the complexity of familial relationships through the art of ten artists with connections to BYU or Utah (8 of the 10 are BYU alumni). The exhibition features the art of well known LDS artists such as Brian Kershisnik and Lee Udall Bennion as well as lesser known LDS artists.” It runs Oct. 5-28 so if you are in the area, do check it out.

Poetry in song from Mormon Artist Group

Song/Cycles is the latest project from the NYC-based Mormon Artists Group. Featuring the work of 6 LDS poets (including Lance Larsen) set to music by LDS composers, the project comes in both a limited edition and a trade paperback. The limited edition version includes audio recordings of performances of the song cycles.

*This post originally had the deadline as Oct. 15 for the Sunstone contests; it’s actually Oct. 31.

Title: The Newlyweds (PDF file)

Author: Joshua Foster

Publication Info: Dialogue; vol 41, No. 2 (Summer 2008)

Submitted by: Theric Jepson

Why?: Theric says: “.

Although it seems like the typical set of characters, these poor dumb kids were very appealing to me.”

Participate:

Submit to Short Story Friday

Possible online sources of stories and link to spreadsheet with current submissions

All Short Story Friday posts so far

• “Telling It Slant: Aiming for Truth in Contemporary Mormon Literature” by William Mulder (6.1.1993) — one of the true classics of Mormon criticism
• “Toward a ‘Marriage Group’ of Contemporary Mormon Short Stories” by B.W. Jorgensen (12.1.2004) — a great, exhaustive round up of Mormon short stories about marriage encapsulated in an excellent framework.
• “Faithful Fiction: ‘Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon Short Stories’” by Eugene England (12.1.1985) — in this review of one of the seminal Mormon short story anthologies England teases out the whole notion of faithful fiction.
• “Sensational Virtue: Nineteenth-Century Mormon Fiction and American Popular Taste” by Karen Lynn (9.1.1981) — an pre-Viper on the Hearth look at Mormons in American popular fiction with an emphasis on portrayals of Mormon women and polygamy.

This is just a small sampling of the riches available. I’m particularly looking forward to reading some of the original reviews of works that are now considered part of the Mormon canon (such as it is).

One more thought: what do you think of adding work like what I’ve linked to above to AMV’s Friday Feature rotation?

*Of course, now articles and full editions are dumped in to PDF files, but hey, at least the PDFs are searchable (and the search engine is much faster and more intuitive than what was found in the UofU archive solution), and really it’s the best we could hope for considering the limitations involved.

2009 was a very good year for poetry. I’ve identified 8 new titles published since last year’s list. In addition, seven titles by Karen Kelsay, who let us know about her poetry last year, are included on this year’s list.

The only downside is how difficult it is to get some of these titles. Last year, when I learned that BYU would issue The Complete Poetry of Eliza R. Snow, I ordered a copy from Amazon.com. Three months later the book still hadn’t arrived — BYU never sent it to Amazon. When Amazon canceled the order, I ended up purchasing the book from a dealer.

Unfortunately, this isn’t unusual. BYU normally does this with the books they publish — and the new edition of Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women, also released last year, doesn’t even appear on Amazon–or anywhere else for that matter.

Another of the new volumes released last year, Mary Lythgoe Bradford’s Purple, also isn’t available from anywhere but the publisher, Dialogue. But unlike BYU, this is likely because of Dialogue’s relative inexperience in distributing books. In addition, many of the titles published using Lulu, the vanity printer, such as R. A. Christmas’ When it Snowed in Pasadena, released last year, also don’t appear on Amazon or other major sellers, probably because the authors don’t know about  alternative printers and distributors who can sell on Amazon at a reasonable price (Lulu charges extra to sell books outside its own website).

The problem with this is, of course, that the titles that don’t make the national distribution network, and through this network appear on Amazon.com and other major booksellers, are hard to find and remain unknown to most of their potential audience. For that audience, its as if the books were never published.

Again this year I tried to be thorough. I’ve compared the authors on this list to those in the Mormon Literature and Culture database, to Andrew Hall’s superb review of what was published in the last year, and last year’s posts and comments about poetry here on A Motley Vision. Of course, it is possible, if not likely, that I have missed something. Please let me know.

Poetry in Print:

• Aitken, Neil. The Lost Country of Sight
• Anderson, Susan Noyes. His Children
• Beeson, Sam. The UnValentine (for children)
• Bennion, Mark D. Psalm & Selah: A Poetic Journey Through The Book of Mormon
• Bradford, Mary L. PURPLE: Poems by Mary Lythgoe Bradford
• Bushman-Carlton, Marilyn. On Keeping Things Small: Poems
• Carabine, Sue. Missionary’s Night Before Christmas (gift book — she has done a whole series of XXX’s Night Before Christmas books)
• Christmas, R. A. A Long Spoon
• Christmas, R. A. City of Roses
• Christmas, R. A. Driving on the Lake Bed
• Christmas, R. A. Housebroken
• Christmas, R. A. Hungry Sunday
• Christmas, R. A. The Kingdom of God–or Nothing!
• Christmas, R. A. When it Snowed in Pasadena
• Collings, Michael R. All Calm, All Bright: Christmas Offerings
• Collings, Michael R. Dark Transformations: Deadly Visions of Change
• Collings, Michael R. In the Void: Poems of Science Fiction, Myth and Fantasy, & Horror
• Collings, Michael R. Naked to the Sun: Dark Visions of Apocalypse
• Collings, Michael R. The Nephiad: An epic poem in twelve books
• Hamblin, Laura. Eyes of a Flounder
• Hatch, Warren. Mapping the Bones of the World
• Hindmarsh, Ted C. Campfire Verses (for children)
• Howe, Susan Elizabeth and Sheree Maxwell Bench. Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women
• Jepson, Eric W. et al. Plain and Precious Parts from The Fob Bible
• Jepson, Eric W. et al. The Fob Bible
• Johnson, Kimberly. Leviathan With a Hook
• Johnson, Kimberly. A Metaphorical God: Poems
• Kelsay, Karen. Buttercup Garden (ebook for children)
• Kelsay, Karen. Karen Kelsay Collected Poems
• Kelsay, Karen. A Fist of Roots
• Kelsay, Karen. Forever in Avalon
• Kelsay, Karen. In Spite of Her
• Kelsay, Karen. Somewhere Near Evesham
• Kelsay, Karen. Song of the Bluebell Fairy
• Larsen, Lance. Backyard Alchemy: Poems
• Larsen, Lance. Erasable Walls
• Larsen, Lance. In All Their Animal Brilliance: Poems
• Liu, Timothy. Bending the Mind Around the Dream’s Blown Fuse (As I understand it, Liu no longer considers himself Mormon)
• Liu, Timothy. Burnt Offerings
• Liu, Timothy. For Dust Thou Art
• Liu, Timothy. Of Thee I Sing
• Liu, Timothy. Polytheogamy (Poet/Artist Collaboration)
• Liu, Timothy. Say Goodnight
• Liu, Timothy. Vox Angelica
• Pearson, Carol Lynn. Beginnings & Beyond: An Anthology of Poetry
• Pearson, Carol Lynn. In Love Again and Always
• Snow, Eliza R. (edited by Jill Mulvay Derr and Karen Lynn Davidson) Eliza R Snow: The Complete Poetry
• Swenson, May. Centaur, The (for children)
• Swenson, May. The Complete Love Poems of May Swenson
• Swenson, May. Dear Elizabeth: Five Poems & Three Letters to Elizabeth Bishop
• Swenson, May. May Out West
• Swenson, May. Nature: Poems Old and New
• Swenson, Paul. Iced at the Ward, Burned at the Stake
• Talbot, John. The Well-Tempered Tantrum
• Tanner, Javen, Curses for Your Sake

—-

Out of Print:

I did not find any of last years books that went out of print this year.

Title: Outsiders

Author: M. J. Young (Margaret Young)

Publication Info: Dialogue 24:1 (Spring 1991)

Submitted by: Wm Morris

Why?: I don’t know yet.

Participate:

Submit to Short Story Friday

Possible online sources of stories and link to spreadsheet with current submissions

All Short Story Friday posts so far

This is the third and final entry in this series. The first part of our interview was about Ms Hallstom’s novel-in-stories Bound on Earth. The second was about her editorship of the literary journal Irreantum. This third portion is about the short-story collection, Dispensation: Latter-day Fiction, that she edited for Zarahemla Books (review).

.
Let’s start with what criteria a story had to meet to even be considered for inclusion. What were the ground rules going in to this anthology?

I went into this project looking for the best stories I could find written by, for, or about Mormons over the last fifteen years or so. (Originally, I’d intended to limit the date range from 2000 to the present, but there were a number of stories published in the late 90s that I felt needed to be included, so I abandoned that idea.) Not only did I want the stories I selected to represent quality literature, but I felt it was important to include stories with recognizably Mormon elements. Most of the stories contain overt references to Mormon culture or theology, and all of the stories, in my opinion, explore Mormon themes. I also wanted the authors in this anthology to have a background in LDS culture and theology–I didn’t consider stories written “about” Mormonism by writers without close personal ties to the religion. And, finally, I wanted to make sure that the anthology’s content wouldn’t disqualify it from being taught in a BYU class. In other words, while I welcomed challenging and thought-provoking stories, I wanted to keep things PG-13.

Obviously, in order to be considered “complete” as an anthology, some authors had to be included no matter what. How did the selection process differ for those authors? I.e., were you more concerned with picking a “typical” Doug Thayer story, or just what you thought was his best?

There were definitely some big names that I knew must be included. In the beginning, I either purchased or borrowed from the library a number of important short story collections: Lewis Horne’s The House of James, Brady Udall’s Letting Loose the Hounds, Mary Clyde’s Survival Rates, Orson Scott Card’s Keeper of Dreams, Darrell Spencer’s Caution: Men in Trees, Paul Rawlins’ No Lie Like Love, Todd Robert Petersen’s Long After Dark, Margaret Blair Young’s Love Chains, Phyllis Barber’s Parting the Veil: Stories from a Mormon Imagination. (I include all these titles because anybody interested in Mormon lit and/or the short story should check them out.)

As I read through each collection, I noted the story or stories that I liked the most and that I felt best fit the vision of Dispensation. Often, the “Mormon-ness” of a story was an important factor as I made decisions. For example, “The 12-Inch Dog” is probably my favorite story from Darrell Spencer’s Caution: Men in Trees, but it’s not particularly Mormon. The story we ended up using, the also excellent “Blood Work,” was a better fit because it dealt head-on with Mormon characters and themes. Orson Scott Card’s story “Christmas at Helaman’s House” was one of the four stories categorized under the heading “Mormon Stories” in his short story collection, and I felt it was important to include a Mormon story from Card in Dispensation. (My favorite Card story from Keeper of Dreams is the dystopian “Elephants of Poznan,” and while it isn’t Mormon fiction, it’s a really cool story, and I was glad to be able to reprint it in the most recent issue of Irreantum.)

I also took into account author preference when dealing with well-known authors, especially when there were two or three stories that I enjoyed equally. Some authors pointed me in the direction of stories I didn’t know existed. Paul Rawlins, for example, had recently published “The Garden” in the literary magazine Image and sent it to me after I approached him about a different story, and I was so happy he did. “The Garden” is one of my favorite stories in the book.

Some stories you originally discovered and published in Irreantum. How did your past history with those stories affect your objectivity?

Well, to be honest, I never felt conflicted about including stories from Irreantum. In fact, only two of the twenty-eight stories—Jack Harrell’s “Calling and Election” and Darin Cozzens’ “Light of The New Day”—were chosen from the many stories I’ve come in contact with as I’ve worked on Irreantum. Both Cozzens and Harrell are important and accomplished enough Mormon short story writers that they would have been included in this anthology even without the Irreantum connection, and both of these stories show them at the top of their game. Both stories won 1st place in the Irreantum fiction contest, also, and I was interested in highlighting stories that have won important contests.

Same question to the nth power regarding your story “Thanksgiving.”

Unlike the Irreantum stories, I was quite conflicted about using one of my own stories in the anthology. Chris Bigelow (Zarahemla’s publisher) and I discussed it, and decided that since “Thanksgiving” had won awards from both the Utah Arts Council and Dialogue magazine it would be an appropriate choice. And for me, personally, I’ve felt my writer-self getting slowly swallowed up by my editor-self over the last couple of years—between Dispensation and Irreantum and Segullah and teaching, I’ve had very little time for my own writing. I didn’t get into this business to become an editor, although I’ve appreciated the editing opportunities that have come my way. But my primary intention has always been to be a writer, and if Chris agreed that “Thanksgiving” should be included, I didn’t want to sacrifice my writer-self to my editor-self yet again.

I noticed that a high percentage of stories are from outsider perspectives — characters who are not LDS or on the outs with that heritage. Which suggests to me that you to some measure agree with the oft-stated maxim that the way to write great LDS literature is to get at it from the outside, not the inside. Comment?

Well, I disagree with this question on a number of levels. First, a “high percentage” of the stories aren’t from outsider perspectives, in my opinion. By my count, in seventeen of the twenty-eight stories, the point-of-view character would describe him or herself as a Mormon. In many of the stories, the point-of-view character might not be Mormon, but his or her interaction with a Mormon is the crux of the story (“Buckeye the Elder,” “Healthy Partners,” etc.). Only four stories are written from the perspective of characters who are “on the outs” with Mormonism (by which you mean, I suppose, that the character makes it known that he or she was once an active Mormon but isn’t anymore).

And I’ve got to say, thumbing through the anthology in order to make an accounting of which point-of-view character is Mormon enough has been a little irritating. LDS writers should be able to write from the point-of-view of all sorts of people, and Mormon stories should be able to include the points-of-view of those with all sorts of Mormon experiences (“inside” or “outside”), without these choices being translated into a sweeping generalization about what kind of literature a Mormon author ought to write. Some of these stories were written by believing Mormons about non-Mormons. Some were written by former Mormons about believing Mormons. And drawing these distinctions, frankly, is giving me a headache. Honestly, the “insider-ness” or “outsider-ness” of each point-of-view character never even occurred to me as I was editing this anthology. I just wanted to include strong fiction. This isn’t to say that I didn’t reject some stories with antagonistic “outsider” characters. I did do that. But not because the narrator was on the outs with Mormonism. It was because the story was too agenda-driven to work as good literature. I rejected stories with an “insider” main character if they were excessively agenda-driven, too.

As far as the “oft-repeated maxim” goes (and I suppose you’re referring to Wallace Stegner’s observation that the “Great Mormon Novel” will be penned by someone who has left the church, then come “part way” back? http://www.motleyvision.org/2009/abandon-all-hope-mormon-lit-cant-be-great/): I wholeheartedly reject that idea. Some of my favorite stories in this anthology were written by believing Mormons, about believing Mormons, so, obviously, it’s possible for an insider to write excellent fiction. If I don’t believe this is possible, what in the world am I doing as a writer and an editor and a teacher operating from within Mormon culture? But this idea has already been debated quite vociferously on AMV, and this interview is already pretty lengthy, so I’ll leave it at that.

Describe briefly, if you can, the gathering process. Where did you look? How many stories did you read? Did you try to balance the number of story types? Were some inclusion decisions made based on how hard or easy permission was to obtain?

At the very beginning of the process, I asked a number of people I trust to recommend writers and stories. I also got some great suggestions from AML members, both via the AML-list and the now-defunct AML forum. From that, I compiled a list and started reading. I got my hands on the previously-mentioned short story collections, and I also read a number of stories published in Mormon magazines and in mainstream literary journals. Once I’d worked through all the recommendations, I simply started reading back issues of Irreantum, Dialogue, and Sunstone, and found some great stories there that I would have otherwise overlooked. It was important to me that this anthology not only showcase well-known writers, but also highlight up-and-coming Mormon writers who are incredibly talented but not (yet) as famous.

I don’t know if I can count the number of stories I read. I just know I read a lot of them. Tons. For about six months, almost all my fiction reading time was dedicated solely to the short stories I was considering for this collection. And, yes, I did try to have some balance: I wanted to be sure to include stories with an international or multicultural perspective; I wanted to include some speculative fiction; I wanted to include both traditional and more experimental fiction-writing methods, and so on. I was also acutely aware that I had more male writers than female writers from which to choose. Although I’d hoped at the outset to have equal representation by both men and women, in the end I found myself with ten stories by women and eighteen by men. Which is to say that, while balance was certainly on my mind, ultimately the quality of each individual story was the most important factor in making my decisions.

As far as permissions are concerned, there were a few stories that were important enough that we were willing to pay for them. Most previous publishers (and authors holding rights) graciously allowed us to reprint the stories without a fee, which was very helpful. We were able to publish all the stories we wanted to publish, which was a relief, since our budget for reprint rights was pretty small.

Did you determine book length first and choose the right number of stories to fit, or did you pick the right stories and see how long it was? If the former, how hard was it to narrow them down?

Initially, I’d planned to choose twenty stories. After my first round of cuts, I had twenty-five. Then a few more must-have stories pushed their way under my nose, and the number increased to twenty-eight, and at that point we had to put a stop to it, mainly in order to keep the price of the book under $20. And even with twenty-eight stories, which is a lot, there were still a number of stories that were difficult to cut.

Finally, to get us back the title of this series, how did you decide what order to arrange the selected stories in?

Some of it was personal preference on my part. I wanted to make sure that my favorite stories, for example, were spaced throughout the anthology, so the reader’s attention would be continuously engaged. What I’ve realized, though, is that with the short story, one person’s taste can be so wildly different from another’s that my favorite stories might be another literature-lover’s least favorite. Stories that I would call home runs have been other people’s “ho hum”s. I should have expected this (in all my years working on the Irreantum fiction contest, for example, never once has there been a story that was a unanimous first place winner among the committee members when we sat down to begin deliberations)—but it’s still surprising to me the range of responses a short story call elicit. I also wanted the arrangement of stories to ensure that similar stories weren’t back-to-back . . . although some stories were similar stylistically but dissimilar thematically, and vice versa. In the end, I simply wanted the anthology to take its readers on a journey to both familiar and unexpected places, to introduce us to both recognizable and surprising characters, and to explore both time-honored and exciting new themes. It’s my hope that Dispensation has accomplished this goal, and that the stories in the book will be read and enjoyed by all sorts of readers.

The article is available via a subscription to Dialogue, but Randy has generously allowed me to excerpt a few passages here at AMV. To start out with I want to present his basic summary of the second point of his two-part purpose for the article (the first is to offer up the case for “approaching Mormon film from a taxonomical perspective” — I’m going to assume that most of AMV’s readers already believe in the merits of such an approach, or at least allow that such an approach can be a useful exercise in literary criticism).

So on to his second purpose:

Answering the second question—what is Mormon cinema?—is more difficult. As mentioned, the term has constantly shifted, avoiding any single definition. However, Mormon film does have components in common with film genres, certain ethnic cinemas, and even national cinemas, among other precedents. It can therefore be useful and not inaccurate to describe Mormon film as a genre, or at least approach it from that perspective. To be more accurate, however, we must define Mormon cinema as a religiously based ethnic cinema that is continually developing characteristics of an actual genre or even multiple genres. Thus, positioned in the interstices between genre and ethnic cinema, Mormon film exhibits characteristics of both but complete adherence to neither.

I like that Astle frames things in this way. It can be seen as a bit of a cop out “It’s in the interstices”! However, it rings true to me. One of the things that fascinates me about Mormon narrative art as a field is how it shows during of the course of its history some of the same preoccupations as other emerging literatures of its time. So, for example, the foundational work on Mormon literature as a field that was done by Orson F. Whitney has a lot in common with other belated, emerging national literatures of the late 19th century (Greek, Romanian, Latin American) in terms of stated goals, worth, etc. With the lost generation of Mormon writers, we find works that are much more regionalist-goes-national in nature (the literature of the South being the most vibrant example of American regionalism) and are closely tied in with Western regionalism. More recently (the past 3-4 decades), we see Mormon literature splitting in to streams that are informed by the previous two generations, but that seek to mimic Christian genre literature (Covenant), legitimize Mormon thought through the genre most open to exploration of ideas (speculative fiction), and works that borrow somewhat from the ethnic literatures, the hyphenated Americans that have been semi-legitimized since the 1960s (much of the Mormon literary realism, which is supported by the AML and the Mormon journals, falls in to this category, imo).  All this is to say that because of the unique makeup of the Mormon socio-cultural history and environment, it’s no wonder that a hybrid approach is necessary. Because the Mormon identity is malleable in how it presents itself in cultural form (religious praxis is a different issue — but one that is important as it keeps Mormon culture from being solely an “ethnic” identity) and how it interacts with other literatures (and cinemas), it’s no wonder that it so often falls in to the “interstices.”

The devil is in the actual analysis, of course, and for that you’re going to need to get hold of a copy of this issue of Dialogue (or pay for an electronic subscription). What I like about the article is that Randy provides some interesting, valid readings of Mormon films (both his own and a few from other critics) that relate back to his major arguments. However, I will offer up one more excerpt. This comes later in the article where Astle is exploring how Hamid Naficy’s characteristics of diasporic filmmakers (and their films) apply or don’t to the world of Mormon cinema. He writes:

The final and most important way in which Hamid Naficy’s theories aid an understanding of Mormon cinema, however, is in relating themback toMormon society, including both the films’ supporters and critics. The result is a much richer comprehension of how Mormon films function within their own social context. As mentioned, Mormon filmmakers are notmarginal or subaltern but interstitial, emanating from where dominant and minority groups interact: “To be interstitial . . . is to operate both within and astride the cracks of the system, benefiting from its contradictions, anomalies, and heterogeneity.” This duality affects the thinking of all members of accented communities, not just the filmmakers; thus, most “ethnic communities are highly sensitive to how they are represented by both . . . outsider and insider filmmakers. They often feel protective and proprietary about their ‘image,’ sometimes even defensive—all of which forces accented filmmakers either to accede to the community’s self-perception and demands or to take an independent path at the expense of alienating the community and losing its support.” Naficy terms this dilemma “accented cinema’s extraordinary burden of representation.”

Sound familiar to anyone? (And yes, Randy, goes on to talk about Richard Dutcher). This is just one aspect to his analysis, though, and it’s very much worth reading. Definitional criticism is not easy, it’s often controversial, and it tends to get a bit squishy in Mormon spheres because of the oddness of Mormon cultural identity.

Astle has taken his already fine and rather encyclopedic work in the field and applied some serious critical tools to it with this article, which solidly melds theory with specific examples. Well worth checking out, and one of the best pieces of Mormon narrative arts/literary criticism to come along in several years.

* Randy is not the field’s only film critic, but he is one of the most prolific and knowledgeable. See for example, his BYU Studies article Mormon Cinema on the Web.

Title: Now and at the Hour of Our Death

Author: Todd Robert Petersen

Publication Info: Dialogue, Summer 2003

Submitted by: Theric Jepson

Why?: Theric writes: “.

I think Petersen is the best short story writer we have at the moment. This particular story is often mentioned to me by others as being their favorite.”

Participate:

Submit to Short Story Friday

Possible online sources of stories and link to spreadsheet with current submissions

All Short Story Friday posts so far

*Full disclosure: this is going to sound like bragging, but I do think it’s best to disclose any conflicts of interest. So here it is: I read a draft of Rift and commented on it. I have not read the final version of the novel. Also: I very much enjoyed the version I read even though I was initially put off by the idea that Todd was writing a rural Utah novel when I specifically applauded him for the international flavor of his short stories in Long After Dark.