March is the month for celebrating excellence in LDS lit. Not only did the Association for Mormon Letters recently hand out citations in multiple categories, but the Whitneys, a great new awards program sponsored by LDStorymakers, will take place this weekend. I want to highlight the 2007 nominees and award winners here on Segullah, and I’m hoping that a few authors will even pop in and tell us all about their work in the comments section.
Here’s a rundown of the AML winners this year. And I must thank Patricia Karamesines from the wonderful LDS Arts and Lit blog A Motley Vision, from whom I unabashedly swiped the following information. Also, I’ve gone ahead and linked anything linkable to Amazon, just so those of you who say: “I don’t know what LDS lit to buy!” can have some options, just a simple click away. The wonder of the internet!
AML awards were given in the following categories for any work by, for, or about Mormons:
The Award for the Novel: On the Road to Heaven, by Coke Newell. Honorable Mentions went to Before the Dawn by Dean Hughes and The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson.
Young Adult Novel: This Is What I Did by Ann Dee Ellis. Honorable Mentions went to The Princess and the Hound by Mettie Ivie Harrison and Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson.
Short Fiction: “Clothing Esther,” by Lisa Torcasso Downing, published in Sunstone. Honorable Mention went to “Light of the New Day” by Darrin Cozzens, published in Irreantum.
Criticism Award: People of Paradox by Terryl Givens.
Film Award: The Mormons, produced and directed by Helen Whitney.
Drama Award: Facing East by Carol Lynn Pearson
Biography Award: An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells 1870-1920 by Carol Cornwall Madsen.
Special Award: Segullah. Whoop, whoop! And I can whoop without feeling conceited, because I’ve had very little to do with Segullah until recently. I’m just whooping for my amazing sister friends.
Special Award: BYU Studies Issue 46:2, 2007, Mormons and Film, edited by Gideon Burton and Randy Astle.
Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mormon Literature/Contribution to Mormon Literature: Mystery writer Anne Perry.
Marilyn Brown Unpublished Novel Award: Rift, by Todd Robert Peterson. It was announced that night that Rift is soon to be published by Zarahemla. (If you’re interested in the kind of work Peterson writes, check out his recently published collection, Long After Dark. Beautiful language, and a really interesting read.)
I had the opportunity to listen to many of these winners read on the night of the AML conference, and what a fabulous mix of talent and intelligence was on display. It made me very excited about our future.
Now on to the Whitneys. These awards are given for novel-length works of fiction and cover multiple genres. The writer must be LDS, but the book can be for an LDS or national market. Since the list of Whitney nominees is rather extensive–and since the winners won’t be announced until this weekend–I thought that I would give you a link to the Whitney page so you can check out the nominees yourself. (And Whitney people, what a beautiful site you’ve made! It’s gorgeous, really.) Please check out any of these books that pique your interest.
So here’s my request. First, I want to ask those of you who have read any of the the AML winners or Whitney nominees: what are your thoughts on these titles? Is this a good representation of the best of the year, in your opinion? What, for you, was the best of the best? And was anything left out?
Then, finally, I want to extend an open invitation to any of the authors represented above to come and post. Tell us a little about your book. Link us to your website, if you have one. If my purpose in this monthly post is to promote good LDS lit . . . let’s promote it, baby!
And good luck to all the Whitney nominees. I just found out that I’m going to be there in a “blog reporting” capacity for the awards, so hopefully I’ll be able to meet some of these authors. I’ll fill in Segullah readers on the details of the evening next Thursday. (And I hear it’s going to be kinda fancy. A fancy evening! What fun . . .)
Related posts:
Hi all! I am one of those fortunate authors who has a book that has been recognized as a Whitney Award Finalist. “The Deep End” is my third novel and is the concluding book in a trilogy that also includes “Undercurrents” and “Ripple Effect.” Each of the books can stand alone, especially “The Deep End” since my editors for this novel had never read the previous ones. This definitely pushed me to make sure all of the background information was included.
All three of these books are about a young woman who is in the Witness Protection Program after witnessing a friend’s murder. Her name changes from book to book, but in “The Deep End” she is known as CJ Whitmore. As this book begins, she is on the verge of testifying for the last time and is hopeful that she will finally be free to leave the Witness Protection Program. Her life becomes complicated as she tries to qualify for the Olympic trials in swimming and finds that her safety is once more in jeopardy.
A lot of the background for my novels comes from my previous career working with the Central Intelligence Agency. I still live in the Washington, DC area and am constantly surrounded by people who are in the military or work for the government in one form or another.
My newest novel (”Freefall”) uses the military as it’s background, beginning with a squad of Navy SEALs going into a hostile country to rescue hostages. For those who have read my earlier novels, they might recognize the heroine in this book, Amy Whitmore. She is the younger sister of Matt Whitmore from my first three novels.
Since I won’t be able to make the trip west for the awards ceremony, I also want to take this opportunity to wish all of the finalists good luck. This is an incredibly talented group of writers.
Thanks for the invitation to comment! My name is Jessica Draper, and I’m happy to be one of the Whitney Award nominees this year. My book, Hunting Gideon, is a near-future cyberpunk novel with an optimistic Mormon twist. Incorporating elements from the hard-boiled detective novel, film noir, and postmodernist prose, much of the novel’s action takes place online in cyberspace, blurring the border between actual and virtual reality. (That’s a blatant lift from the jacket copy, but it works.) It’s very flattering to be nominated–especially with all the other great books and authors!
I think we have a real chance as LDS authors to combine interesting, unusual characters, plots, and ideas with equally unusual and interesting philosophies and spiritual perspectives, and it’s heartening to see so many willing to take that road instead of going for the easy sex ‘n violence route that so much of popular fiction takes!
Most of the ideas that really interest me come from working through the implications of really believing, and really applying that faith, especially in circumstances that don’t commonly crop up in life—or at least not my life. And the more we can explore that realm, the better our writing will be, and the more interesting it will be for readers.
Angella, I really appreciate this chance to comment and the way you’re highlighting the Whitney Awards. I’m very excited about this whole awards evening, what with the fanciness and all, although I’m enormously pregnant and still trying to figure out what to wear (does anyone know where I can find a sequined muu-muu, for example?). But I digress.
My novel, First Day, is up for a Whitney in the Best Young Adult/Children category. It’s a young adult novel and is the sequel to my first novel, Yearbook. First Day is a follow-up on some of the characters’ lives from Yearbook, but I like to think it can stand alone as well. Here’s the little blurb about it that’s on the back of the book:
Jobs. Missions. College. Love. In the sequel to Yearbook, the characters are in the middle of it all. Two and a half years after we left off, Andrea Beckett is a junior at Cornell University in New York. She’s caught up in the whirlwind of finals, decisions about jobs . . . and decisions about love, too. Meanwhile, Andrea’s brother Ethan is serving a mission in Brazil. The language is new, the culture is different, and sometimes being Elder Beckett is harder than he expected.
I (usually) write from multiple points of view, so this book is told from four different characters’ points of view. I love writing about–and for–young adults because it’s one of the most exciting, pivotal times of life. I used to teach high school in Utah and in New York and I miss it very much (I’ve taken time off to be with my little ones). My first national market novel, Freshman for President, will be published with Shadow Mountain in June, and I’m very excited about that.
Thanks again for this dialogue/chance to respond!
Just a quick correction: the Whitneys aren’t just for LDS fiction. They’re for any novel written by an LDS author, regardless of genre, publisher, or market.
Rob, thanks for the clarification.
Traci, I had no idea that you’d worked for the CIA. How cool are you? “Yes, I’m a former CIA agent AND popular author, thank you very much.”
And Jessica, the description of you book is enough to make me certain of your creativity: “near-future cyberpunk novel with an optimistic Mormon twist.” Wow. Whenever people ask me about my book I have to say, “Well, there’s this family, see, and they love each other but have some trials to overcome . . .” Too bad I can’t use the word cyberpunk. “There’s this cyberpunk family, see . . .”
Allyson, your novel sounds really interesting. I, too, like mulitiple povs. And congrats on the book for the national market. How exciting!
Rob, I went ahead and made the correction in the main post. Thanks again.
I’m ashamed to admit (this is primarily a blog for Mormon women writers, after all) that my book, On the Road to Heaven, features a male protagonist and focuses almost exclusively on his point of view. Let me just say that the protagonist’s love interest, upon whom there is a LOT of focus, is a nearly perfect, phenomenally brilliant and totally essential part of the story. Thus, you will very likely want to buy a copy of the book and read about HER.
On the Road to Heaven is nominated in three categories of the Whitney Awards, including Best Novel, Best Historical Novel and Best Novel from a New Author. I was thrilled to learn that it recently won the 2007 Novel Award from the Association for Mormon Letters. Ironically, a couple of chapters I excised from the book a few years ago (during my third major revision of the manuscript) won the AML Short Fiction Award in 2003 as “Toaster Road.”
I wish to express my high regard and thanks to all those who are helping “Mormon” writing and Mormon writers find a place in the world: the authors, the blog hosts (like Angela Hallstrom, William Morris, etc.), publishers (like Chris Bigelow of Zarahemla), the literary and award consortiums (like the AML and the Whitneys), booksellers and, of course, book buyers.
A hearty postum toast to all!
(Although personally I prefer Knudsen’s unfiltered apple juice.)
And though no one will likely wish to comment on my posts anyway, I feel constrained to say that I am with my wife and kids on Spring Break in California (I teach at Salt Lake Community College in my other life) and probably won’t be around a computer much today. So to any questions that come in: yes, yes, not this year, 48 and only when it rains.
Coke, my questions are:
-Are you a fan of Miley Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana?
-Did you ever consider a career as a podiatrist?
-Do you plan to run the Salt Lake City Marathon?
-How many reps can you do when bench pressing 200 lbs?
and
-Do you watch “Dancing With the Stars?”
Good answers!
What fun to hear from some of our LDS writers out there! I’m curious to hear your report Angela, and I was also so impressed with the readings at the AML reception. I was really pleased to see some great writing coming from our community!
Thanks for this post, Angela. I’m with Zarahemla Books, and here are some great reviews that have come in for ON THE ROAD TO HEAVEN from some surprisingly high-profile sources:
“The title, epigraphs, and style of this fictionalized memoir pay tribute to Jack Kerouac, a surprising muse for a story about a young man’s Mormon conversion and two-year stint as a white-shirted Latter-day Saint missionary. . . . Memoir readers as well as Mormons looking for a somewhat edgy affirmation of their faith will appreciate the lusty, brawling but tenacious missionaries and the tender love story in this sprawling coming-of-age tale.â€
—Publishers Weekly
“I have never read such a gripping story of conversion and missionary labor. It held me fast partly because of the winsome romance mixed into the story of a mountain hippie who finds life’s meaning in Mormonism. But the gritty descriptions of friendship and adventure in the Colorado wilderness and of missionaries working the mean streets of Colombia are enthralling in themselves. The candid view of the vicissitudes of a spiritual life will startle readers accustomed to more staid narratives.â€
—Richard Bushman, author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (Knopf)
“Converts of the world, who came to the church from colorful and outrageous pasts, rejoice! Here is somebody who tells it like it was, without apology and without regrets. On the Road to Heaven is a tale of spiritual adventure, sacrifice, and change-the-world energy to rival any turned out by the born-in-the-covenant crowd.â€
—Patricia Karamesines, author of The Pictograph Murders (Signature)
“Poetic and enchanting, Coke Newell’s On the Road to Heaven is a romance odyssey of love and religion driven by the consumptive gravity of yearning and discovery. Honest and fearless, Newell has crafted for us the real power of gospel Mormonism.â€
—Ronald O. Barney, author of One Side by Himself: The Life and Times of Lewis Barney, 1808–1894 (Utah State University), winner of the Evans Biography Award
“This is the book Jack Kerouac might have written had he met Moroni instead of Allen Ginsberg. A wonderful romp to faith!â€
—Rodney Stark, Ph.D., author of The Rise of Christianity (Princeton), Acts of Faith (University of California), The Churching of America (Rutgers), and The Victory of Reason (Random House)
“An utterly original spiritual tale—lively, quirky, and profoundly moving. Think of it as St. Augustine for the Woodstock generation. Newell’s writing is an exuberant ride.â€
—Terryl Givens, Ph.D., University of Richmond, author of The Viper on the Hearth (Oxford) and By the Hand of Mormon (Oxford)
And here’s some more info and reviews on Whitney finalist HUNTING GIDEON, another book published by Zarahemla:
Tracking hackers and crackers for the FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center looks like a vivid video game to an outsider, but the outcome of the play is deadly serious. Through her online feline avatar, Sue Anne Jones stalks the V-Net, the ultimate virtual-reality interface, in pursuit of evil in all its online forms. Her partner, ex-cracker Loren Hunter, provides cynical commentary along with his expertise in the V-Net’s shadier alleys.
Their days of busting routine identity thieves and insidious corporate spies end when they get a new assignment: Hunt down a cyber-terrorist calling himself Gideon, who has infiltrated the financial system, rerouted supply lines, and murdered the supervisor of an automated factory. Now Gideon is sending taunting messages, quoting scripture, and warning Sue that she must join his crusade or suffer—along with the rest of the virtual world—when he takes total control of the V-Net.
“This book should find a wide audience. It’s cleverly written, fast paced, and unusual, and without the slightest preachiness, it gives some of the best answers I’ve seen to difficult questions.â€
—Jennie Hansen, Meridian magazine
“Fast, funny, and fervently recommended! I can heartily recommend Hunting Gideon to any reader who likes adventure, mystery, sly humor, and that kind of male/female banter that signals slow but sure movement down the road of romance.â€
—Melanie Goldmund, LDS Readers blog
Uh, Coke. I have some bad news for you about the Postum toast.
William is so much more hip and connected than I am… and to think I never even got to taste Postum previous to its departing… alas, his post-Postum postmortem particulars (as per his perspicacious web link) are particularly impressive, however depressing. But then, I never drank the stuff anyway.
Angela, I don’t know about being “cool” because of working for the CIA. All I’m sure of is that I get to go through the extra step of letting CIA’s Publication Review Board check out all of my intelligence based fiction before I can show it to anyone. Then again, it’s quite an ego boost when they say it’s going to take four weeks for their review and they send it back one week later.
The great thing about being former CIA is that I developed such a wonderful appreciation for how the government works and the incredible dedication by so many to maintain our freedoms. The bad thing is that I was trained to not talk about my work, which probably explains why a lot of people I go to church with still don’t know I write LDS fiction. Most of my friends found out about my first book when several ward members went on vacation to Utah and saw my novels on display in LDS bookstores. I guess I still have a lot to learn about publicity!
Traci,
I just read “Freefall” and loved it. Good luck on Saturday night. Wish you could be there.
Coke,
I can’t wait to read your book!
My daughter and I are headed for the conference in the morning…if only we had all the money and time in the world to read everything and then write our own.
Loved THIS IS WHAT I DID by Ann Dee Ellis and I am so happy to hear she is getting a nod from the association.
Thanks Terry! I wish I could be there too. Instead, I’ll be heading out in a few minutes to stand in line all night (or rather camp in line all night) by the White House to get tickets for the Easter Egg roll. I hope it isn’t too cold!
Thanks to everyone who popped in. I’m looking forward to seeing some of you on Saturday.
As a Whitney Award finalist for my novel Beyond the Horizon, by Covenant, I’d like to say that this is a novel that explores some of what it means to be LDS–historically speaking.
I determined to write a story that had some adventure, some fun, some romance, but one that also reflected more fully the essence of what it means to grow in faith.
Other books I’m working on show characters within families, where struggles include personal journies that refine us spiritually. Always, of course, within an intriguing storyline.
I’ve wondered if there was an interest in LDS fiction with a more literary element. My publisher tells me there’s little interest in that, hence no financial incentive to go there. So many of us check books out of the library, as purchasing them seems so frivolous a use of money on a tight budget.
So, how far can I go to create a read that is entertaining while also suggesting deeper levels of insight to those who wish to find them? And are they worthy of someon’s hard-earned money?
I hope to find others who want more from their books. Because I love to write them.
Thank you Judy!
I was able to attend the Whitney award dinner last night, and it was a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to filling everybody in here at Segullah on Thursday.