Since we're all in the middle of our Christmas gift buying (if you're already done I don't want to hear it), I thought I'd post today about some of the best books by Mormon authors I've read this year and then ask you to do the same.  We all need suggestions for good gifts, don't we? Here some of my favorite titles from 2010: More...

Irreantum has three big annoucements to make, which means this will be a lengthy (but information-packed!) post.  We want to tell you all about:

1.  Our Fall/Winter 2010 issue, which is going to press in a few days and will be mailed out in December.

2.  Irreantum's 2011 Literary Contests and our brand new poetry contest in particular.  We begin accepting submissions on Jan. 1.

3.  Our nominations for the 2010 Pushcart Prize.

Read on for more information about each of these exciting developments. More...

I just finished reading well over 100 entries to Irreantum's fiction and creative nonfiction contests, narrowing them down to a set of semifinalists over which our contest committee can wrangle.  Reading all those stories and essays can be a bit of a slog, it's true.  But it's also one of my favorite things to do as Irreantum's editor.  (In fact, I like to do it so much that I'm staying on as Irreantum's contest coordinator after stepping down as editor at the end of this year.)

One of the reasons I enjoy it is because I'm a great lover of stories---stories of both the true and made up variety---and it thrills me to see story after story after story, each one original in its own way, being made about Mormon experience.  Some of these stories are better told than others, it's true, but even the most amateur entry contains a kernel of a tale.  And the best stories?  (And there are some really good ones this year, I'm pleased to say.)  The best ones kept me glued to my computer screen, had me wiping away tears, helped me yearn or thrill or discover right along with the protagonist. More...

We've been busy at Irreantum these days.  The submission window for our fiction and creative nonfiction contests just closed on May 31, and we received 90 fiction entries and 48 creative nonfiction entries, our most robust level of participation yet.  And even though that's a lot of reading, the high response level is very satisfying to me.  It shows how many people out there are writing Mormon literature, and gives me great hope that we can find some excellent work to publish in Irreantum's pages.

We also have an announcement to make.  The Fall/Winter 2010 issue of Irreantum will be my last.  More...

First, two announcements:

1.  The first annual Segullah Writing Reatreat is coming up on Saturday, June 26 in Salt Lake City.  It's going to be fantastic.  Although Segullah's audience is primarily female, the Writing Retreat is open to both women and men.  The retreat also welcomes writers of all experience levels, from professional writers to bloggers to dabblers.  You can't beat the price--especially considering the tasty catered lunch and dinner offerings--and the company will be great, too.  Join us!

2.  Don't forget that the deadline for Irreantum's fiction and creative nonfiction contests is coming up soon.  May 31st!  So whip those stories and essays into shape and send them our way.

And now, instead of an announcement, a PROnouncement:

Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist, which officially hit the shelves today, is going to be huge.  I'm still not finished with my advance reading copy--the book's over 600 pages long--but I haven't been this excited about a novel in a good long time.  Publisher's Weekly recently called the novel "a serious contender for Great American Novel status," and I can't help agreeing.  (Well, as much as the idea of the Great American Novel even exists, or ought to exist, as a construct.)  The novel is sprawling and funny and heartwrenching and sad and insightful and full of charity for its fallible (and loveable) cast of characters.  And, yes, there's sex in it.  And swearing.  Not all Mormon readers will be able to get past some of these elements, it's true.  But for me?  The novel is brimming with goodness and heart.  And there's some knock-your-socks off prose to admire as well.  Like I said, I haven't finished the novel, so don't consider this my be-all-end-all review, but now that the book is officially available in stores I wanted to take this chance to encourage those interested in Mormon literature to scrape together twenty bucks and buy it.  I'm ceratin the novel will get a good deal of attention from the national market, but I'm hopeful that Mormon readers will embrace it as well.

Spring is in the air (at least, it WAS in the air--right now it's snowing), but at any rate, the calendar says spring is upon us, and that means Easter and conference and baseball and tulips.  And Irreantum contests! The deadline for the 2010 Irreantum Fiction Contest and Charlotte and Eugene England Essay Contest is May 31, so I expect that this spring, laptops all over Mormondom will be whirring as the writers among us polish and perfect their prize-winning stories and essays.

And YOU are among those writers, are you not?  Because you ought to submit.  These Irreantum contests don't cost you a dime (we don't even make you travel to the post office, since all submissions are received electronically). All we ask is that you pour your heart and soul and time and effort into creating a piece of art, then revise it, then read it out loud and catch all the wonky-sounding parts, then revise again, then ask your trusted friend who reads a lot of literature to take a look at it, then revise again, then go over your own personal check-list of the qualities good stories and essays need to embody, then revise again, then wake up at 3 a.m. one night and change that tricky part that's been bugging you, then make your spouse (mother, visiting teacher, crazy uncle) read the story one last time, then do one FINAL revision, then read it out loud one more time and catch all the new wonky-sounding parts.  Then run spell check, and make sure your commas are inside the quotation marks, and remove any annoying adverbs in your dialogue tags.  And then . . . send it our way, with the hope that all your hard work will be rewarded by publication and/or a nice cash prize.

You only have until May 31 to accomplish all this, so get crackin!  We've been accepting submissions since January 1 and have already received an encouraging number of entries.  Irreantum publishes work by well-established professional writers, by new writers who've never seen their name in print, and by all those in-between.  We encourage ALL of you to submit and contribute to the cause of publishing the best-of-the-best in Mormon literature. 

Here's your contest info: More...

In an earlier post here at the AML Blog (and again during a panel discussion at last weekend's AML Conference) Chris Bigelow admitted that even though Seagull Book had requested ordering information on the anthology I edited, Dispensation: Latter-Day Fiction, he felt it was important to warn the buyer that this book's content is PG-13.  First of all, I'm not surprised that Chris hasn't heard back from the buyer (although I am very, very encouraged that the buyer even contacted Chris at all).  But--perhaps surprisingly?--I don't fault Chris one bit for issuing the warning that may have affected this anthology's ability to hit the shelves in a Seagull store.  I mean, I've dreamt of one of my titles being available at Deseret Book or Seagull.  I've lamented the fact that smallish publishers like Zarahemla and Parables will never score significant sales unless one of their books breaks through and shows up in these stores.  So why wouldn't I want the anthology I edited to be that book? More...

By now, all Irreantum subscribers should have received their latest issue, and it’s my hope that the journal is sitting on your bedside table, or next to loveseat in your living room, or in your office atop your stack of favorite magazines. Someplace accessible. Someplace that, if the mood strikes, you can pick up the magazine and read. (And if this place happens to be on top of the toilet in your master bathroom—hey, that spot can be considered a place of honor in some households.)

My copy of Irreantum is sitting next to the chair in the family room, the spot closest to the fireplace, and when I walk past and see its dark blue cover I feel a sense of satisfaction, something akin to the way I feel when I stand in the middle of my freshly-cleaned house before guests come over: pleased at the final result, and glad that the hard work is, at least momentarily, finished. Of course, the guests haven’t quite arrived yet in this scenario—some might walk in the door and notice I didn’t dust the top of the piano, or cast a jaundiced eye at the ubiquitous Wyeth print in the dining room, or glance in the kitchen and wonder why I’m serving Coke to a bunch of Mormons. As editor of Irreantum, I’m aware that the journal’s readers are also making judgments and asking questions, which is as it should be.  Literary journals should provoke strong opinions and engender conversation (which is why a blog like this one is such a marvelous tool), and the question, “Why did the editors of Irreantum choose to include this piece?” is a legitimate one. Even a necessary one.

So. Why do the editors of Irreantum choose the pieces they do? More...