It has become clear that I am not going to be able to do a full year in review like I have done in recent years. So here is a somewhat abbreviated attempt. I hope that the AML awards, with all of its finalists, as well as the upcoming Whitney Awards, will fill the role of pointing out important works published in 2015.
Here are my 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006-2007 reviews. My 2008 (Part 1a, 1b, 2) 2009 (Part 1, 2), and 2010 (Part 1, 2) reviews appeared at A Motley Vision, and then in the years after that they appeared on this blog: 2011 (part 1, 2), 2012 (part 1, 2), 2013 (part 1, 2), and 2014 (part 1, 2).
Novels
The AML Novel Award winner was Jennifer Quist’s second novel, Sistering, published by a small Canadian literary publishing house. Looking at the other novels of note, those from national presses include Mette Ivie Harrison’s His Right Hand, the second in her Mormon mystery series, Larry Correia’s high Fantasy Son of the Black Sword, Brandon Sanderson’s fifth Mistborn book Shadows of Self, Eric James Stone’s science fiction Unforgettable, non-Mormon author Andrew Hunt’s 1930s Salt Lake City mystery A Killing in Zion, and Brian McClellan’s epic fantasy The Autumn Republic. Self-publishing star Amy Harmon’s The Song of David has a legion of devoted fans. At the Mormon literary presses, there was J. Scott Bronson’s long-awaited family tragedy The Agitated Heart, and David G. Pace’s magical realism Dream House on Golan Drive.
At the mainstream Mormon market publishers, Shadow Mountain’s two most well-received novels were Josi Kilpack’s regency romance A Heart Revealed (one of six romance books honored as Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2015), and Dean Hughes’ wartime historical fiction Home and Away. Covenant Communications’ offerings were led by Stephanie Black’s romantic suspense Played for a Fool, Melanie Jacobson’s contemporary romance Always Will, Gregg Luke’s Welsh suspense/fantasy The Healer, H. B. Moore’s Moses historical fiction Bondage, and A. L. Sowards’ World War II suspense The Rules in Rome. At Cedar Fort, among the most notable novels of the year were Carla Kelly’s historical romance Do No Harm, Chelsea Dyreng’s allegorical novel The Cenote, and Denver Acey’s suspense thriller The Quantum Deception.
Young adult and middle grade novels
Mormon authors continue to produce a flood of young adult novels for national publishers. It is also notable how many are by debut authors. This is a two-edged sword, national publishers appear to be willing to work with new authors, but are also quick to terminate relationships with authors whose books are not immediately selling well. Of the five AML Young Adult Award finalists, only one is an established, best-selling author, Brandon Sanderson. Three of the five are debut authors. A fourth is a novelist who self-published after being dropped by her publisher when her first two books did not sell in sufficient numbers.
The winner was Becky Wallace’s debut fantasy novel The Storyspinner. The other four finalists were Courtney Alameda’s debut horror novel Shutter, Valynne Maetani’s debut, the Japanese-American mystery Ink and Ashes, Brandon Sanderson’s anti-superhero science fiction Firefight, and Natalie Whipple’s contemporary family drama Fish Out of Water. Two novels that were nearly included in the finalist list were Martinne Leavitt’s mental illness drama Calvin and Dan Wells’ John Clever horror mystery The Devil’s Only Friend (which is a borderline YA or adult novel). Another seven books had strong enough reviews to be considered for the award. Four of those books were speculative YA novels: Jessica Day George’s supernatural historical fiction Silver in the Blood, Charlie Holmberg’s fantasy Followed by Frost, Jennifer Jenkins’ epic fantasy Nameless, and Michael Jensen and David Powers King’s fantasy Woven. The other three were contemporary YA novels: Carol Lynch Williams’ Never Said, Chantele Sedgwick’s Love Lucas, and Kasie West’s The Fill-in Boyfriend. Two other YA novels which received strongly positive reviews were Bethany Zohner Herbert’s medieval romance/humor novel The Perfect Fool, and Robison Wells’ self-published steampunk The Ships of Camelot.
While not quite to the flood-level heights of Young Adult novels, Middle Grade novels by Mormon authors were also thick on the ground. The winner of the AML Middle Grade Novel Award was Christine Hayes’ suspense ghost story Mothman’s Curse, which is also a finalist for a Whitney Award. The other finalists were Jennifer A. Nielsen’s historical thriller A Night Divided, J. Scott Savage’s fantasy Mysteries of Cove: Fires of Invention, Krista Van Dolzer’s historical/speculative The Sound of Life and Everything, and Jen White’s contemporary Survival Strategies of the Almost Brave. Other novels that had strong enough reviews to be considered for the award were Shannon Hale’s Princess Academy sequel The Forgotten Sisters, Jennifer A. Nielsen’s second novel of the year, the alternative Roman history/fantasy Mark of the Thief, Obert Skye’s dark comic fantasy Witherwood Reform School, Bryan Beus’ illustrated insect fable Westly: A Spider’s Tale, Marion Jensen’s superhero adventure Searching for Super, Chad Morris’ time-travel adventure The Impossible Race, Brandon Mull’s fantasy adventure Crystal Keepers, and Liesl Shurtliff’s fairy tale fantasy Jack: The True Story of Jack & the Beanstalk.
Bestselling nationally published novels written by Mormons
- James Dashner. The Maze Runner Series
On the New York Times Children’s Series list nearly all year long, including 19 weeks at #1. USA Today list for nearly the whole year, with a high at #8.
- Stephenie Meyer. Twilight: The Life and Death Dual Edition
USA Today List for 12 weeks, including a high of #5.
252,927 copies sold during the 12 weeks it was on the Publishers Weekly list.
- Glenn Beck. The Immortal Nicholas
117,761 copies in 9 weeks on the Publishers Weekly Hardcover list.
- Shannon and Dean Hale. The Princess in Black
37,753 copies in 7 weeks on the Publishers Weekly Children’s list, and also many weeks after that on the New York Times Middle Reader paperback list.
- Debbie Macomber and RaeAnne Thayne. A Little Bit Country
72,040 units in 8 weeks on the Publishers Weekly Mass Market list.
- Richard Paul Evans. The Mistletoe Inn
64,542 units in four weeks on the Publishers Weekly Hardcover list.
- Christine Feehan. Cat’s Lair
- Christine Feehan. Viper Game.
- Christine Feehan. Earth Bound
- Richard Paul Evans. Michael Vey 5: Storm of Lightening
- RaeAnne Thayne. Evergreen Springs
- Brandon Sanderson. Firefight
Mormon publishers
Literary works published by Mormon market publishers (novels, anthologies, literary non-fiction).
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | |
| Covenant | 29 | 30 | 34 | 38 | 37 | 37 | 33 |
| Cedar Fort | 23 | 34 | 44 | 49 | 32 (36) | 25 (28) | 27 |
| Deseret/Shadow Mountain | 18
5/13 |
19
10/9 |
16
6/10 |
22
6/16 |
15
6/9 |
12
3/9 |
14
3/11 |
| Trifecta | 2 | 17 | 16 | ||||
| Mirror | 6 | 20 | 14 | ||||
| Walnut Springs | 5 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 8 | 14 | 6 |
| Jolly Fish | 3 | 8 (10) | 5 (11) | 6 (11) | |||
| Leicester Bay | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | |||
| WiDo | 2 | 2 | 7 (9) | 5 (14) | 3 (12) | 5 (21) | 2 (5) |
| Zarahemla | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Signature | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Peculiar Pages | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Familius | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Arc Point | 1 | ||||||
| Other | 16 | 19 | 19 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 0 |
| Total | 96 | 122 | 129 | 147 | 136 | 151 | 128 |
(Parenthesis indicates the total number of literary works the publisher published that year, including novels by non-Mormons)
Other literary works
This was a good year for short story collections by notable authors which addressed Mormon issues. Three collections were finalists for the AML Short Story Collection Award, and all of them had strong claims to take the final award. The winner was Karen Rosenbaum’s collection of a career of realistic short stories Mothers, Daughter, Sisters, Wives (Zarahemla Books). In close contention were two collections that contained a mixture of speculative and realistic stories: William Morris’s Dark Watch and other Mormon-American stories (Self), Steven L. Peck’s Wandering Realities: Mormonish Short Fiction (Zarahemla Books).
In creative non-fiction, Joey Franklin’s My Wife Wants You to Know I’m Happily Married was a stand-out collection of personal essays.
In criticism, there were two special awards given at the AML conference, for Eric W. Jepson and his collaborators’ Dorian, Nephi Anderson: A Peculiar Edition With Annotated Text & Scholarship, a critical edition of the 1921 novel, and The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism, which included several articles on Mormon literature and culture.
The trend towards self-publishing and boutique publishing is having a greater impact on Mormon letters. This year Mormon literary fiction, which has long been served by Signature Books and Zarahemla Press, also saw literary works published by boutique publishers ArcPoint Media (run by Scott Parkin), Waking Lyon Press (run by Jack Lyon), and Peculiar Pages (run by Eric W. Jepson). Also, William Morris published his own short story collection, and James Goldberg self-published his poetry collection Let Me Drown with Moses.
My favorite posts on Mormon literature for the year were Michael Austen’s series at By Common Consent. They included “Eight Hideously Bad Mormon Novels You Should Read Because Perfect Awfulness Is Its Own Kind of Good,” which featured summaries of eight of the “worst novels in the English language ever to deal with Mormonism”, from 1855 to 1939. Also his article on three Mormon historical novels from the 1930s and how people use history to legitimate their opinions.
I also enjoyed William Morris’s series on “Artists of the Restoration” at A Motley Vision.
Film and drama
2015 was a banner year for Mormons creating film. The AML Award winner was the highly decorated police documentary, Peace Officer, directed by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber. Two other documentaries of note were the education documentary Most Likely to Succeed, directed by Greg Whiteley, and Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, directed by Tim Skousen and Jeremy Coon, which won the Audience Award for Feature Film at last month’s LDS Film Festival.
There were also a great number of quality feature films, particularly ones with Mormon characters or themes. The two that got the most positive reviews were the girls’ camp comedy Once I Was a Beehive, directed by MacLain Nelson, and Freetown, directed by Garrett Batty. Other films released in 2015 include “based-on-a-true-story” thriller The Cokeville Miracle (T. C. Christensen), the holiday film Christmas Eve (Mitch Davis), the tragic and inspiriational Just Let Go (Christopher S. Clark and Patrick Parker), the bizarre comedy Don Verdean (Jared Hess), and the family film Thunder Broke the Heavens (Tim Skousen). Also, BYUtv continued to produce significant television shows, including the 1950s mystery Granite Flats (Scott Swofford), the documentary/dramatization Joan of Arc (Russell Holt), and the sketch comedy Studio C.
I
In theatre, Plan-B Theatre in Salt Lake City was the place to be, with three outstanding plays by and/or about Mormons. Melissa Leilani Larson’s Plilot Program, imagining how a Church reintroduction of polygamy might impact a family, was the standout piece of the year. Even after a whole year of plays in 2014, Eric Samuelsen had another new play at the theater in 2015, his adaption of Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata, a tale of music and madness, featuring the NOVA Chamber Music Series. Matthew Ivan Bennett’s A/Version of Events was a two character play about a young Mormon couple struggling with the recent death of their child.
BYU was the setting for two successful book-adaption premiers, the BYU/UVU collaboration Princess Academy, Lisa Hall Hagen’s adaption of the Shannon Hale young adult novel, and Water Sings Blue, Teresa Dayley Love’s adaption of Kate Coombs picture book. The Echo Theatre in Provo was the site of Stephen Gashler’s 
Bums! The Musical and Omar Hansen’s comic retelling of Cinderella, This Castle Needs a Good Scouring. Finally, Jordan Kamalu (music and lyrics) and George Nelson (book and additional lyrics)’s country/rock musical Single Wide, which premired at BYU in 2014, was selected to be performed off-Broadway in the 2015 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) over the summer. It was a finalist for the AML Theatre Award, and won the Blanche and Irving Laurie Musical Theatre Award from The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Single Wide was one of 20 musicals chosen for the prestigious NYMF, and was very well received. The production won 4 Festival Awards, the second most of any production: Outstanding Music Honorable Mention, and five Outstanding Individual Performance Awards.
Other news
Among the news stories of the year, The first annual conference of the LDS Publishing Professionals Association (LDSPPA) was held Aug. 21, at the Provo City Library. The conference was geared toward publishing professionals and students interested in a career in publishing. Meanwhile, the LDS Booksellers Association convention in Salt Lake City seems to get smaller and smaller every year.
Cedar Fort Inc. was featured in a Publishers Weekly article on the fastest growing independent publishers for 2014. Cedar Fort was the 5th fastest growing company on the list, with a 41% growth in sales from 2012 to 2014. Its number of employees grew from 42 to 62 during that period, and the number of book titles published grew from 138 to 165.
Mormon authors Brad Torgersen and Larry Correia’s controversial Sad Puppies slate managed to get several works nominated for science fiction’s Hugo awards, but they were all defeated in the voting for the final awards. See a Wall Street Journal article on the controversy.
The 2015 Mormon Lit Blitz winners:
1st place: “Faded Garden” by Emily Harris Adams
2nd place: “Best Wedding Advice Ever,” by Heather Young
2015 Eugene England Essay Contest Winners:
First Place: “Death of a Dog,” By Patricia Karamesines
Second Place: “Shredded Life,” By Lia Hadley
The 2015 Sunstone Fiction Contest winners:
1st Place: “The Mandelbrot Set,” by Heidi Naylor.
2nd Place: “And Thorns Will Grow There,” by Emily Belanger
Tied for 3rd Place: “The Bigamist,” by Eric Freeze
Tied for 3rd Place: “Jane’s Journey,” by Heidi Naylor
Honorable Mention: “Personal J,” by Jennifer Quist
2015 deaths
Author, editor, and educator Lu Ann Brobst Staheli, of Spanish Fork, Utah, passed away on February 9 after an eight-month battle with cancer.
Emeritus BYU Theater professor Ivan Crosland passed away on March 26, 2015, at the age of 78.
Candadai Seshachari, a popular and respected professor of English at Weber State University, and a friend to Mormon literature, passed away on October 6. He was 87. Although not Mormons, Sesh and his wife Neila, who passed away suddenly in 2002, were active participants in the Association for Mormon Literature in the 1970s and 1980s.
Author Pamela Stott Williams passed away on September 29. She was 72. She had two novels published by Walnut Springs Press in 2014 and 2015.
Tayva Patch, who appeared in many theatrical and film productions in Utah, passed away on Nov. 21 of complications following surgery. She was 62. Among her credits were “Meredith” (the FBI agent) in Brigham City and “Lucy Mack Smith” in Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration and Emma Smith: My Story.
Kathryn H. Kidd passed away on December 14. She was 65. Kathy was an accomplished author, writing four novels (including Paradise Vue (1989) and Lovelock (1994)), one children’s book, and ten non-fiction books, as well as innumerable magazine and web articles.