If you haven’t seen or heard, the proceedings from the 2015 AML Conference at Utah Valley University on March 28 are up/posted/downloadable on mormonartist.net. The conference included a handful of sessions with provocative titles like “Should Mormon Writers Study Mormon Literature?” and “My Favorite Mormon Book and Why It Matters” with esteemed panelists including Eric Samuelson, Lance Larsen, Melissa Leilani Larsen, Ardis Parshall, Gideon Burton and others. There was a poetry slam organized by Tyler Chadwick. And an awards presentation for 2014 (and a few 2013) winners in a variety of categories. Check out the session recordings, photos, and a podcast interview by Katherine Morris with James Goldberg. For blog posts citing award winners see here and here and here.
Thank you to James Goldberg and a host of others who organized and promoted and pulled off what looks to have been a warm and meaningful day of inquiry and appreciation. Thank you to Andrew Hall and a dedicated panel of judges who did a fantastic job with the AML awards this year. And thank you to Stephen Carter who provided the mp3 files of conference sessions. I am just starting to make my way through the recordings, and am digging it.
I would have loved to have been there. I should have been there. I wasn’t there.
But. As someone who is trying to prepare a meaningful and enticing AML gathering here in Hawaii for next year (2016!) I would be glad, so glad, to hear from anyone who was at the conference this year:
What did you take away from this year’s conference?
What were the main challenges in planning and running it?
How many people were in attendance? What was the breakdown of regulars vs. newcomers?
What worked that you would like to see repeated at next year’s conference?
What would you like to add or build on for next year’s conference?
Do you have any suggestions for panels/themes for next year’s conference?
Maybe most importantly, were there snacks?
Please, if you have a response, or any kind of report, feedback, or food for thought, leave it in the comments below. Anything.
And again, congrats to all who led, who won, and who participated. I hope to meet many of you soon.
I can’t speak to all the questions, but I loved the conference! James and Nicole Goldberg did a great job pulling everything together. I also liked the informal atmosphere of this one, where it was a group of people, of whatever background, who just wanted to find out what’s going on in Mormon Lit or to share what they know about the Mormon Lit scene. I realize that we can’t have these informal, “introductory,” sessions every time (and wouldn’t want it that way), but it would be nice to host them occasionally so that we can attempt to grow the audience. The attendance was good, much better than I anticipated, considering the reduction in scope. There were probably sixty or so people there. I saw several people I didn’t recognize and took to be students. I’m not sure whether there were extra-credit incentives for them to be there or not, but either way, perhaps their attendance garnered a few converts.
For next year’s conference, especially considering that it will be in a unique location, it would be great if the conference could allow for remote participation via Skype or FaceTime. That would allow those who would otherwise attend in person, but for the price, participate. Failing that, it should all be recorded at least. It was great that this one was recorded, and the sound quality wasn’t bad at all on the recordings I’ve listened to so far.
I would like to see a panel on the idea of “Restorationist Literature” and more discussion on what it means and what it looks like. Of course, the ideal scholars for commenting about this would be Scott Hales, Wm Morris, and James Goldberg. Maybe Margaret Blair Young or Angela Hallstrom too. Maybe this next idea I have could be wrapped up in that same panel or presentation, but I would like to see more commentary and discussion on James Goldberg’s counter-argument to Stephen Carter’s position in the “Great Debate” of this year’s conference. I think most writers, myself included, agree with Stephen’s position somewhat and have written from it, but James’s position seems to be less explored by creative minds in the Mormon community. Are there examples of it in the literature currently out there? Does James achieve that in his own work?
Food. That’s the one thing that was missing from this conference. But considering that it was put together quickly and other circumstances, I don’t blame the Goldbergs at all. But for a longer conference, it is appropriate to feed the five thousand.
Just some thoughts to consider.
Thank you Michael. I really appreciate the thoughtful response. Great suggestions, too. I would love to find a way to combine the formal scholarly format with the more informal format that worked this year. Laie is a pretty small place, with the right kind of publicity we could probably draw a little crowd of students here to a introductory-style seminar/presentation.
Some award-nominated authors were interested in coming if there would be some kind of book-signing table available. That might not be as applicable in Hawaii, but perhaps in future conferences. Having the finalists named before hand could bring several authors who might not otherwise think of coming to AML to come the conference, in part to publicize their books.