Our webmaster, Jacob Proffitt, has set up a link to an email subscription to the AML blog (so that people can receive emails whenever there is a new AML blog post).

On the AML blog pages, on the right side, there is a list of recent comments and a list of recent posts.

At the bottom of the list of recent comments is a link for those who want an RSS feed whenever someone posts a new comment on the AML blog.

And, at the bottom of the list of recent posts, is a link that says "Subscribe to Dawning of a Brighter Day by Email"

This "subscribe" link is the one you use to get emails whenever there is a new post on the AML blog.

We hope that this will make it easier to know what is going on at the AML blog, and perhaps bring people around for more discussions.

It may not be the best-kept secret in Mormon Literature, but sometimes we wonder.  The AML Review Archive contains over 1000 reviews of books, short stories, films, plays, and play productions, and even a few of music CDs, all pertaining in one way or another to the Mormon experience.   Links to the five most recent additions to the Archive are in the upper right corner of the AML home page, and new reviews are added frequently.

But there are hundreds of other examples of Mormon literature (literature by, for, and/or about Mormons) that have not been reviewed, or at least those reviews have not been included in the AML Review Archive.

One of the purposes of this post is to invite everyone to visit the Archive and look around. More...

Association for Mormon Letters

CALL FOR PAPERS

 The Association for Mormon Letters announces 2011 Annual Meeting, which will be held on Friday and Saturday, March 25 and 26 on the campus of Utah Valley University.

 The theme for this year’s meeting is “liberating form.” In a seminal article published in the 1970s, Marden J. Clark pointed out a central paradox of creative production: that “the creative person is at once the most free and most bound of people.” As Clark wrote, “Freedom can find meaningful release, meaningful expression only in significant form.” This paradox of creativity, argued Clark, is also at play in creating a meaningful life: without plans, rules, and structure, our lives become chaotic and painful. “A glider soars, a jet plane flies, not just because the wind blows or because a motor develops a half million pounds of thrust, but because of the form of the wing it flies on.” This interplay of freedom and form is the focusing lens through which we not only create good literature but saintly lives.

 We welcome submissions on this or any topic relating to Mormon literature, film, or drama. Please submit a short (2 to 3 paragraph) abstract of your paper proposal to Boyd Petersen, boyd.petersen@uvu.edu or Margaret Blair Young, margaret_young@byu.edu, or on or before February 1, 2011.

 In an effort to foster greater discussion and synergy, AML will this year be meeting jointly with Mormon Scholars in the Humanities on the campus of Utah Valley University. While both organizations will host and create their own sessions, we will share some plenary speakers and host joint events.

Irreantum Fiction Contest Winners

The Association for Mormon Letters is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 Irreantum fiction contest. A committee of judges considered 91 entries and awarded three cash prizes and two honorable mentions. More...

The following is adapted from something I wrote several years ago for a writer friend of mine, and I thought it might be interesting to post here.

As analogies go, it may or may not work for everyone, but what the heck?

A certain publisher has a contract available to anyone who wants to agree to it.  This contract offers a thousand-figure payment for a book that has to have very specific things in it.  Anyone, no matter how little talent or writing skill, may write a book and submit it according to this contract, and as long as those things are in the book, and the author did the very best he or she could, the book will be accepted. More...

Louise Plummer talks about how lists can provide inspiration for writers, and has exercises and mini-workshops in which list-making is the focus.

My mother told me every so often that the great thing about lists is when you can check things off of them.  It gives such a feeling of accomplishment.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard based on her diary, 1785–1812, is an eye-opening read about a diary that is essentially a list.  The diary has been known to historians for years, but until Ulrich looked at it in a different way, it was considered uninteresting to say the least.

So can lists really be considered literature?  I submit that they can certainly be considered a means of insight into culture, even if it is only the one-person culture of the list-maker. More...

As a genealogist, I am particularly interested in the form of Mormon literature which might be called "genealogy miracle stories." I just finished a collection of them that was compiled by Marilyn Brown and Lee Nelson and published by Cedar Fort, and it was great to hear how things just seem to come together to help genealogists find dead people. More...

I've been thinking quite a lot about Rachel Ann Nunes' post, just before this one, especially where she talks about how revising her latest book "essentially removed God from my novel."

And I've been wondering why the LDS fiction I've read hasn't had that much to do with God and how we LDS perceive Him and strive to become like Him.

I'd like to offer some ways that I think we could write stories about LDS characters receiving personal revelation, and growing in the gospel aside from what some consider tried (and tired) conversion stories, without reverting to any no-longer-valid-or-interesting "deus ex machina" endings, and, I would hope, avoiding the risk of offending "certain readers." More...

The nonprofit Association for Mormon Letters (AML) promotes the production and study of Mormon literature and its enjoyment by all. Members receive a subscription to our twice yearly literary magazine, Irreantum

In addition, AML encourages discussion and recognition of Mormon literature through various services and events.

• AML Review Archive where there are now over 1000 literature and film reviews archived on the AML website, and everyone is welcome to browse through the archive.
• The AML Annual Meeting where scholarly papers on Mormon literature and the AML Awards are presented.
• AML Awards . Have you published this year? Each year at its annual meeting the Association for Mormon Letters presents awards for the best Mormon literature (in all genres) published during the prior year. Find out how to have your work considered.
• AML Discussion Board . In May 1995, AML started an email list for online discussion of Mormon literature and for electronic publication of reviews of LDS literature and film. Now the reviews are posted to the AML Discussion Board  as well as to the AML email list , and then reviews are archived to the AML Review Archive   Please join us for online discussion of topics relevant to LDS literature and film and share your comments and your reviews. If you would like to sign up for the AML email list, please send an email to aml-list-subscribe@mormonletters.org.