Benson Y. Parkinson

Last updated
Benson Y. Parkinson
Born1960
Provo, Utah
NationalityAmerican
EducationB.A. in Comparative Literature from Brigham Young University, 1985
Occupation(s)Writer, editor
Years active1994-
Organization The Association for Mormon Letters
Notable workThe MTC: Set Apart
Into the Field
S. Dilworth Young: General Authority, Scouter, Poet
SpouseRobin Parkinson
Children5
Awards2000 AML Award for Criticism

Benson Young Parkinson (born 1960) 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.

Contents

Personal life

Parkinson was born in Provo, Utah. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France. In 1985 he graduated from Brigham Young University [1] with a degree in Comparative Literature. [2] He and his wife Robin are the parents of five children and live in Ogden, Utah. [3]

Career

Writing

Parkinson's novel The MTC: Set Apart was published by Aspen Books in 1995. [4] It follows four new LDS missionaries as they enter the Missionary Training Center. Robert M. Hogge praised the "rich language, symbolism, ... and allusion" present in The MTC, [5] but writer Brian Evensen called the novel's characters stereotypical and the dialogue "hackneyed and predictable." [4] Parkinson continued the missionaries' story with 2000's Into the Field, which follows the four young men as they travel to France. In a review in Irreantum, Neal Kramer commended the realistic nature of the novel, saying: "I wondered whether I was reading a novel or a memoir. I had to shake myself a little to remember I was reading LDS fiction." [6] Parkinson has also published a biography of his grandfather S. Dilworth Young, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, entitled S. Dilworth Young: General Authority, Scouter, Poet. [3] The author presented this work at the AML's symposium that year. [7] In a review for the Journal of Mormon History , Gary Huxford called the biography "a good read that deserves a wide audience," citing Parkinson's inexperience as a biographer as both a strength and a weakness to the work overall. [8] In 1996, Parkinson hosted a session at the Fourth Annual LDS Writers Conference entitled "How to Sell Your LDS Novel." [9]

In addition to full-length books, Parkinson has written reviews and articles about Latter-day Saint fiction, many of which have been published in issues of Irreantum. [10] [11] The 1998 edition of AML Annual featured his essay "Electric Talk: Twenty Months of AML-List." [12] "The Deseret School and the Missionary School," Parkinson's take on the different approaches to LDS writing, was published in the first volume of Irreantum in 1999. [10] In addition to publishing such essays, Parkinson worked as an editor for the Church Educational System in the early 2000s. [3]

The Association for Mormon Letters

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Parkinson was an active participant in the Association for Mormon Letters (AML). In 1995, he created AML-List, an email forum for the discussion of LDS literature sponsored by the association. [13] He also served as moderator [14] until the year 2000. [15] The forum received an average of 30 posts per day, [16] which included reviews of various LDS films and books. Over time, AML-List received more than 1000 entries from users. [17] Parkinson wanted to facilitate an energetic environment that would allow people with different interests to share their opinions. During this time, he also worked on AML-List Magazine, which showcased authors' works online. [2] Parkinson won the 2000 AML Award for Criticism for his work on AML-List: including establishing the forum, moderating it, editing thousands of posts, and creating regular columns of literary news and reviews. [18]

Then, in 1999, [19] he co-founded the literary magazine Irreantum with Chris Bigelow. The publication featured some content first produced on AML-List [20] as well as "original fiction, poetry, essays, reviews, interviews, and literary news." [2] Parkinson and Bigelow were Irreantum's first co-editors, with Parkinson serving as the first reader of submissions and collaborator with the editing staff. Similar to his goal of inclusivity for AML-List, Parkinson wanted the magazine "to give broad coverage and support to every sort of Mormon literature and to promote all kinds." [2] During this time he also served as an ex officio board member of the AML. [11] He ended his time as co-editor after the Summer 2000 issue. [21]

Bibliography

Novels

  • The MTC: Set Apart (1995)
  • Into the Field (2000) [1]

Short stories

  • "Wesley's Carol" in Once Upon a Christmastime: Short Stories for the Season (1997) [22]

Biographies

  • S. Dilworth Young: General Authority, Scouter, Poet (1994)

Criticism

  • "Toward an LDS Aesthetic of the Novel: A Report from the Front Lines" (1997) [23]
  • "Three Kinds of Appropriateness" in Irreantum, vol. 2 (2000) [24]
  • "The Deseret School and the Missionary School" in Irreantum, vol. 1 (1999) [25]

Related Research Articles

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missionary Training Center</span> Religious training centers operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. Dilworth Young</span>

Seymour Dilworth Young was a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1945 until his death.

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<i>Irreantum</i> Literary journal

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.

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<i>Nothing Very Important and Other Stories</i> Stories about Mormon missionaries

Nothing Very Important and Other Stories is a collection of interconnected short stories written by Béla Petsco and self-published in 1979 with illustrations by his friend Kathryn Clark-Spencer. The stories are about missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints working in Southern California. Signature Books reprinted the book in 1984 under their Orion imprint. Petsco wrote the stories for his master's thesis at Brigham Young University (BYU). The book won the 1979 Association for Mormon Letters award for short fiction. The stories were adapted for theater and performed in 1983, but without BYU's endorsement.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Benson Y. Parkinson | Mormon Literature & Creative Arts Database | HBLL". mormonarts.lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Hall, Andrew (2017-11-13). "The Founding and Early Years of Irreantum". Dawning of a Brighter Day. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  3. 1 2 3 Parkinson, Benson Y. (2001). "S. Dilworth Young of the First Quorum of Seventy". Journal of Mormon History. University of Illinois Press. 27 (1): 215–251. JSTOR   23288627.
  4. 1 2 Evensen, Brian (1997). "The MTC: Set Apart" (PDF). Sunstone. p. 70. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  5. ↑ Hogge, Robert M. (1996). "Review, The MTC: Set Apart". Brigham Young University Studies. Brigham Young University. 36 (2): 263. JSTOR   43042010.
  6. ↑ Kramer, Neal (2000). "For Without Me Ye Can Do Nothing: A Review of Benson Parkinson's Into the Field". Irreantum. 2 (2): 50–52.
  7. ↑ "AML Conference Programs 1976-2002". associationmormonletters.org. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  8. ↑ Huxford, Gary (1994). "Review, S. Dilworth Young: General Authority, Scouter, Poet". Journal of Mormon History. University of Illinois Press. 20 (2): 186–188. JSTOR   23286606.
  9. ↑ "LDS Readers, Writers and Reciters Plan Conference Oct. 12 at UVSC". Deseret News. 1996-09-29. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  10. 1 2 Parkinson, Benson (1999). "The Deseret School and the Missionary School". Irreantum. 1 (1): 13–14.
  11. 1 2 "Ex officio board members". Irreantum. 2 (1): 2. 2000.
  12. ↑ "AML Annual 1998". associationmormonletters.org. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  13. ↑ Hall, Andrew (2017-11-08). "Irreantum, Issue #1, March 1999. Magazine of the Association for Mormon Letters". Dawning of a Brighter Day. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  14. ↑ Burton, Gideon; Kramer, Neal (1999). "The State of Mormon Literature and Criticism". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. University of Illinois Press. 32 (3): 11. JSTOR   45226606.
  15. ↑ Parkinson, Benson (2000). "Three Kinds of Appropriateness". Irreantum. 2 (1): 6.
  16. ↑ Anderson, Lavina Fielding (2000-01-01). "Little Mormon Magazines: Sinking, Swimming, And Treading Water" (Podcast). Sunstone Magazine. Event occurs at 15:52. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  17. ↑ "Review Archive", MormonLetters.org, Association for Mormon Letters, archived from the original on 28 February 2009 The current review archive is http://associationmormonletters.org/blog/reviews/
  18. ↑ "AML Awards 2000-2001". Dawning of a Brighter Day. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  19. ↑ Hunter, J. Michael (2012). Mormons and Popular Culture: The Global Influence of an American Phenomenon. ABC-CLIO. ISBN   978-0313391682.
  20. ↑ "Founders hope Irreantum has long life among LDS magazines". Deseret News. 2000-04-22. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  21. ↑ "Irreantum". Dawning of a Brighter Day. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  22. ↑ "Wesley's Carol | Mormon Literature & Creative Arts Database | HBLL". mormonarts.lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  23. ↑ "Toward an LDS Aesthetic of the Novel | Mormon Literature & Creative Arts Database | HBLL". mormonarts.lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  24. ↑ "Three Kinds of Appropriateness | Mormon Literature & Creative Arts Database | HBLL". mormonarts.lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  25. ↑ "The Deseret School and the Missionary School | Mormon Literature & Creative Arts Database | HBLL". mormonarts.lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
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