Tons of new books, including a new Shadows/Bean book by Orson Scott Card and a much-hyped debut YA paranormal. The Utah Arts Council Original Writing competition winners were announced, and the LDS Film Festival begins today.  Sorry to be a … Continue reading →

In Luke 13, which opens with the first and ominous mention of Pilate, "There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilæans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices," a group of Pharisees come to … Continue reading →

In my MFA program at Arizona State University, there's been an increasing trend towards digitizing theatre. Production after production that I've seen there, they have some sort of technology or film related component. And it's not just Arizona. All across … Continue reading →

Inkberry Press, LLC, 2011 Paperback:
225 pages
ISBN-10: 0-9838293-0-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-9838293-0-0 Price: $11.99

Reviewed by Tristi Pinkston for the Association for Mormon Letters

Into a world teeming with teenage angst, vampires, demons, and dysfunctional families comes Jenni James, a new contemporary Young Adult author who wants to provide clean, uplifting reading material for teens--and has chosen Jane Austen's classics as her vehicle. Taking the six world-famous Austen novels and rewriting them, James is capitalizing on the Austen trend that has taken the literary market by storm, but she's doing it in a totally unique way--by bringing the stories into our day and age. Continue reading

Walnut Springs Press, 2011 Paperback:
281 pages
ISBN-10: 1935217-96-8
ISBN-13: 978-1935217-96-1 Price: $17.99

Reviewed by Tristi Pinkston for the Association of Mormon Letters

If you've seen the movies Heaven Can Wait or Hello Again, the plot of No Angel will seem familiar - and yet, Sneed's approach is fresh and unique at the same time. Our main character is Jonathan Stewart, a man who didn't enjoy his earth life very much and is quite content now that he's dead, working at his post in heaven sending new souls down to earth and welcoming back those who have returned. He's been doing this for a number of years, and would just as soon do it for the rest of eternity. He's not interested in all the ooey-gooey sentimental stuff that goes along with leaving and coming back to heaven. He just does his job, pushes the right buttons, gets everyone where they need to be on time, and doesn't get emotional. About anything. Continue reading

Oxford University Press, 2012 Hardcover:
368 pages
ISBN-10: 0-19-982795-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-982795-4 Price: $65.00

Reviewed by Blair Dee Hodges for the Association for Mormon Letters

On a blustery April afternoon in 1844, Joseph Smith stood before a congregation of thousands and fought the wind. (Or did he simply channel it?) We’re still fighting that wind today. It shuffles the scattered notes of the men who scribbled the funeral sermon Smith preached at the top of his lungs. In the midst of creaking tree branches, sentence fragments and misspellings, Willard Richards seemed to catch hold of something crucial Smith was claiming, caught hold enough to put the gist of it in Smith’s journal: Continue reading

Deseret Book Company, 2011 Hardcover:
134 pages
ISBN-10: 1-60908-053-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-60908-053-2 Price: $16.99

Reviewed by Gabi Kupitz for the Association for Mormon Letters

I was at a Deseret Book store the other day to buy a book—it wasn’t this one. But, facing front-and-center on a DB shelf, this title just wanted to be picked up. The picture on the front dust-jacket made me smile and just attached itself to my heart. In the dust-jacket picture are the Savior Jesus Christ and John the Baptist (portrayed by two male actors) embracing in the River Jordan immediately after the Savior was baptized (his hair is slicked back and looks wet). Both men are obviously VERY HAPPY because they have big smiles on their faces. The joy in their eyes… well, I couldn’t just leave that happy scene on the bookstore shelf! Continue reading

Contest update: we've narrowed the 200+ submissions for the Mormon Lit Blitz Contest  down to a list of 32 semi-finalists, the titles of which we will be releasing in stages between now and Wednesday. See the Mormon Artist blog for … Continue reading →

This is the first in a series of posts I will do reviewing Mormon-authored literature published in 2011. Posts on Mormon-market fiction, theater, and film will follow. The trend of Mormon authors writing for the national juvenile market continued to … Continue reading →

Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 2011 Paperback:
450 pages
ISBN-10: 0-300-16703-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-300-16703-0 Price: $22.00

Reviewed by J. Sherman Feher for the Association for Mormon Letters

This book is a softcover version of the book that was originally published in 2007.

I must admit that before I read this book, I had different expectations based primarily on its title and subtitle. I was expecting an exhaustive historical account of Sunday from the dawn of civilization to the present day, with a detailed historical analysis of how Sunday had evolved over time. I was initially somewhat disappointed by the preponderance of stories. But as I continued reading, I became more intrigued with the stories that presented snapshots of how Sunday was observed by various people in different time periods. Continue reading