Category Archives: Storytelling and Community

Mormon Culture and Les Miserables

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Josh Allen

Everywhere I go, people are talking about this. Yep, that’s right. Les Miserables! The Movie! This Christmas! Oh!  My!  Heck! But here’s a confession: I don’t care. Not even a bit.

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, On-screen, Storytelling and Community | Tagged | 15 Comments

Mormon Literature and the Anxiety of “Passing”

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Scott Hales

In literature, a character’s ability to move unnoticed from one social group to another, often more privileged group is called “passing.” In Disney’s Mulan, for example, the title character “passes” for a man so that she can take her aging … Continue reading →

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, Storytelling and Community | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Windmill Variations: In Defense of Message-Driven Fiction

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Scott Parkin

I suspect inopportune literalism is the primary limiting factor in my confusion as to why good fiction must not, dare not, shall not contain a message. I read the books that others tell me are “good” and I see messages aplenty, and more often than not I see aggressive arguments for particular viewpoints. Scout may pretend to be unformed and open-minded, but “To Kill A Mockingbird” leaves no doubts about what the author believes are better (and lesser) moral conclusions through her voice. Continue reading →

Posted in Community Voices, Storytelling and Community, The Populist's Soapbox, The Writer's Desk | Tagged | 3 Comments

I’m ready for a party. Let’s have two.

Posted on October 12, 2012 by James Goldberg

We talk about Mormon Literature a lot on this blog–what with it being the blog topic and all. But it’s time we did more than talk. Friends, it is time to step up. And celebrate.

Posted in Storytelling and Community | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Novelist Nephi; or Why We Still Need the “Author of ‘Added Upon’”

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Scott Hales

In less than a week I will be traveling to Salt Lake City to spend a week in the Church History Library with the Nephi Anderson papers. To prepare, I have been reading Anderson’s novels and short stories and making … Continue reading →

Posted in Storytelling and Community | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments

One Man’s Meditation: Merlin, Motivation and Letting Go

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Scott Parkin

It seems to me that we are in the midst of a rather startling expansion of our traditional concepts of Mormon literature. There’s an active effort going on to expand the possibilities, to rethink what we can and should be doing with our unique voices and viewpoints. A lot of it makes me uncomfortable, but the more I consider it the more I think it’s a useful discomfort… Continue reading →

Posted in Community Voices, Personal Narratives, Storytelling and Community | 17 Comments

Mormon Characters in Mormon Literature

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury

I recently finished reading THE SCHOLAR OF MOAB, by Steven L. Peck, which received the AML Novel Award for last year, and I want to say, first of all, that the writing in this book is wonderful. The characters are … Continue reading →

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, Storytelling and Community | Tagged | 37 Comments

Moderating AML Blog

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Jonathan Langford

Most of the time, moderating the AML blog is a fairly easy job. I line up potential contributors, then send out reminder notices. I help out every now and then when people having difficulty posting. (To the limit of my … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, Storytelling and Community | 11 Comments

Mormon Lit and Other Nineteenth-Century Religions’ Lit

Posted on May 10, 2012 by James Goldberg

Many of our recurring discussions about Mormon Lit try to measure how the field is doing and how it is likely to do within our lifetimes. We return again and again to the economics of literature written for Mormons, to … Continue reading →

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, Storytelling and Community | 18 Comments

Race, Culture, White Guilt, and Mormon Letters

Posted on April 12, 2012 by James Goldberg

Several of my mom’s siblings were in town this weekend, including two brothers from England, so we had our Goldberg family seder at my grandma’s house with two dozen members of the Gill clan in attendance. Because we had lots … Continue reading →

Posted in International Scene, Storytelling and Community | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments