2023 AML Virtual Conference

Austens, Kings, Le Guins, & Tolkiens of Our Own: Mormons & Genre

Logo of the Association for Mormon Letters showing a fountain pen and an ink wellAnnual Conference – Association for Mormon Letters: April 27-29, 2023

From sermons and urban legends to romance novels and devotional poetry, various genres have been important threads in Mormon literature and culture. Whether its’ appearing as stock villains in early detective novels and westerns or breaking into the mainstream national market with science fiction, fantasy, YA (young adult), and middle grade fiction, Mormons have intersected with various literary genres in interesting, complex ways.

For our 2023 online conference, the Association for Mormon Letters will focus on the history, present, and future of genres that are, have been–or could become–important to Mormon literature.

Conference Schedule

ALL TIMES MOUNTAIN DAYLIGHT TIME; PROGRAMMING WILL BE STREAMED LIVE ON THE AML YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

Subscribe to the channel and click the notification bell to be notified of sessions or follow the AML Twitter , Instagram, and Facebook acounts.

Thursday, April 27: 

  • 6:45  – 6:55 pm – Welcome & Presidential Address: William Morris
  • 7 – 8:15 pm – Mormon Genre Literature: Current State & Possible Futures; William Morris moderator
    • Panelists: Dave Butler, Theric Jepson, Annette Lyon, Joe Monson, Jennifer Quist 

Friday, April 28:

  • 6:30 – 7:40 pm – Speeches by Mormon Writers: Towards an Anthology; Jarron Slater, moderator; 
    • Panelists: Gideon Burton, Richard Benjamin Crosby, Isaac James Richards, Jim Richards
  • 7:45 – 9:15 pm – Forms of Mormon Genre, Conor Hilton, moderator;
    • An Overview of Mormon Interactive Fiction, Rachel Helps
    • An Aid to the Pulpit: Theatrical Rhetorics in Mormon Drama, Kristin Perkins
    • Reading at the Bottom of an Empty Sea: The Secularization of Reality and the Rise of Peculiar Fiction, Mattathias Singh
    • FAQ or Fiction: The Dialogue as a Mormon Genre, Kent Larsen

Saturday, April 29:

  • 9 – 10:15 a.m. – Special Topics in Mormon Genre, Late 20th, Early 21st Centuries;  Conor Hilton, moderator  
    • One Great Whole: An Exploration of the Alien as the Self in Mormon Science Fiction, Liz Busby
    • Fantastical Heterodoxy: Panpsychist Cosmology in the Tales of Alvin Maker, Paul Williams
    • South American Noir: Missionaries in Danger in Brazil, Jessie Christensen
  • 10:30 – 11:45 am – Rescuing Speculation: Poetry’s Extra-Canonical Role in Mormon Literature – William Morris, moderator
    • Panelists: Liz Cranford, Rachel Hunt-Steenblick, Elizabeth Garcia, Dayna Patterson, Elizabeth Pinborough 
  • LUNCH BREAK
  • 1 – 2:15 pm – Special Topics in Mormon Genre, Late 19th/Early 20th Centuries; William Morris, moderator
    • Monogamy Triumphant: Romance Plots, Revisionist Memory, and the Latter-day Saint Rapprochement with American Sex, Race, and Time, 1881–1901, Makoto Hunter
    • Virginia Sorensen’s Micro-Genre: The Returning Mormon, Stephen Carter
    • “A Flower of the Fields of Air”: Mormons, Nature Poetry, and the Claiming of Western Space, Amanda Hendrix-Komoto
  • 2:30 – 3:25 pm – Stephen Carter, the Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters recipient, will discuss his writing career with Angela Hallstrom.  
  • 3:30 – 4:30 pm – AML Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Michael Hicks will discuss his career in music and writing with Lance Larsen.
  • DINNER BREAK
  • 6 pm — annual awards followed by readings from some of the winners; hosts – Andrew Hall and Theric Jepson 

Special Irreantum edition focused on genre works

In keeping with the conference theme, William Morris and Liz Busby are editing a special genre-focused edition of Irreantum. Submissions are closed. Follow Irreantum on Twitter or Facebook or support it via Patreon to be notified when the issue is published.