Creative Writing

Home Waters: Overview

December 7, 2010 | 4 comments
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Home Waters: Overview

George Handley’s Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River (University of Utah Press, 2010) practices theology like a doctor practices CPR: not as secondhand theory but as a chest-cracking, lung-inflating, life-saving intervention. Home Waters models what, on my account, good theology ought to do: it is experimental, it is grounded in the details of lived experience, and it takes charity – that pure love of Christ – as the only real justification for its having been written. It is not afraid to guess, it is not afraid to question, it is not afraid to cry repentance,... Read more »

Unique Outreach by the Rochester Stake

June 25, 2010 | 40 comments
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This week, the Rochester Stake in New York is sponsoring a special performance of Carol Lynn Pearson’s Facing East, to be followed by a fireside featuring a discussion led by the Rochester Stake President. Notably, the performance is being directed by Jerry Argetsinger, who was the long-time director of the Hill Cumorah Pageant throughout the 90s, and costume design is being handled by Gail Argetsinger, a Tony award-winning costume designer who designed and supervised the construction of thousands of pageant costumes during the 90s. For those unfamiliar with Facing East, it is the story of a Mormon couple who... Read more »

Halloween Costumes and Inner Conflict

October 23, 2009 | 45 comments
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Halloween scares me. Of course, I’m scared of lots of things—poverty, cancer, rape, gang violence, Satan, etc. I thought I should admit that up front.  Make of it what you will. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Rough Dawn Breaking

September 1, 2009 | 30 comments
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The marble skin of Joseph’s perfectly-muscled chest sparkled like diamonds in the Palmyra sun. Emma stared, captivated by the velvet tones of his voice, the intoxicating scent of his tousled bronze hair. “You should stay away from me,” he had warned her moodily. “I’m too dangerous.” But he couldn’t seem to stay away from her . . . My masterpiece will be available at fine bookstores everywhere, just as soon as I get it all written. I expect you all to purchase copies for home and office, and as Christmas gifts for nieces, and open-minded nephews. Be the first... Read more »

The Raft-Builders

November 11, 2008 | 9 comments
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By Lord Dunsany: Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Polygamy Poetry

October 14, 2008 | 21 comments
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Polygamy was a topic for persuasive prose, not poetry in nineteenth century Utah. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

M Gets a Joke

October 1, 2008 | 50 comments
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A while back our household sat down to watch an episode of Monk. We like Monk because not only is it funny, it’s also sad and tender and offers good – sometimes very good – cultural satire. As I fed M she kept turning her head to look at the TV, watching whatever it is she sees when she’s watching something. We’re not sure what that is because doctors have sent mixed messages about her eyesight. But she does see. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Two Texts on a Summer Flood

September 15, 2008 | one comment
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Apropos of the season and storm. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

“What desirest thou?”

June 5, 2008 | 19 comments
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Several years ago I read a delightful book on creativity, The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. It was full of interesting questions: “List ten tiny changes you’d like to make for yourself.” “What would you do as a career if you had seven more lives to live?” “If I didn’t have to do it perfectly I would try….” “List twenty things you’d like to do before you die.” Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Why Joseph Went to the Woods

November 1, 2007 | 87 comments
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Joseph Smith went to the woods because he wished to know the truth of his existence. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Story Time!

August 14, 2007 | 94 comments
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The day before the cliff swallows return to traditional nesting sites in canyons near where I live in southern Utah, the sky hangs quiet, with only a few ravens, hawks, and eagles spiraling through. The next day, whoosh! Swallows arrive reeling in their folklorico like revelers at an unseen party spilling onto a quiet street. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

On the Sweetness of Mormon Life: Pleasant Plants

August 13, 2007 | 8 comments
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In Sunday School yesterday we read about the day of Pentecost where Peter cited God’s promise that in the last days He would pour out his Spirit and the Saints would dream dreams. The Lovely one and I garden every year, partly because we like it, partly because our parents always did it, and partly because our prophets recommend it (President Faust made a particular impression on us). We aren’t equal in our enthusiasm for all the commandments (she’s much more into searching Isaiah then I am, for instance), but we both like to garden. Be the first to... Read more »

Field Notes #4

August 10, 2007 | 41 comments
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It is the destiny of mint to be crushed. –Waverley Lewis Root June 12, 2007 Rained most of the night. Morning’s cool and sweet. Good day to venture into a canyon. Because the storm has left behind puffy white seeds that could blossom suddenly into rain, I replace my extra water bottle with a rain poncho. In honor of the sky, scrubbed to a deep, shining blue, I wear my turquoise tee shirt. Usually I wear a white one with sleeves, but I like to wear this color when I hike. Weather permitting, I do. Be the first to... Read more »

Field Notes #2

July 21, 2007 | 3 comments
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We might use language in our attempts to set boundaries, but language contains in microcosmic acts the macrocosmic thrust toward new form. November 4, 2006 The trail into the canyon is rougher at November’s threshold; run-off from recent storms took the same trail to the canyon’s main water course that I must take. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Quothing the Raven

July 19, 2007 | 30 comments
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Some weeks ago a friend (an archaeologist and therefore a man of science) and I were discussing a nature writer who was coming to town to promote his latest book. I asked my friend if he liked this writer’s work. He said he did. I said that I did, too, and that I thought this writer one of the better nature writers out there. My friend agreed then added, “Although I wonder if a lot of them aren’t actually writing fiction.” Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Field Notes #1

July 15, 2007 | 13 comments
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Remember the silence around Pueblo Alto in Chaco, so heavy you felt blanketed by its snows, and the desert landscape spread out below, unmoving for miles? That was silence. Not even a breeze singing on the stones. June 8, 2006 Hiked in the rain this morning. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Sweat

July 13, 2007 | 36 comments
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All winter I plotted how to improve the garden, my first focal point for exercising “good stewardship” over the acre plus we moved to a year and a half ago. Last year’s garden had gone all right. I loved every minute in it, especially the time spent with animals, like Woodhouses’ toads and cliff swallows, which helped keep the garden in good order. But I got a late start and the harvest fell short. This year, I pushed to start my tomatoes on time along with other herbs and veggies that don’t mind sprouting indoors. I schemed how to... Read more »

MWS: Brandon Sanderson

June 11, 2007 | 12 comments
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Brandon Sanderson is the Campbell-nominated author (twice-nominated now) of the fantasy novels Elantris and Mistborn: The Final Empire. His novel Well of Ascension, second in the Mistborn trilogy, will be published in a few months. Other projects (including the playfully titled Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians) are on the horizon. Brandon also recently released another full novel in draft form, Warbreaker, which is available for free at his website. He blogs at BrandonSanderson.com and posts frequently on the message board at The Official Time-Waster’s Guide. Brandon graciously agreed to be interviewed, as part of our ongoing Mormon Writers Symposium.... Read more »

MWS: Shannon Hale

May 29, 2007 | 10 comments
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Shannon Hale is a Newbery Honor-winning, New York Times bestseller-listed author of youth and fantasy fiction, most particularly Goose Girl and Princess Academy. This week sees the release of her latest novel Austenland, her first adult fiction novel. She is a returned missionary and lives in Salt Lake City with her husband and two under-three-years-old children. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

MWS: Doug Thayer

May 23, 2007 | 15 comments
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Douglas Thayer is one of the pioneers of what Eugene England called “faithful realism” in his definitive study of Mormon literature. Besides having taught literally thousands of Mormon writers during his fifty years as a professor of English at Brigham Young University, his short story collections Under the Cottonwoods and Mr. Wahlquist in Yellowstone have become a template for those writing about the interior life of Mormons today. He has also published the novels Summer Fire and The Conversion of Jeff Williams. 1 person likes this post. Like Unlike Read more »

A Mormon Writers Symposium

May 22, 2007 | 18 comments
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Thirty years ago this summer, President Spencer W. Kimball gave us his “Gospel Vision of the Arts”: Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Black Comedy

March 20, 2006 | 44 comments
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So maybe I missed something, but I’m pretty sure that one genre the Saints haven’t touched is black comedy. I’m not much of a narrative writer, though, so think of the following as sitting on little scraps of paper on a rickety table in my front yard with a hand-lettered cardboard sign next to them reading ‘Free to a Good Home.’ Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Why Jesus Will Not Save You: A Short Spiritual Autobiography

December 20, 2005 | 68 comments
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When I look at my life and pick out its most significant spiritual events, one that stands out is a night when, unbidden and unexpected, God told me that he was angry because I was reading the New Testament. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

The Church’s Secret Plot to Undermine the Book of Mormon — EXPOSED!

December 5, 2005 | 26 comments
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Apparently some BYU Professor has published an article suggesting that the World Trade Center was brought down by explosive devices, presumably planted by some outside entity, perhaps even by >hushed whisper fraught with unstated menace< the government >/hushed whisper fraught with unstated menace< . John Fowles has posted about it here and Clark Goble followed it up here. As a connoisseur of out-of-control threads, I’d have to give the ensuing discussion at least a B, probably even a B+. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Eccentrics

March 21, 2005 | 110 comments
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There is a student on the Georgetown campus that makes me uneasy. He has glasses, a bushy beard, heavy features, long brown hair knotted in dreadlocks. I see him often, and he always seems to be wearing the same thing: a camouflage jacket, brown trousers, and a heavy backpack full, I’m convinced, of books on anarchy. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

In the Cultural Hall

January 14, 2005 | 36 comments
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The danger in telling people you write a little bit is that they then assume you can. Last week a friend from my ward called and asked me to write the libretto for a musical show she has been called to coordinate for the stake; a few of the creative decisions had already been made, she told me, but she needed me to write lyrics and a narrative frame for the story. The show is meant to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of our stake, headquartered at the Butler Hill meetinghouse; the stake presidency had designated a “Sound of Music”... Read more »

Very Serious Reflections on the occasion of our first anniversary.

November 19, 2004 | 19 comments
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Times and Seasons has turned the searching glare of its inquiry onto itself. We don’t know exactly the question that was asked, but whether the answers are self-parody or just self-indulgence is up to you. Enjoy. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Some Criticisms of Missionary Art.

September 30, 2004 | 23 comments
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I love the Ensign art shows. They are in themselves a kind of art, greater, as the saying goes, than the sum of their parts. I do not love the missionary art show in the October 2004 Ensign. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Mormon Creative Outlets

September 15, 2004 | 11 comments
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I was just thinking that I keep stumbling across LDS creative outlets, and that it might be useful to put a list of these in one place. Here are a few that I’m aware of; please let me know, by comments, of any others that I’m missing and they’ll be added to the list: The church music contest. The screenwriting and movie making contest at LDS Box. Irreantum contest (possibly not continuing). AML unpublished novel contest. Meridian, I’m told, may accept submissions if you ask nicely and have something to say. Deseret Book for music, novels, etc (though perhaps... Read more »

How Mike Fink gets Remanded

August 19, 2004 | 7 comments
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Orson Scott Card has Mike Fink and Joseph “Alvin Maker” Smith scrap. I have my friend who loves the old river boatmen and their boasts and Joseph Smith and his. I work in a judge’s chambers with a fine view of the river. And, as Nate O. can tell you, life as a law clerk is just like life on the old Mississippi. Hence this, this, this . . . you decide. How will you feel when you’re poling down the river, the Willamette as it may be, and you foul a boatmen’s poles, and he says, I am... Read more »

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Times and Seasons is a place to gather and discuss ideas of interest to faithful Latter-day Saints.

Notes from All Over

  • “And, anyway, the church isn’t some sort of floating seminar in historiography.”(Dave)
  • Bowman on how Mormons (hence Romney) think of the poor(James)
  • LDS statement issued in response to 9th Circuit opinion holding Prop 8 unconstitutional(Dave)
  • Scalzi on Romney: “When I don’t vote for him, his being a member of the LDS church won’t be a part of it.” (Kaimi)
  • Mormon numbers are not adding up (Dave)
  • MSNBC interviews LDS historian Matt Bowman (Dave)
  • (Gasp!) Mitt Romney baptizes dead people!(Kaimi)
  • The Mormon Lit Blitz (Dave)
  • “You can start by listening, absorbing, and deciding that you will no longer dismiss someone else’s experience just because you have not had that same experience yourself.” (Kaimi)
  • GOP candidates & (Christian) common good(James)
  • Romney Thumps Gingrich in Florida(Alison)
  • At the SL Trib: “Mormons tackling tough questions in their history” (Dave)
  • NYT debate on Mormonism (Laurie Maffly Kipp, Jana Riess, others)(James)
  • Mormonism, the religion of the American West. Or not. (Dave)
  • Ron Paul appealing to Mormons?(James)
  • “What is this, a fabric store?”(Ben S.)
  • Doubt and the Creed(James)
  • Uh oh — four out of five ESPN pannelists see Jimmer as the most disappointing rookie of the year so far.(Kaimi)
  • Jay Leno sued over Mitt Romney joke (Dave)
  • Funeral potatoes in the New York Times. (Kaimi)

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