Category Archives: Mormon LitCrit

The Shibboleths of Mormon Aesthetics

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Jessie Christensen

A few weeks ago, The New York Times Magazine published an article about the animation program at BYU, which has been gaining a positive national reputation for both the films it produces and the quality of its graduates. If you … Continue reading →

Posted in Community Voices, Mormon LitCrit | 35 Comments

Mormons and American Literature Anthologies: An Exercise in Optimism

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Scott Hales

In the last forty years, the American literary canon has changed dramatically. If you go back to Norton American literature anthologies from the late 1960s and early 1970s, you’ll notice that most of the writers are white men, a dozen … Continue reading →

Posted in Community Voices, Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Whitney Finalists 2012: Final Thoughts

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Jessie Christensen

Three months ago I wrote a post with some of my initial thoughts on the 2012 Whitney Award finalists. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to read 25 books in three months and I wondered … Continue reading →

Posted in Community Voices, Mormon LitCrit | Tagged | 11 Comments

in verse # 28 : the pun is meatier than the surd

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Dennis Clark

Sitting at home alone in bed when I was 13, and unable to go out because I was undergoing the aftermath of rheumatic fever, I entertained myself with old copies of Reader’s Digest.  One of the things I digested thoroughly … Continue reading →

Posted in In Verse, Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Nephi Anderson at the Annual SASS Conference

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Scott Hales

Next week, the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies will be holding its annual conference in San Francisco. For this year’s conference, a few of us have put together a panel on Nephi Anderson that focuses on his Scandinavian … Continue reading →

Posted in Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , | 18 Comments

Art and Literature at the AML Conference

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Jessie Christensen

This past Saturday I attended the annual AML Conference. It was a great day; I always love the chance to meet people in person that I have mostly corresponded with electronically, and the panels I attended were filled with new … Continue reading →

Posted in Mormon LitCrit | 6 Comments

Five Nephi Anderson Novels You Should Read Before You Die

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Scott Hales

This week I plan to finish my dissertation chapter on Nephi Anderson’s novels. As the current draft climbs to around 65 pages, I realize that trying to encapsulate Anderson’s contribution to Mormon letters in one chapter is a fool’s errand. … Continue reading →

Posted in Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Searching for a Markus Zusak of Our Own

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Jessie Christensen

Today over at Motley Vision, William posted an excerpt from an Ensign article about LDS literature published in 1981 by Richard Cracroft. This sentence in particular caught my eye: Many of the sweetest messages of life are subtle, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, The Populist's Soapbox | Tagged , | 25 Comments

Creating New Historical Narratives; or, Why We Should Be Writing More Mormon Historical Fiction

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Scott Hales

Mormons have a long history with the historical novel. Early in the twentieth century, for example, writers like Susa Young Gates and Nephi Anderson used the historical novel to create a romanticized version of the Mormon past for post-Manifesto readers … Continue reading →

Posted in Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , , , | 58 Comments

Whitney Finalists 2012: Initial Thoughts

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Jessie Christensen

In case you haven’t heard, the finalists for the 2012 Whitney Awards were announced last Friday. Over at Segullah, Emily has already posted some of her thoughts about the finalists, so I thought I’d post a few of my initial … Continue reading →

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, The Populist's Soapbox | Tagged | 18 Comments