Mormon fiction is generally fiction by or about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are also referred to as Latter-day Saints or Mormons. Its history is commonly divided into four sections as first organized by Eugene England: foundations, home literature, the "lost" generation, and faithful realism. During the first fifty years of the church's existence, 1830–1880, fiction was not popular, though Parley P. Pratt wrote a fictional Dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil. With the emergence of the novel and short stories as popular reading material, Orson F. Whitney called on fellow members to write inspirational stories. During this "home literature" movement, church-published magazines published many didactic stories and Nephi Anderson wrote the novel Added Upon. The generation of writers after the home literature movement produced fiction that was recognized nationally but was seen as rebelling against home literature's outward moralization. Vardis Fisher's Children of God and Maurine Whipple's The Giant Joshua were prominent novels from this time period. In the 1970s and 1980s, authors started writing realistic fiction as faithful members of the LDS Church. Acclaimed examples include Levi S. Peterson's The Backslider and Linda Sillitoe's Sideways to the Sun. Home literature experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s when church-owned Deseret Book started to publish more fiction, including Gerald Lund's historical fiction series The Work and the Glory and Jack Weyland's novels.
John Granger is a speaker and writer whose principal focus is the intersection of literature, faith, and culture. He is most well known as the author of several books analysing J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. He writes a weblog called Hogwarts Professor.'
The Mormon blogosphere is a segment of the blogosphere focused on issues related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
FAIR , formerly known as FairMormon and the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR), is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that specializes in Mormon apologetics and responds to criticism of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FAIR comprises volunteers who seek to answer questions submitted to its web site. It was founded in November 1997 by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who wanted to defend their faith on AOL message boards. The members of FAIR are international volunteers. FAIR holds an annual conference where topics of current apologetic issues are presented. The organization also publishes a monthly electronic newsletter and a daily news-clipping service.
Music has had a long history in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from the days in Kirtland, Nauvoo, and the settlement of the West, to the present day. In the early days of the Church, stripped-down Latter-Day Saint folk music, which could be sung without accompaniment due to the lack of instruments in Utah, was popular. In the 19th century, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was created and began touring, while musicians began writing devotional and praise music with a Latter-Day Saint influence, paralleling the success of Christian Contemporary Music. Several organizations have existed and do exist to promote these artists, such as Deseret Book and the now-defunct Faith-centered Music Association. Starting in the late 20th century and to the present day, Latter-Day Saints have been increasingly involved in modern popular music in America and elsewhere in the World.
Stephenie Meyer is an American novelist and film producer. She is best known for writing the vampire romance series Twilight, which has sold over 160 million copies, with translations into 37 different languages. Meyer was the bestselling author of 2008 and 2009 in the U.S., having sold over 29 million books in 2008 and 26.5 million in 2009. Meyer received the 2009 Children's Book of the Year award from the British Book Awards for Breaking Dawn, the Twilight series finale.
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought is an independent quarterly journal that addresses a wide range of issues on Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint Movement.
Mormon poetry is poetry written by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about spiritual topics or themes. Mormons have a long history of writing poetry relevant to their religious beliefs and to the Mormon experience. Mormon poetry, like Mormon fiction, has experienced different periods throughout the LDS Church's history, including the "home literature" period and the "lost generation." Some Mormon poetry became church hymns.
The Whitney Awards are awards given annually for novels by LDS authors. Established in 2007, they are named after Orson F. Whitney, a prominent early member of the LDS Church. There are several categories for which novels may be nominated. The Whitney Awards are a semi-independent non-profit organization affiliated with the LDStorymakers, a guild for LDS authors.
Douglas H. Thayer was a prominent author in the "faithful realism" movement of Mormon fiction. He has been called the "Mormon Hemingway" for his straightforward style and powerful prose. Eugene England called him the "father of contemporary Mormon fiction."
The Association for Mormon Letters (AML) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 to "foster scholarly and creative work in Mormon letters and to promote fellowship among scholars and writers of Mormon literature." Other stated purposes have included promoting the "production and study of Mormon literature" and the encouragement of quality writing "by, for, and about Mormons." The broadness of this definition of LDS literature has led the AML to focus on a wide variety of work that has sometimes been neglected in the Mormon community. It publishes criticism on such writing, hosts an annual conference, and offers awards to works of fiction, poetry, essay, criticism, drama, film, and other genres. It published the literary journal Irreantum from 1999 to 2013 and currently publishes an online-only version of the journal, which began in 2018. The AML's blog, Dawning of a Brighter Day, launched in 2009. As of 2012, the association also promotes LDS literature through the use of social media. The AML has been described as an "influential proponent of Mormon literary fiction."
The AML Awards are given annually by the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) to the best work "by, for, and about Mormons." They are juried awards, chosen by a panel of judges. Citations for many of the awards can be found on the AML website.
Annie Poon is an American animator based in New York City. Her short "Runaway Bathtub" is in the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art. Poon's works have appeared in other various venues, including the National Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, the New Museum, and the Museum of Arts and Design. The Chicago International Children's Festival, Nickelodeon, and PBS have shown her cartoons. She has taught animation and comics workshops and given motivational lectures to artists.
Benson Young Parkinson is a Latter-day Saint novelist, literary critic, and biographer. He has published two novels concerning fictional LDS missionaries, entitled The MTC: Set Apart and Into the Field, as well as a biography of S. Dilworth Young, an LDS general authority. In the mid-1990s he became involved in the Association for Mormon Letters (AML), primarily by creating an email forum for the discussion of LDS literature called AML-List, for which he was awarded the 2000 AML Award for Criticism. Parkinson then co-founded the literary journal Irreantum and served as co-editor for a year. His criticism of LDS literature has been featured in multiple publications. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University.
Richard Holton Cracroft was an author and emeritus professor of English at Brigham Young University (BYU) where he held the title of Nan Osmond Grass Professor in English and spent time as head of BYU's English department and as dean of the College of Humanities. He directed BYU's American Studies Program (1989–1994), directed the Center for the Study of Christian Values in Literature and edited the seminal A Believing People anthology, a landmark in Mormon letters. His devotion to the field is most famously summed up in his Association for Mormon Letters presidential address "Attuning the Authentic Mormon Voice: Stemming the Sophic Tide in LDS Literature" and his long-running column "Book Nook" in BYU Magazine which demonstrated the breadth of Mormon literature to a wide audience.
Alan Frank Keele is an American professor of German at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah.
Stay LDS / Mormon is a collaborative blog featuring discussion and commentary about Mormon issues, beliefs, culture, thought and current events. It was created by Brian Johnston and John Dehlin, formerly of the Sunstone Education Foundation.
Irreantum is a literary journal compiled and published by the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) from 1999 to 2013, with online-only publication starting in 2018. It features selections of LDS literature, including fiction, poetry, and essays, as well as criticism of those works. The journal was advertised as "the only magazine devoted to Mormon literature." In its first years of publication, Irreantum was printed quarterly; later, it was printed twice a year. A subscription to the magazine was included in an AML membership. Annual Irreantum writing contests were held, with prizes for short stories, novel excerpts, poems, and nonfiction awarded. The journal's creators, Benson Parkinson and Chris Bigelow, sought to create a publication that would become a one-stop resource where companies interested in publishing LDS literature could find the best the subculture had to offer. They also hoped Irreantum would highlight various kinds of LDS writing, balancing both liberal and traditional points of view.
Melissa Leilani Larson is an American writer and playwright based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mormon literature critic Michael Austin described her as "one of the true rising stars of Mormon literature." Producer Jeremy Long described her as the "best playwright in Utah." Her plays commonly feature women in leading roles, and some center around the faith of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
James Goldberg is an American historian, playwright, poet, and writer. He has Jewish, European, and Punjabi ancestors, and his grandfather, Gurcharan Singh Gill, was the first Sikh to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He attended Otterbein University briefly before transferring to Brigham Young University (BYU), where he completed his undergraduate work and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. He was an adjunct professor at BYU.
