Association for Mormon Letters Special Award in Nonfiction, 2020, will be presented to:
This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions
Edited by Carol Edison, Eric A. Eliason, Lynne S McNeill. University of Utah Press.
This year the Association for Mormon Letters is presenting a special award to a book for its cultural contributions that fit none of the existing categories. The book—the first of its kind—is a beautifully-produced collection of short ethnographic and sociohistorical pieces about Utah’s distinctive food heritage, with photographs, recipes, and informative, wry, and witty commentary. Edited by Carol A. Edison, Eric A. Eliason, and Lynne S. McNeill, this delightful coffee (or Postum) table volume contains entries by over sixty authors on such varied regionally gastronomie-relevant topics as green Jell-o; Hotel Utah hard rolls; and breweries in nineteenth-century Logan. Of special note are the contributions by Native American, Latino, and other minority authors who write on their heritage and foodways. Contributors include scholars like Curtis Ashton, writing about “Official Foods of Utah”; community members like Rosa Thornley, who chronicles the family legacy of Cache Valley cheesemaking; BYU professor Jill Terry Rudy, who narrates Utah’s “Fresh-Mex Skirmishes”; University of Utah Associate Chair of Ethnic Studies Elizabeth Archuleta, who decries the loss of traditions and tells of how her grandmother’s homemade tortillas tasted like “home” and “love”; event organizers, like Jean Tokuda Irwin, who describes the Nikkei Senior Center luncheons; journalists, bloggers, food producers, and many, many more. Every entry—every page—rewards the visual, literary, historical, and recipe-collector palate. The judges knew this fastidiously—and deliciously—planned and executed literary/culinary gathering needed to be recognized for the fine cultivation, selection, combination, and perfect balance of its ingredients.
The editors will read selections from This is the Plate at the online AML Conference, June 2, 8:00 pm MDT. The award will be presented at the online awards ceremony, held June 5, 6:00 pm MDT. The readings, ceremony and all of the other AML Online Conference sessions may be viewed live, as well as archived for later watching, on our YouTube channel.
