Several Latter-day Saint and Mormonism-related awards have been given out in recent weeks, and I thought it would be useful to gather them all in one place. I’ll work on updating this as information becomes available about other awards.

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Mormon History Association, 2026 Awards

 

• Graduate Student Awards

• • Martha Bradley Evans Best Unpublished Graduate Student Paper
    • Elizabeth Mawlam, “The State of the Field of Global Mormon Studies”
  • D. Michael Quinn Best Thesis Award
    • Garrett R. Elkins, “Making Peace Among the People: The Development of Brigham Young’s Political Thought and Activity, 1836–1846” (Utah State University)

• Articles Awards
  • Lavina Fielding Anderson Award for the Best Article Published in the Journal of Mormon History
    • Elwin C. Robinson, “Obediah Taylor’s Salt Lake Assembly Hall” (Link)
  • Best Article on Mormon Women’s History
    • Brooke LeFevre, “‘A Childless Woman Like Myself’: Polygamy, Patriarchy, and Reproductive Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Mormon Women’s Infertility,” Utah Historical Quarterly (Link)
  • Best Article on International Mormonism
    • Frode Ulvund, “Resistance and Intervention in the Contact Zone: Mormon Missionaries as Organizational Migrants in Norway circa 1900,” Journal of Mormon History (Link)

• • Jan Shipps Best Article Award
    • Cathy Gilmore, “Health and Healing on the Latter-day Saint Peripheries,” Utah Historical Quarterly (Link)

• Ardis E. Parshall Best Public History Award
  • Berkeley Ward Centennial Celebration, 1925–2025

• Best Indigenous Studies Award
  • Elise Boxer, Mormon Settler Colonialism: Inventing the Lamanite (University of Oklahoma Press)

• Book Awards

• • Best Book Award
    • Lisa Olsen Tait, Amber Taylor, Kate Holbrook, and James Goldberg, Carry On: The Latter-day Saint Young Women’s Organization, 1870–2024 (Church Historian’s Press)

• • Ella L. Turner Best Biography Award
    • Brian Cannon, Building a Global Zion: The Life and Vision of David O. McKay (Signature Books)

• • Best First Book
    • Brooke Kathleen Brassard, Thirsty Land into Springs of Water: Negotiating a Place in Canada as Latter-day Saints (University of Toronto Press)

• • Best Documentary Editing
    • Gary Bergera, Educating Zion: The Diaries of BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson, 1952–1971 (Signature Books)

• Thomas G. Alexander Special Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Mormon History
  • Charles Redd Center for Western Studies
  • Ardis E. Parshall

• Leonard J. Arrington Award
  • George D. Smith

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Association for Mormon Letters Awards

 

See the full awards list here.

• Comics
  • Camilla Stark. The Desert Prophet (Camilla Stark Art).

• Creative Nonfiction
  • Amy Lee Scott. When the World Explodes (Ohio State University Press).

• Criticism
  • Julie Swallow, Christopher James Blythe, Eric A. Eliason, and Jill Terry Rudy. The Three Nephites: Saints, Service, and Supernatural Legend (University of Illinois Press).

• Drama
  • Ben Abbott. Backward. Hollins Playwrights Lab New Works Festival, Roanoke, Virginia, July 2025. MFA Thesis, Hollins University, May 2026.

• Feature Film
  • Truth & Treason. Written and directed by Matt Whitaker, co-written by Ethan Vincent.

• Short Film
  • Java Jive. Written and directed by Barrett Burgin. Burginde Films.

• Novel
  • John Bennion. The Dead Fathers: Grief and Poker in the West Desert (BCC Press).

• Picture Book
  • McArthur Krishna & Anne Pimentel, illustrated by Jessica Sarah Beach. Changemakers: Women Who Boldly Built Zion (Signature Books).

• Podcasts
  • The Storming Journey. Hosted by Adam McLain, El Call, and Liz Busby. (Link)

• Poetry
  • Dave Nielsen. Meant to Be (Press 53).

• Religious Nonfiction
  • Chad Ford. Seventy Times Seven: Jesus’s Path to Conflict Transformation (Maxwell Institute/Deseret Book).

• Short Fiction
  • Jenny Rebecca Rytting, “Sister Wives.” Eternities of Cats (bonus issue of Irreantum 22), Summer 2025.

• Short Fiction Collection
  • Stephen Tuttle. We Should Be Somewhere by Now (Cornerstone Press).

• Young Adult Fiction
  • Julie Berry. If Looks Could Kill (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers).

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Utah Historical Society 2026 Annual Awards

 

See the full awards list here. (Yes, Utah history isn’t always Mormon history and vice versa, but there’s enough overlap to share it here.)

• Best Student Paper in Utah Women’s History Award
  • Emma Webb, “Women in the Oquirrh Mountains,” available on ArcGIS StoryMaps.

• Best Scholarly Article Award 
  • Emily Marie Crumpton-Deason, “Mammy Chloe: Removing Fiction from Nonfictional Family Stories,” published in the Utah Historical Quarterly in summer 2024.

• Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Award
  • Matthew C. Godfrey, “A West Side (Sugar) Story: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Amalgamated Sugar Company, and the West Cache Sugar Company,” published in the Utah Historical Quarterly in fall 2024.

• Editors’ Choice Award 
  • Michael L. Shamo, “The Majestic Virgin Forgot Her Promise”: “An Environmental History of Irrigating Southern Utah, 1849–1910,” published in the Utah Historical Quarterly in spring 2024.

• General Utah History Article Award 
  • Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye and Joseph Soderborg, “‘We Had a Symbiotic Relationship’: The Structure and Texture of Chinese-White Relationships in Depression-Era Utah,” Journal of Mormon History (2024).

 

• Finalist for the Best Book in Utah History 
  • Benjamin E. Park, American Zion: A New History of Mormonism (Liveright Publishing Corporation).

• Best Book in Utah History Award 

• • W. Paul Reeve, Christopher B. Rich, LaJean Purcell Carruth, This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle Over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Other

• James Goldberg has been presented with the 2026 Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

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Let me know if I’ve missed anything. Also, check out our relevant posts for more information on Mormon Studies Books in 2025 and Mormon Studies Books in 2026. See also Chad Nielsen’s Favorite Reads, 2025 edition.