As the previous entry in this series discusses, by dividing approaches to Mormon Literature into the Mantic and the Sophic, Richard Cracroft forecloses a broad swathe of texts and critical approaches from the field. The following year two younger critics from the same department Cracroft and Jorgensen taught in—Gideon Burton (later to also become a ..read more

In 1993 (I’m not sure of the exact date), Richard Cracroft used the opportunity of his Association for Mormon Letters to push back against Bruce Jorgensen’s AML address criticizing Cracroft’s review of Harvest. It’s titled Attuning the Authentic Mormon Voice: Stemming the Sophic Tide in LDS Literature, and is the single work that, in my mind, elevates all this to a Literaturstreit. And he goes straight into it: “Elevating to Pearl Harbor status my review of Eugene England’s and Dennis Clark’s important but spiritually bifurcated anthology, Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems, Jorgensen dive-bom ..read more

In order for a Literaturstreit to break out, there needs to be a response to the initial provocation. With the Mormon Literaturstreit, this came when Bruce Jorgensen used his presidential address at the 1991 Association for Mormon Letters conference to discuss Cracroft’s review of Harvest and outline his preferred approach for Mormon literary criticism. Jorgensen’s address is titled “To Tell and Hear Stories: Let the Stranger Say” and argues for an expansive definition of the field of Mormon literature, using the notion of hospitality as its’ central stance. A Brief Side Note on Collegiality B ..read more

Signature Books’ publication of Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems in 1989 was a watershed moment for Mormon Literature. Although a few Mormon literature anthologies had been published in the 1970s and a steady stream of works of Mormon literary fiction appeared in the 1980s, Harvest convincingly showcased the depth, breadth, and literary quality of Mormon poetry, and thus the value of Mormon literature. Editors Eugene England and Dennis Clark include work from 53 poets and divided the anthology into three sections: Contemporary Mormon Poems, Hymns and Songs, and Friends and Relations, the lat ..read more

In 1989, Signature Books published Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems, an anthology edited by BYU English faculty Eugene England and Dennis Clark. It was a momentous event in the field of Mormon letters. First, because it was the most significant—broadest, deepest, most dievese, and most accomplished—collection of Mormon poetry published to that date. Second, because the collection was reviewed in the Spring 1990 edition of BYU Studies by BYU English professor Richard Cracroft and that review sparked a debate, which continued through late 1994 (with further reverberations throughout the 1990s ..read more

Over the course of almost two and a half decades of thinking, talking, and writing about Mormon art and culture (especially Mormon literature), I have been torn between arguing for and against exceptionalism. I have mostly argued against it. I’ve discussed how Orson F. Whitney’s declaration that we will have Shakespeares and Miltons of our own can be situated in an overall ecosystem of minority/minor cultures/literatures worried about the fact of their belated modernity. I’ve shown how Mormon fiction often follows larger market trends, especially those found among U.S. Evangelical Christians ..read more

My novella The Unseating of Dr. Smoot is now available in print and ebook form [here’s direct purchase links for: Amazon (print/Kindle) | Kobo (ebook)]. This novella is a return to me writing contemporary Mormon literary fiction (specifically faithful realism, but my brand of it, of course) after writing mostly strange Mormon fiction for several years. It’s about a female Mormon academic who has recently had her tenure clock at UW-Madison reset and how that disappointment combined with everything that happens on a trip to Provo to present a lecture on Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead novels unmoor ..read more

Some writers intentionally try to be difficult in their writing. To sneer at the critics. Or make some grand point about literature. Or demonstrate their virtuosity. Or prove their anti-capitalist/anti-bourgeois/anti-normies, etc. cred. Or simply to entertain themselves. I promise that that’s not what I’m trying to do in “A Mormon Writer Visits Spirit Prison”, the final story in my collection The Darkest Abyss: Strange Mormon Stories. And so I’m totally fine with readers who read the story in a way that’s different from how it’s printed on the page. And I understand that some readers will bou ..read more

Hello. My first short story collection is now available in paperback. It’s a print on demand version via Amazon. It’ll look similar to the BCC Press books but with my less sophisticated cover design and a glossy cover because the color just doesn’t work well with the matte.  I’m sorry about the pricing. Amazon is changing their POD base pricing. And I would like to make a little bit off of the sales of my books. Rest assured that all revenue goes back into my writing (and music making–more news on that later this summer).  Some thank you’s The paperback version is thanks to donors t ..read more

Here are the discussion questions for the seventeenth and final email in the AMV Deep Dive of Marden J. Clark’s essay collection Liberating Form. Click here to read the full archives of Season 1 Please note that comments are moderated, and the goal is to make this a place welcome to Mormons of all stripes (as well as folks with an interest in Mormonism). What do you think of Clark’s overall project, especially his core concept of liberating form? Which essay (or response from to an essay) did you find the most interesting? What might a current version of Clark’s project look like? What would ..read more