Mormon Literature Progress & Prospects: The Legacy of Eugene England

Annual Conference – Association for Mormon Letters: July 21-23, 2022

Last year saw the publication of two books on Eugene England — Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism by Terryl Givens and Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal by Kristine L. Haglund.

England is a foundational figure for the field of Mormon Studies and especially for the Association for Mormon Letters. Not only was he a founding member and past president, he also focused much of his scholarly output and volunteer efforts on defining, evaluating, excavating, editing, writing, and encouraging the field of Mormon literature, including his landmark bibliographic and literary-period defining essay “Mormon Literature: Progress and Prospects” (which was published in several forms and venues during the 1990s; link is to PDF).

This year’s conference honored Eugene England’s legacy with a series of virtual panels and paper presentations and an in-person event.

Links to the archived panels as well as the awards nominations and winners are now included in the schedule below. You can also view the 2022 conference playlist on YouTube.

Thursday, July 21

6:45 pm, MDT: AML Presidential Address, Melissa Leilani Larson (virtual)

7 – 8:30 pm, MDT: Eugene England & Mormon Literature (virtual) – Karen Rosenbaum, Calvin Burke, Kristine Haglund, and Robert Rees, panelists. James Goldberg, moderator. Also featuring Gideon Burton, David Gore, and Travis Manning.

Friday, July 22

7 – 8:30 pm, MDT: Presenting the AML 100: 100 Notable Works of Mormon Literature (virtual). Michael Austin, Jessie Christensen, Kjerste Christensen, Mattathias Westwood, panelists. William Morris, moderator. Link to the the full list of works on the AML 100 

Saturday, July 23

8:30 – 10 am, MDT: Breakfast & Eugene England Remembrance (in-person event)

10:30 – 11:50 am, MDT: AML Presentations – Session A (virtual) – William Morris, moderator

• Renan Silva, Vampirism in Brazilian “Mormon Literature”
• Emma Tuellar Stone, A Mormon Gothic: Twilight, the Feminine Divine and a (Celestial) Marriage-Plot
• Conor Hilton, Let Us Liken the Best Books Unto Ourselves: Towards an Expansive Mormon Literary Criticism

Noon – 1:20 pm, MDT:  AML Presentations – Session B (virtual) – William Morris, moderator

• Darlene Young, MoPoWriMo as Spiritual Practice: Gleanings from a 5-Year-Old Project
• Kent Larsen, How much Mormon Literature is there, and why should we care?
• Gabriel González Núñez, Toward Mormon Literature(s) in Languages Other than English

2 – 3:15 pm, MDT: A Conversation with Darlene Young, 2022 Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters (virtual) – Angela Hallstrom, interviewer 

3:30 – 4:45 pm, MDT: A Conversation with Michael Austin, 2022 AML Lifetime Achievement Award (virtual) – John Bennion, interviewer; Also view a previous text conversation between Austin and Bennion: Mapping Future: A Dialogue on Mormon Literary Studies

6 pm, MDT: Annual AML Awards, presented by Theric Jepson and Andrew Hall (finalists are listed below); 

7:30 pm, MDT: Readings from AML Award Winners

(Conference program committee: Melissa Leilani Larson, William Morris, James Goldberg, Andrew Hall)

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The Association for Mormon Letters presented Michael Austin and Darlene Young with individual awards at the AML Conference on July 23. Interview panels to honor the awardees are linked above, and full award citations are linked below. Short biographies of the two are given below.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Michael Austin

Award citation for Michael Austin

Michael Austin has dedicated a considerable amount of his life to the study and publication of Mormon literature, as well as writing a series of respected works on LDS scripture and society. Michael received his BA and MA in English from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is currently an academic administrator at the University of Evansville, Indiana.

Among his seven books are Re-Reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World’s Greatest Poem (AML Religious Nonfiction Award, 2014) and Buried Treasures: Reading the Book of Mormon Again for the First Time (AML Religious Nonfiction Award, 2020). He has published several critical and historical articles on Mormon literature, including “How to Be a Mormo-American; Or, The Function of Mormon Criticism at the Present Time” (AML Criticism Award, 1995). His work on 19^th and early 20^th century Mormon authors include co-editing the Mormon Image in Literature series at Greg Kofford Books, co-editing Josephine Spencer: Her Collected Works, Vol. 1, 1887-1899, and writing Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist (AML Criticism Award finalist, 2021).

Michael is the Director of By Common Consent Press, which he co-founded as a non-profit publisher in 2017. In his position as director, Michael has transformed the worlds of Mormon studies and literature, providing publishing opportunities for a wide variety of poets, playwrights, essayists, novelists, and scholars.

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Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

Darlene Young

Awards citation for Darlene Young

Darlene Young is the author of poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction. Her poetry collection, Homespun and Angel Feathers received the AML Poetry Award in 2019. Her poetry has been anthologized in The Mother in Me (2008) The Best of Mormonism (2009), Fire in the Pasture: 21st Century Mormon Poets (2011), Moth and Rust: Mormon Encounters with Death (2017), and other collections. Her essays have been nominated for a Pushcart prize and noted in Best American Essays. Darlene received her BA from Brigham Young University (1994) and, after raising her family, returned there for her MFA (2014). She teaches Creative Writing and Literature of the LDS People at Brigham Young University and Brigham Young University-Salt Lake.

Darlene has done important work in building and supporting the literary community. Besides her teaching, she served as the AML secretary from 2004 to 2011, helping to keep the organization alive over those years.  She has served as the poetry editor for both Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and Segullah. She created the MoPoWriMo (Mormon poetry writing month) Facebook group in 2018, where she continues to inspire and nurture fellow poets. She lives in South Jordan, Utah, with her husband and sons.

The Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters was established in 2005, and includes a monetary prize provided by the Smith-Pettit Foundation. In 2020 the AML board decided to transform the award to focus to excellent mid-career literary figures, encouraging them to continue producing artistic works of the highest quality.

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2021 AML Award finalists

Click to view the award winners (including the citations by the judges)

Special award in fiction

Estampas del Libro de Mormón by Gabriel González Núñez

Special Award in Nonfiction

Kristine L. Haglund for Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal (University of Illinois Press)

Novel

The Jupiter Knife by D. J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchie (Baen)

Eleusis:The Long and Winding Road by R. de la Lanza (Intendencia de las Letras/Ulterior Editorial)

Picnic in the Ruins by Todd Robert Petersen (Counterpoint)

Noria by Juan Antonio Santoyo (Ulterior Editorial)

Short fiction

“Good Shepherd Church” by Riley Clay (Irreantum)

“Between Glory and Ruin” James Goldberg (A Desolating Sickness: Stories of Pandemic)

“Skillick’s Bride” Rachel Helps

“The Wall” by Spencer Hyde (Image)

“Y no preguntes mas . . .” (“So Ask no More . . .”) by Mario R. Montani (Irreantum)

Young Adult Novel

A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions by Sheena Boekweg (Feiwel & Friends)

Beyond the Mapped Stars by Rosalyn Eves (Knopf)

Where I Belong Marcia Mickelson (Carolrhoda Lab)

Fadeaway by E. B. Vickers (Knopf)

In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner (Crown Books)

Middle Grade Novel

Breathing Underwater by Sarah Allen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Horace & Bunwinkle: The Case of the Rascally Raccoon by P.J. Gardner (illustrated by Dave Mottram) (Balzer + Bray)

Friends Forever by Shannon Hale (illustrated by Leuyen Pham) (First Second)

Tips for Magicians by Celesta Rimington (Crown Books for Young Readers)

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera (HarperCollins)

Picture Book

The Boy and the Sea by Camile Andros and Amy June Bates (Abrams)

A Child of God by Chantel Bonner, Mauli Bonner, and Morgan Bissant (Shadow Mountain/Ensign Peak)

We Believe: Illustrated Articles of Faith by Annie Poon (Covenant)

Thankful by Elaine Vickers and Samantha Cotterill (Paula Wiseman Books)

10 Little Disciples by Sierra Wilson (Ambassador-Emerald Intl)

Film

His Name is Green Flake (directed and written by Mauli Bonner)

Maggie on Stratford Ave (directed and written by James May)

Scenes from the Glittering World (directed by Jared Jakins)

The Touch of the Master’s Hand (directed and written by Gregory Barnes)

Witnesses (directed by Mark Goodman, written by Mitch Davis)

Drama

The King Stag by Janine Sobeck Knighton

REDEEMHer: How I Screwed up my perfect Mormon life by Tatum Langton

Gin Mummy by Melissa Leilani Larson

1820: The Musical (book: George Nelson; music and lyrics: Kayliann Lowe Juarez, Doug Lowe, and Kendra Lowe)

Poetry

Beneath the Falls by Mark D. Bennion (Resource publications)

Down Their Spears by Jared Pearce (Cyberwit)

The Ache and The Wing by Sunni Brown Wilkinson (Sundress Publications)

Podcast

Faith Matters hosted by Aubrey Chaves, Tim Chaves, and Terryl Givens; produced by Bill Turnbull and Branson Hirschi (Faith Matters Foundation)

Latter-day Contemplation hosted by Christopher Hurtado and Riley Risto; created by Shiloh Logan and Riley Risto; edited by Christian Hutardo (Latter-day Peace Studies)

Leading Saints hosted by Kurt Francom; executive produced by Kurt Francom; produced by Lillian Angelovic

Sunstone Mormon History (Sunstone Education Foundation)

This Is the Gospel (LDS Living)

Comics

Friends Forever by Shannon Hale (illustrated by Leuyen Pham) (First Second)

Future Day Saints: The Gnomlaumite Crystal by Matt Page

The Glass Looker: Collected Tales of Joseph Smith by Mark Elwood

Criticism

Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist by Michael Austin (University of Illinois Press)

“The Case for Resurrection: A Mormon Movie Manifesto” by Barrett Burgin in Mormonism and the Movies, edited by Chris Wei, (BCC Press)

“Theologies of the Afterlife in Mormon Women’s Late-Nineteenth-Century Poetry” Amy Easton-Flake in Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers and Theologies of the Afterlife (Routledge)

“Mormonism in SF edited by Adam McClain for SFRA Review 51:3, Summer 2021.

Lyrics

Therapy Sessions by David Archuleta

Fragility by Christian Asplund

A Fish of Earth by Emily Brown

Pressure Machine by The Killers

Strangest Congregations by Andrew Wiscombe

Creative Nonfiction

Blossom as the Cliffrose: Mormon Legacies and the Beckoning Wild edited by Karin Anderson and Danielle Dubrasky (Torrey House Press)

Where the Soul Hungers: One Doctor’s Journey from Atheism to Faith by Samuel M. Brown (Neal A. Maxwell Institute)

Zion Earth, Zen Sky by Charles Shirō Inouye (Neal A. Maxwell Institute)

Scrupulous: My Obsessive Compulsion for God by Taylor Kerby (BCC Press)

Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops by Allison Hong Merrill (She Writes Press)

Religious Nonfiction

Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism by Terryl L. Givens (University of North Carolina Press)

The Restoration: God’s Call to the 21st Century World by Patrick Q. Mason (Faith Matters)

The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology, Vols. 1 and 2 Joseph M. Spencer (Greg Kofford Books)

Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict by Patrick Q. Mason and J. David Pulsipher (Maxwell Institute)

Humility: A Practical Approach by Shawn Tucker (BCC Press)