We are pleased to announce the 2025 Association for Mormon Letters Awards finalists in Creative Nonfiction and Religious Nonfiction. The award winners will be announced and presented online on June 20, as part of the 2026 AML Conference, celebrating AML’s 50th Anniversary. The finalists and winners are chosen by juries of authors, academics, and critics. The announcements include book blurbs and author biographies, usually adapted from the author and publisher websites.
“Creative Nonfiction” includes memoirs and collections of personal essays. “Religious Nonfiction” refers to a wide variety of LDS religious studies books, including scriptural studies, theology, religious living, and devotional literature. The category does not include histories or biographies, as the Mormon Historical Association already does a good job of recognizing those books.
Creative Nonfiction
Philip L. Barlow, editor. A Thoughtful Faith for the 21st Century. Faith Matters
A collection of personal essays by Latter-day Saint thinkers who give reason for the spiritual hope that is in them. Some are household names in educated circles; others are fresh voices. Many are Americans; others from other lands. They include historians and scientists, philosophers and psychologists, political scientists and poets. Thoughtful people come to their faith commitments variously, reflecting the diverse tenor of human probing and the rich variety of God’s response. The disciples in this volume have given voice to the hope that is in them. Their voices are not homogenous. They are instead a genuine choir, singing with candor of struggle and grace. Nonetheless, the collection is held together by several strands. Among them is the proposition that a devout life of heart and spirit need not be blind. A second is that a life of the mind need not be spiritually arid. One cannot be too inspired, but neither can one think too well. For embodied intelligence and spirit is what we are. These twin elements are what tethers us to Divinity.
Contributors include Astrid S. Tuminez, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Richard L. Bushman, Thomas McConkie, David F. Holland, Terryl Givens, Fiona Givens, Richard D. Poll, Bonnie Young, Samuel Morris Brown, Ben Schilaty, J. Spencer Fluhman, Eugene England, Kristine Haglund, Emma Lou Thayne, Michelle Louise Toxværd Graabek, Melanie Riwai-Couch, Jenny Pulsipher, Ugo A. Perego, Steven L. Peck, Deidre Nicole Green, Joseph M. Spencer, Francine Bennion, Leonard Arrington, and Philip Barlow.
Philip Barlow served as BYU’s Maxwell Institute’s associate director and is a Neal A. Maxwell Research Associate. Having previously served as the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History & Culture at Utah State University, his teaching engages religion and human suffering, religion and the concept of “time,” American religious history, and Restoration movements
Ryan W. Davis. Dispatches from Mormon Zion. Eerdmans
One of the earliest goals of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was to build a modern Zion–a community where people would share one heart and one mind. That vision raises questions that are profoundly relevant in today’s divided society. Is unity of feeling and belief desirable or even possible? If so, what does it look like? Ryan Davis explores these questions by reflecting on personal stories from his life and work in the present-day Latter-day Saints faith community. The stories that Davis is interested in are ones in which relative strangers or mere acquaintances catch a glimpse of each other’s humanity. Within that liminal space–which Davis calls “Mormon Zion”–they are able to listen to each other, learn from each other, and find common ground, qualities that are sorely needed in today’s public square. Combining gifted storytelling with keen analysis, Davis illuminates people’s lived experiences within the Latter-day Saints community and offers thoughtful reflections on what it might mean to share one heart and one mind in today’s polarized world. Forward by Terryl Givens.
Ryan W. Davis is associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University. His academic research focuses on ethics, politics, and philosophy of religion. He has also written op-eds for The Washington Post, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, and Deseret News.
Danielle Leavitt. By the Second Spring: Seven Lives and One Year of the War in Ukraine. Macmillan
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many Americans have identified deeply with the Ukrainian cause, while others have cast doubt on its relevance to their concerns. Meanwhile, even as scores of Americans rally to the Ukrainian cause and adopt Volodymyr Zelensky as a hero, the lives of Ukrainians remain opaque and mostly anonymous. In By the Second Spring, the historian Danielle Leavitt goes beyond familiar portraits of wartime heroism and victimhood to reveal the human experience of the conflict. An American who grew up in Ukraine, Leavitt draws on her deep familiarity with the country and a unique trove of online diaries to track a diverse group of Ukrainians through the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Among others, we meet Vitaly, whose plans to open a coffee bar in a Kyiv suburb come to naught when the Russian army marches through his town and his apartment building is split in two by a rocket; Anna, who drops out of the police academy and begins a tumultuous relationship with a soldier she meets online; and Polina, a fashion-industry insider who returns home from Los Angeles with her American husband to organize relief. To illuminate the complex resurgence of Ukraine’s national spirit, Leavitt also tells the story of Volodymyr Shovkoshitniy—a nuclear engineer at Chernobyl who went on to lead a daring campaign in the late 1980s to return the bodies of three Ukrainian writers who’d died in a Soviet gulag. Writing with closeness and compassion, Leavitt has given us an interior history of Europe’s largest land war in seventy-five years.
Danielle Leavitt holds a PhD in history from Harvard University, where she has been a fellow at the Ukrainian Research Institute. She grew up in both Ukraine and the United States, and currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. By the Second Spring is her first book.
Amy Lee Scott. When the World Explodes. Ohio State University Press
How do you survive when your world explodes? By the time she was seven, Amy Lee Scott had seen her world end twice: first as an infant, when adoption brought her from Korea to Ohio, and again when her adoptive mother died of cancer. Orphaned twice over, Scott confronts her personal chaos by investigating a litany of historic catastrophes and the disruptions that followed. Witnessing a Cabbage Patch Kid “born” at BabyLand General Hospital inspires a meditation on the history of Korean adoption and her own origins. Recalling her miscarriage as the streets of her Detroit neighborhood flooded, she asks what it means to mourn what would have been. And she remembers her mother’s illness and death amid the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In this haunting debut, Scott gets to the heart of what it means to wrestle with the grief, rage, and anxiety seething in this tender world. Ferocious and true, When the World Explodes probes the space between personal and global calamities-from Krakatoa to the emotional perils of motherhood-to unearth the sharp ridge of hope that hides beneath the rubble.
Amy Lee Scott received an MFA from the University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program. Her writing can be found in Tin House Online, Gettysburg Review, Gulf Coast, New Letters, Fourth Genre, Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.
Religious Nonfiction
Jennifer Finlayson-Fife. That We Might Have Joy: Desire, Divinity & Intimate Love. Faith Matters
Sexual intimacy can be experienced as a pleasant pastime, a physical need, a reward, a threat, a bargaining chip, a source of frustration, a well of shame-even a necessary evil. Far less understood is its potential to be something much more: a source of deep joy, spiritual transcendence, and communion with another soul. In a society drawn to quick fixes and surface-level advice, That We Might Have Joy offers something deeper-an honest look at how sexual intimacy acts as both diagnosis and cure for what ails modern marriage. With clarity and compassion, Dr. Finlayson-Fife reframes sexuality not as a threat to faith, but as an expression of it. She shows us how sexual intimacy can reveal the truth of a relationship-and, for those willing to confront that truth, it can become the starting point of something far more soul-sustaining.
Jennifer Finlayson-Fife is a therapist, educator, and coach with a doctorate in Counseling Psychology. For over two decades, she has helped individuals and couples-particularly within the LDS community-strengthen their relationships and develop a more integrated view of sexuality. Through her online courses, live workshops, and Room for Two podcast, she has supported the emotional and sexual development of thousands. Known for her clarity, compassion, depth, and humor, Dr. Finlayson-Fife is a sought-after voice on the topics of faith, intimate relationships, and personal growth.
Chad Ford. Seventy Times Seven: Jesus’s Path to Conflict Transformation. Maxwell Institute/Deseret Book
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ when we feel stirred up with anger in our families, neighborhoods, wards, workplaces, online communities, and public forums? It is challenging to heed prophetic invitations to take more seriously the Savior’s call to “love your enemies” and to be peacemakers while maintaining integrity. As a professor of peacebuilding, a conflict mediator, and a follower of Jesus, Chad Ford offers valuable perspectives on how to avoid or reconcile contention when life’s inevitable disagreements arise. Step by step, he shows how Jesus’s path of practicing forgiveness and reconciliation 70×7 has the power to repair relationships by transforming destructive conflict into constructive peace. Living Faith series.
Chad Ford is an international conflict mediator, facilitator, and peace educator. He completed a Master’s in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law School. During his nearly twenty years at BYU–Hawaii, Ford created a major and certificate program in intercultural peacebuilding and served as the inaugural Director of the David O. McKay Center for Intercultural Understanding. In 2024, Ford took a joint faculty position with the Religious Studies department and the Heravi Peace Institute at Utah State University. His work at USU focuses on inter- and intra-faith conflict reconciliation and intercultural mediation. Ford is also the author of Dangerous Love: Transforming Fear and Conflict at Home, at Work, and in the World.
Robert Rees. Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration. Gred Kofford Books
In Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration, Robert A. Rees embarks on an imaginative and profound exploration of Latter-day Saint theology and culture. Through essays, poems, and midrashic interpretations, Rees sheds new light on foundational doctrines, the roles of prophetic imagination, and the divine narratives within the Restoration. He reexamines figures like Joseph Smith and Heavenly Mother, urging readers to embrace a creative and expansive faith perspective that transcends mere tradition. With a forward by Philip Barlow.
Joseph M. Spencer, editor. The Great and Lasting War: Studies in Alma 45-63. BYU Religious Studies Center
The latter part of the Book of Mormon’s book of Alma is sometimes referred to as “the war chapters.” However, the relevant chapters are much more complex than often assumed, focusing on the nature of covenant, the love of God, and the way human beings establish their identities. The record alerts readers to challenges uniquely faced by women, the difficulty of handling complicated relationships, and the need to make good choices. The text enlightens its adherents about the meaning of scripture in different contexts, how prophets intervene on behalf of the downtrodden and look to God’s future interventions in the world, and what it means to see God in the concrete details of life.
Joseph M. Spencer is a philosopher and an assistant professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. He earned his PhD in philosophy from the University of New Mexico in 2015. He is the author of four books (most recently 1st Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction), the coeditor of four collections of essays, and the author or coauthor more than fifty articles and book chapters. His work focuses on philosophy, theology, and scripture. Professor Spencer serves as the editor of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, as the associate director of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar, and as a coeditor for two different book series, Groundwork: Studies in Theory and Scripture (published by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute) and Introductions to Mormon Thought (published by the University of Illinois Press).