Early in her novel Alibi Creek, Bev Magennis, succinctly sets the place of her story: Tucked in a fold of the Mariposa Mountains, Brand had been overrun by unfamiliar faces, the locals showing their disapproval by shunning greetings, refusing to indulge in small talk, and forgetting names. Walker, however, saw this small, steady influx of … Read more
There was a lot to celebrate in 2015 with the Utah Enlightenment, a creative movement where courage defines some of the state’s most interesting and independent artists. Indeed, the Enlightenment disturbs and disrupts the peculiar Utah penchant to be civil and docile or to be content with platitudes and pleasantries. Artists are reclaiming Utah’s unique … Read more
In his marvelous short story American Trinity, David Pace brings to life the religious Mormon legend of the Three Nephites, an apocryphal tradition about ancient disciples whom LDS members claim have interceded and helped them in various situations. The scribe, Zedekiah, is debating a fellow disciple about their spiritual calling and the power of telling … Read more
In its fiction releases, Torrey House Press has reconnected science to emotion and humans to their fellow animals in marvelous ways that are captivating readers and capturing awards. And, as it has expanded its nonfiction offerings, the Utah-based publisher has followed a similar course. Recent nonfiction releases such as Wild Rides and Wildflowers by Scott … Read more
Y not you, why can’t I—you in this city at closing hour, this strange going improvised ravine, summer rain among the living. Y not towards your story, green indecipherable shadows, faces I want would, longing, to cathedral— Y not two voices that diminuendo, the point at which what is revealed, is what leaves— Sean Thomas … Read more
Last February at The Leonardo for its second “lovingly competitive storytelling night,” as Giuliana Serena describes it, The Bee: True Stories from The Hive asked participants to tell stories on the theme of attachment. As customary, Serena and her co-founder, Francesca Rosa, set the contours for the theme broadly, and some stories certainly were reflecting … Read more
The Italian novelist Elena Ferrante thinks of literary tradition “as a single, large depository, where anyone who wants to write goes to choose what is useful” to her, and that every ambitious writer has the duty to immerse herself in “a vast literary culture.” For this year’s Utah Arts Festival, organizers of the Literary Arts … Read more
More than two decades after Wallace Stegner, the dean of Western writers, died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a new generation of writers has emerged to empower the voices of activism and advocacy in conservation and preservation, especially through the intellectual and cultural forces of literary fiction. However, these new authors also take on equally … Read more
carry my message. carry my hope. carry its meaning. carry it home. carry my depression. carry disconnection. take this suspension. carry the clone. hop in my step. camera in my bag. calm in my soul. pen in my hand. ‘Pen In My Hand’ – Parallax song from the demo ‘Landlocked,’ lyrics by Blake Donner (c. … Read more
It is inexplicable how some of the most gifted, passionate and prescient pioneers of form, expression, and ideals in the arts and letters world languish in obscurity before someone rediscovers and revives their work, which often is more relevant now than during the period in which it was created. The words of a nearly forgotten … Read more