AML Awards

The AML Awards are given annually by the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) to the best work "by, for, and about Mormons." They are juried awards, chosen by a panel of judges. Citations for many of the awards can be found on the AML website^[1]

The award categories vary from year to year depending on what the AML decides is worthy of honor. Beginning with the 2014 awards, the AML began creating a shortlist for most categories, which preceded the final awards.

1975-1977

Presented at the Third Annual Symposium, held at the Marriott Library, University of Utah, on October 7, 1978. Awards given for works published in 1975-1977

Critical Writing

• Clifton Holt Jolley for "The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith: An Archetypal Study"

Poetry

• Linda Sillitoe for "The Old Philosopher" and "Letter to a Four-Year-Old Daughter"
• Arthur Henry King for "The Field Behind Holly House"

Short Fiction

• Douglas H. Thayer for "Indian Hills" and "Zarahemla," both from the collection Under Cottonwoods and Other Stories
• Donald Marshall for "The Wheelbarrow" and "The Reunion", both from the collection Frost in the Orchard^[2]

1978

Presented at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, October 13, 1979

Criticism

• Steven P. Sondrup for "Literary Dimensions of Mormon Autobiography"

Poetry

• Clinton F. Larson for "The Western World "

Poetry Honorable Mention

• Marden J. Clark for "God's Plenty"
• Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown for "Grandmother"

Short Fiction

• Levi S. Peterson for "The Confessions of Augustine"

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Karen Rosenbaum for "Hit the Frolicking, Rippling Brooks"^[2]

1979

Presented at Weber State College, Ogden, Utah, September 27, 1980

Criticism

• Cindy Lesser Larsen for "Whoever Heard of a Utah Poet?: An Overview of Poetry in the Early Church"

Poetry

• Marden J. Clark for "Moods: Of Late"
• Edward L. Hart for "To Utah"

Short Fiction

• Bela Petsco for Nothing Very Important and Other Stories^[2]

1980

Presented at the University of Utah, January 23, 1982

Biography

• Frank W. Fox for J. Reuben Clark: The Public Years

Criticism

• Linda Sillitoe for "New Voices, New Songs: Contemporary Poems by Mormon Women" (Dialogue, Winter 1980)

Novel

• Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown for The Earthkeepers

Poetry

• Emma Lou Thayne for Once in Israel^[3]

1981

Presented at the University of Utah, January 22, 1983

Criticism

• George S. Tate for "The Typology of the Exodus Pattern in the Book of Mormon"

Poetry

• Robert A. Rees for "Gilead"

Poetry and Short Fiction

• Linda Sillitoe for "Lullaby in the New Year";"Demons"

Short Fiction

• Robert A. Christmas for "Another Angel"^[3]

1982-1983

Announced at the AML Symposium on 21 January 1984, at the University of Utah. Considered works from both 1982 and 1983.

Criticism

• Eugene England for "The Dawning of a Brighter Day: Mormon Literature after 150 Years"^[4]

Drama

• Thomas F. Rogers for God's Fools: Plays of the Mitigated Conscience

Editorial Award

Special Achievement Award for Sustained Excellence

• Editors of the Exponent II

Mormon Humor, First Prize

• Calvin Grondahl for Freeway to Perfection, Faith Promoting Rumors, and Sunday's Foyer

Mormon Humor, Second Prize

• Clifton Holt Jolley for "Selling the Chevrolet: A Moral Exercise"

Novel

• Douglas H. Thayer for Summer Fire

Poetry

• Clinton F. Larson for "A Romaunt of the Rose: A Tapestry of Poems"

Poetry, Young Poet's Prize

• Holly Ann Welker for "Feet";"Patience";"On My Father's 50th Birthday";"The Birthday Present".

Sermon Special Commendation for Sustained Excellence in the Mormon Sermon

• Neal A. Maxwell

Short Fiction

• Levi S. Peterson for The Canyons of Grace

Special Award for Popular Mormon Fiction

• Jack Weyland

Special Award for Short Story Anthology

• Levi S. Peterson for Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon Short Stories^[3]

1984

Presented at Brigham Young University, January 19, 1985

Editing & Publishing

• Scott Kenney

Novel

• Orson Scott Card for Saints, A Woman of Destiny

Personal Essay

• Eugene England for A Dialogue with Myself: Personal Essays on Mormon Experience

Special Award

• Carol Lynn Pearson^[3]

1985

Presented at Weber State College, January 25, 1986

Criticism

• Steven Walker for "Seven Ways of Looking at Susanna"

Novel

• Herbert Harker for Circle of Fire

Personal Essay

• Edward Geary for "Goodbye to Poplarhaven"

Poetry

• Emma Lou Thayne

Short Fiction

• Neal C. Chandler for "Benediction"^[3]

1986

Children's literature

• Steve Wunderlie (author) and Brent Watts (illustrator), Marty's World

Poetry

• Dennis Marden Clark for "Sunwatch"

Religious Literature

• Dennis Rasmussen for The Lord’s Question

Novel

• Levi Peterson for The Backslider

Short Fiction

• Michael Fillerup for "Hozohoogoo Nanina Doo"

Personal and family history book

• Myrtle McDonald for No Regrets: The Life of Carl A. Carlquist

Personal and family history essay

• Paul M. Edwards for "When Will the Little Woman Come Out of the House?"

Personal Essay

• Susan Taber for "In Jeopardy Every Hour"^[3][5]

1987

Presented at the home of Steven Sondrup, Salt Lake City, April 1, 1988

Criticism

• Bruce W. Jorgensen for "Romantic Lyric Form and Western Mormon Experience in the Stories of Douglas Thayer"

Novel

• Linda Sillitoe for Sideways to the Sun

Personal Essay

• Mary Lythgoe Bradford for Leaving Home

Poetry

• Robert A. Christmas for "Self-Portrait as Brigham Young"

Short Fiction

• Darrell Spencer for A Woman Packing a Pistol^[3][6]

1988

Presented January 28, 1989, at the Weber State College Library.

Novel

• Ann Edwards Cannon for Cal Cameron by Day, Spider-Man by Night

Short Story

• John Bennion "A Court of Love." Sunstone 12.2 (March 1988): 30-38.

"A House of Order." Dialogue 21.3 (Autumn 1988): 129-48. "Dust." Ascent 14.1 (1988): 1-10.

Poetry

• Dennis Marden Clark for Tinder: answer might be. With an almost Augustinian Dry Poems (Orem, Utah: United Order Books, 1988)

Special Recognition in Poetry

• Clinton F. Larson for Selected Poems of Clinton F. Larson (Provo: Brigham Young University, 1988)

Personal Essay

• Karin Anderson England "The Man at the Chapel" Dialogue 21.4 (Winter 1988): 133-41

Special Recognition in Biography

• Levi S. Peterson Juanita Brooks: Mormon Woman Historian (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988)

Special Recognition in Criticism

• Wayne C. Booth The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988)^[7]

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Elouise Bell
• Wayne Booth
• Mary L. Bradford
• John S. Harris
• Gerald N. Lund
• Hugh Nibley
• Levi S. Peterson
• Steven P. Sondrup
• Douglas Thayer
• Emma Lou Thayne
• Laurel T. Ulrich
• Terry Tempest Williams
• William A. Wilson^[3]

1989

Criticism

• Michael Hicks for Mormonism and Music: A History
• Dennis Clark for "Mormon Poetry Now!: The State of the Art" (a series of four essays published in Sunstone, 1985-1989)

Editing & Publishing

• Sunstone
• Signature Books

Novel

• Judith Freeman for The Chinchilla Farm

Personal Essay

• Emma Lou Thayne for "As for Me and My House"

Poetry

• Susan Elizabeth Howe for "Things in the Night Sky"

Short Fiction

• Pauline Mortensen for "Back Before the World Turned Nasty"^[3]

1990

Criticism

• William A. Wilson for "In Praise of Ourselves: Stories to Tell"

Novel

• Franklin Fisher for Bones

Personal Essay

• Elouise Bell for "Only When I Laugh"

Poetry

• Loretta Randall Sharp for "Doing It"

Short Fiction

• Walter Kirn for My Hard Bargain^[8]

1991

Biography

• Laurel Thatcher Ulrich for A Midwife's Tale

Editing & Publishing

• Signature Books and Ron Schow, Wayne Schow, Marybeth Raynes, editor, for Peculiar People: Mormons and Same-Sex Orientation

Novel

• Orson Scott Card for Xenocide
• Gerald N. Lund for Like a Fire is Burning

Personal Essay

• Terry Tempest Williams for Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

Poetry

• Philip White for "Island Spring" and "The Perseids" (Dialogue, Spring & Winter 1991)

Short Fiction

• Michael Fillerup for "Lost and Found" (from Christmas for the World)

Young Adult Literature

• Louise Plummer for My Name is Sus5an Smith. The 5 is Silent

Honorary Lifetime Memberships

• Marden J. Clark
• Edward L. Hart
• Clinton F. Larson
• William Mulder
• Helen Candland Stark
• Virginia Eggersen Sorensen Waugh
• Maurine Whipple^[8][9]

1992

Biography

• Rudi Wobbe and Jerry Borrowman for Before the Blood Tribunal

Children's Literature

• Barbara J. Porter and Dileen Marsh for All Kinds of Answers

Novel

• Orson Scott Card for Lost Boys

Personal Essay

• Marden J. Clark for Liberating Form: Mormon Essays on Religion and Literature

Poetry

• Kathy Evans for Imagination Comes to Breakfast

Short Fiction

• Margaret Blair Young for Elegies and Love Songs^[8]

Honorary Lifetime Membership^[10]

• Emma Lou Thayne
• Richard Scowcroft

1993

Autobiography

• Phyllis Barber for How I Got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir

Children's Literature

• Michael O. Tunnell for Chinook! The Joke's on George and Beauty and the Beastly Children

Drama

• Neil Labute for In the Company of Men

Editing

• M. Shayne Bell for Washed by a Wave of Wind: Science Fiction from the Corridor

Novel

• Gerald N. Lund for Thy Gold to Refine: The Work and the Glory, Vol. 4
• Leslie Beaton Hedley for Twelve Sisters

Personal Essay

• Eugene England for "Monte Cristo" in Wasatch Review International, 2:1, June 1993.

Poetry

• Linda Sillitoe for "Crazy for Living"

Sermon

• Chieko N. Okazaki for Lighten Up! and Cat's Cradle

Service to Mormon Letters

• Neila Seshachari and Weber State University, for Weber Studies, Vol. 10.3, Tenth Anniversary Issue^[11]

Short Story

• Darrell Spencer for Our Secret's Out

Young Adult Literature

• Martine Bates for The Dragon's Tapestry and The Prism Moon^[8]

1994

Biography

• William G. Hartley for My Best for the Kingdom: John Lowe Butler, A Mormon Frontiersman

Criticism

• Gideon O. Burton for "Towards a Mormon Criticism: Should We Ask 'Is This Mormon Literature?'"

Drama

• Eric Samuelsen for "Accommodations: a Play in Three Acts"

Novel

• Anne Perry for The Sins of the Wolf

Personal Essay

• Richard D. Poll for "A Liahona Latter-day Saint"

Poetry

• Pamela Porter Hamblin for "Magi"

Short Fiction

• Wayne Jorgensen for "Who Tarzan, Who Jane"

Young Adult Literature

• Dean Hughes for The Trophy

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Samuel W. Taylor^[8][12]

1995

Biography

• Maureen Ursenbach Beecher for The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow

Criticism

• Michael Austin for "How to Be a Mormo-American; Or, The Function of Mormon Criticism at the Present Time"

Drama

• Tim Slover for March Tale

Essay

• Terry Tempest Williams for Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape

Novel

• Mack Hedges for Last Buckaroo

Poetry

• Marden J. Clark for "Snows"

Short Fiction

• Tory C. Anderson for "Epiphany"

Young Adult Literature

• Louise Plummer for The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman^[8]

1996

Biography

• Marian Robertson Wilson for Leroy Robertson: Music Giant from the Rockies

Children's Literature

• Rick Walton for You Don't Always Get What You Hope For

Criticism

• Bruce W. Jorgensen for "Heritage of Hostility: The Mormon Attack on Fiction in the 19th Century"; "Roughly One of the R's: Some Notes of a BYU Fiction Teacher (with a Pedantry of Endnotes)"

Drama

• Tim Slover for Joyful Noise

Novel

• Judith Freeman for A Desert of Pure Feeling

Personal Essay

• Kenneth O. Kemp for "3/4-inch Marine Ply"

Poetry

• Leslie Norris for Collected Poems

Short Fiction

• Paul Rawlins for No Lie Like Love: Stories

Young Adult Literature

• Pat Bezzant for Angie^[8]

1997

Criticism

• Richard Dilworth Rust for Feasting on the Word: The Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon

Devotional Literature

• Chieko N. Okazaki for Sanctuary

Drama

• Eric Samuelsen for Gadianton

Personal Essay

• Holly Welker for "What You Walk Away From"

Poetry

• Susan Elizabeth Howe for Stone Spirits

Short Fiction

• Brady Udall for "Beautiful Places"^[8]

1998

Devotional Literature

• Clark L. Kidd and Kathryn H. Kidd for A Convert's Guide to Mormon Life

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Jack Harrell for Vernal Promises

Novel

• Dean Hughes for Far from Home

Personal Essay

• Tom Plummer for Eating Chocolates and Dancing in the Kitchen: Sketches of Marriage and Family

Poetry

• Alex Caldiero for Various Atmospheres: Poems and Drawings

Short Fiction

• Helen Walker Jones for "The Six-Buck Fortune"

Young Adult Literature

• Martine Bates for The Taker's Key^[8]

1999

Devotional Literature

• Neal A. Maxwell for One More Strain of Praise

Drama

• Eric Samuelsen for The Way We're Wired

Novel

• Anne Perry for Tathea

Personal Essay

• Martha Beck for Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

Short Fiction

• Mary Clyde for Survival Rates^[8]

2000

Criticism

• Benson Parkinson

Devotional Literature

• Patricia Terry Holland for A Quiet Heart

Drama

• Margaret Blair Young for I Am Jane

Film

• Richard Dutcher for God's Army

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Richard Cracroft

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Alan Mitchell for Angel of the Danube

Novel

• Margaret Blair Young for One More River to Cross

Personal Essay

• Gordon B. Hinckley for Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes

Short Fiction

• Darrell Spencer for "Caution: Men in Trees"^[13]

2001

Children's Literature

• Don H. Staheli for The Story of the Walnut Tree

Criticism

• Dian Saderup Monson for "Believing in the Word"

Drama

• J. Scott Bronson for Stones

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Thomas F. Rogers

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• A. Jeff Call for Mormonville

Middle Grade Literature

• Carol Lynch Williams for My Angelica

Novel

• Brady Udall for The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint

Review

• Jeffrey Needle

Young Adult Literature

• Louise Plummer for A Dance for Three^[13]

2002

Drama

• Reed McColm for Hole in the Sky

Drama Honorable Mention

• Melissa Leilani Larson for Wake Me When It's Over
• Tim Slover for Hancock County

Film

• Christian Vuissa for Roots and Wings

Film Honorable Mention

• Andrew Black for "The Snell Show"
• Ryan Little for Out of Step

Film Adaptation

• Janine Whetton Gilbert for Charly

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Lavina Fielding Anderson
• Bruce Wayne Jorgensen

In Memoriam

• Neila C. Seshachari

Novel

• Chris Crowe for Mississippi Trial 1955

Picture Book

• Rick Walton for Bertie Was a Watchdog

Poetry

• Kimberly Johnson for Leviathan with a Hook

Short Fiction

• Susan Palmer for "Breakthrough" In Sunstone, issue 122, pages 42-45, April 2002.

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Karen Rosenbaum for "Out of the Woods"
• Linda Paulson Adams for "First"

Young Adult Literature

• Ann Edwards Cannon for Charlotte's Rose

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Martine Leavitt for The Dollmage
• Kimberley Heuston for The Shakeress^[14]

2003

Drama

• LeeAnne Hill Adams for Archipelago

Editing

• Chris Bigelow for Irreantum

Film Adaptation

• Anne K. Black, Jason Faller, and Katherine Swigert for 'Pride and Prejudice

Historical Fiction

• Margaret Blair Young for Standing on the Promises

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Janean Justham for House Dreams

Novel

• Douglas Thayer for The Conversion of Jeff Williams

Publishing

• BYU Studies

Short Fiction

• Coke Newell for "Toaster Road"

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• William Shunn for "The Day Pietro Coppino Spoke to the Mountain"
• Robert Van Wagoner for "A Good Sign"

Young Adult Literature

• Kimberley Heuston for Dante's Daughter

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Shannon Hale for The Goose Girl
• Kristen D. Randle for Slumming^[14]

2004

Criticism

• Meridian Magazine

Film

• Adam Abel for Saints and Soldiers

Middle Grade Literature

• Patricia Wiles for My Mom's a Mortician

Middle Grade Literature Honorable Mention

• Randall Wright for Hunchback

Novel

• P. G. Karamesines for The Pictograph Murders

Novel Honorable Mention

• Amber Esplin for Leaving Eden

Poetry

• John Talbot for The Well-Tempered Tantrum

Special Award Honorable Mention

• The J. Willard Marriott Library of the University of Utah

Young Adult Literature

• Shannon Hale for Enna Burning

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Mette Ivie Harrison for Mira, Mirror
• Janette Rallison for Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws^[15]

2005

Biography

• Richard Lyman Bushman for Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling

Criticism

• William Morris, P. G. Karamesines, Kent Larsen, and Eric Russell for A Motley Vision

Film

• Greg Whiteley for New York Doll

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Arianne B. Cope for The Coming of Elijah

Marilyn Brown Novel Award Honorable Mention

• Donald Marshall for Seeker

Novel

• Brandon Sanderson for Elantris

Novel Honorable Mention

• Orson Scott Card for Magic Street
• Roger Terry for God's Executioner

Poetry

• Lance Larsen for In All Their Animal Brilliance

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Dean Hughes for Children of the Promise

Special Award

• Michael and Laura Allred for The Golden Plates

Young Adult Literature

• Shannon Hale for Princess Academy
• Patricia Wiles for Funeral Home Evenings

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Dean Hughes for Search and Destroy
• David Farland for Of Mice and Magic, Ravenspell Book One^[15]

2006

Criticism

• Patricia Karamesines for "The Rhetoric of Stealing God"

Drama

• Tim Slover for Treasure

Film

• Annie Poon for The Book of Visions

Film Honorable Mention

• Melissa Puente for Sisterz in Zion
• Tom Russell for Angie

Novel

• Toni Sorensen Brown for Redemption Road

Novel Honorable Mention

• Orson Scott Card for Empire
• Brandon Sanderson for Mistborn

Personal Essay

• John Bennion for 'Like the Lilies of the Field'

Personal Essay Honorable Mention

• Wilfried Decoo for "The Unspeakable"
• Patricia Karamesines for "The Birds of Summer"

Service to AML

• Angela Hallstrom

Short Fiction

• Kristen Carson for Atta Boy'

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Virginia Baker for "And Cry the Name of David"
• Heather Marx for "Brother Singh"
• Aaron Orullian for "Judgement Day"

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Rick Walton

Special Award

• James V. D'Arc, Blaine L. Gale, E. Hunter Hale, and Richard I. Hale for Trapped By the Mormons

Young Adult Literature

• Brandon Mull for Fablehaven

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Shannon Hale for River Secrets
• Janette Rallison for It's a Mall World After All^[16]

2007

Biography

• Carol Cornwall Madsen for An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870-1920

Criticism

• Terryl L. Givens for People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture

Drama

• Carol Lynn Pearson for Facing East

Film

• Helen Whitney for The Mormons

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Todd Petersen for Rift

Marilyn Brown Novel Award Honorable Mention

• Helynne Hollstein Hansen for Voices at the Crossroads
• Janet Kay Jensen for Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys

Novel

• Coke Newell for On the Road to Heaven

Novel Finalists

• Austenland by Shannon Hale
• Before the Dawn by Dean Hughes
• The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
• The Boxmaker's Son by Donald Smurthwaite
• I Am Not Wolf by Roger Terry
• Effigy by Alissa York

Novel Honorable Mention

• Dean Hughes for Before the Dawn
• Brandon Sanderson for The Well of Ascension

Short Fiction

• Lisa Torcasso Downing for "Clothing Esther”

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Darin Cozzens for "Light of the New Day”
• Sigrid Olsen for "The Nature of Comets”

Short Fiction Finalists

• "Drought," Larry T. Menlove, Dialogue 40:3 (Fall 2007)
• "The Buzzard Tree," Johnny Townsend, Dialogue 40:4 (Winter 2007)

Young Adult Literature

• Ann Dee Ellis for This Is What I Did:

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Mette Ivie Harrison for The Princess and the Hound
• Brandon Sanderson for Alcatraz Vs. the Evil Librarians^[16]

Young Adult Literature Finalists

• Notes on a Near-Life Experience Olivia Birdsall
• Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
• Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
• Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star by Brandon Mull
• Finding Daddy by Louise Plummer

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Anne Perry

Special Award

• Segullah

Special Award Honorable Mention

• Gideon Burton for "Mormons and Film"

2008

Poetry

• Neil Aitken for The Lost Country of Sight
• Warren Hatch for Mapping the Bones of the World

Short Fiction

• Stephen Tuttle for "Amanuensis"

Novel

• Angela Hallstrom for Bound on Earth

Youth Fiction

• Brandon Mull for Fablehaven: The Grip of the Shadow Plague

Drama

• James Goldberg for Prodigal Son

Personal Essay

• Patrick Madden for "A Sudden Pull Behind the Heart"
• Stephen Carter for "Calling"

Film

• Christian Vuissa for Errand of Angels
• Ron Williams for Happy Valley

Special Award in Criticism

• Alan F. Keele

Special Award in Textual Criticism and Bibliography

• Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee and Richard L. Jensen for The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals Series, vol. 1, Journals 1832-1839

Special Award in History

• Richard E. Turley, Jr., Glen M. Leonard, and Ronald W. Walker for Massacre at Mountain Meadows

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Douglas H. Thayer

Lifetime AML Membership

• Terryl L. Givens^[17]

2009

Drama

• Melissa Leilani Larson for Little Happy Secrets

Film

• Jed Wells for Fire Creek

Humor

• Elna Baker for The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance

Memoir

• Kathryn Lynard Soper for The Year My Son and I Were Born

Novel

Todd Robert Petersen for Rift

Novel Honorable Mention

• Jamie Ford for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Online Writing

• Sandra Tayler for One Cobble at a Time

Poetry

• Lance Larsen for Backyard Alchemy

Publishing

• Christopher Bigelow for Zarahemla Books

Service to AML

• Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury

Short Fiction

• Larry Menlove for "Path of Antelope, Pelican, and Moon"

Young Adult Literature

• Carol Lynch Williams for The Chosen One^[17]

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Levi Peterson

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• James D'Arc

2010

Biography

• Marilyn Arnold for Bittersweet: A Daughter's Memoir

Criticism

• Grant Hardy for Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide

Drama / WebFilm

• Jeffrey Parkin & Jared Cardon for The Book of Jer3miah

Editing

• Eric W. Jepson for "Comics!" Sunstone #160
• Angela Hallstrom for Dispensation: Latter-day Fiction

Memoir

• George B. Handley for Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River

Novel

• Brady Udall for The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel

Online Writing

• Ardis Parshall for "Beards" on Keepapitchinin

Personal Essay

• Patrick Madden for Quotidiana

Poetry

• Marilyn Bushman-Carlton for Her Side of It: Poems

Service to AML

• Darlene Young

Short Fiction

• Jack Harrell for A Sense of Order and Other Stories

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Darin Cozzens for Light of the New Day

Smith-Pettit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Richard Cracroft

Young Adult Literature

• Ally Condie for Matched^[18]

2011

Biography

• Terryl L. Givens and Matthew J. Grow for Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism

Autobiography

• Emma Lou Warner Thayne for The Place of Knowing: a Spiritual Autobiography

Criticism

• Brant A. Gardner for The Gift and Power : Translating the Book of Mormon

Film

• Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten for Sons of Perdition

Special Award in Graphical Narrative

• Michael Dalton Allred for a lifetime of comic art

Novel

• Steven L. Peck for The Scholar of Moab

Personal Essay

• Adam Miller, for the body of his work published in 2011

Poetry

• Tyler Chadwick for editing Fire in the Pasture: Twenty-first Century Mormon Poets

Short Story

• David G. Pace for "American Trinity"

Short Fiction

• Doug Thayer for Wasatch: Short Stories and a Novella

Smith-Pettit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Marilyn Brown

Special Award in Literary Journalism

• Andrew Hall

Young Adult Novel

• Robison Wells for Variant

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Paul Colt for Boots and Saddles: A Call to Glory

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Gideon Burton^[19][20]

2012

Smith-Pettit Award

• Eric Samuelsen

Novel

• The Five Books of Jesus by James Goldberg

Devotional

• Terryl and Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life

Poetry

• Amytis Leaves Her Garden by Karen Kelsay

Award in Adaptation

• Michael Hicks for The Street-Legal Version of Mormon’s Book

Film

• Redemption, directed by Thomas Russell

Drama

• Roof Overhead by Mahonri Stewart

Short Fiction

• "Godshift" by Nancy Fulda (originally appeared in Daily Science Fiction)

Young Adult Novel

• Vodnik by Bryce Moore

Memoir/Creative Non Fiction

• The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks

Middle Grade Fiction Award

• False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Humor

• "Pat and Pete" by Larry Day (from his collection Day Dreaming: Tales from the Fourth Dementia)

Lifetime AML Membership

• Mahonri Stewart
• Christopher Bigelow^[21][22]

2013

Given out April 12, 2014.

Creative non-fiction

• Melissa Dalton-Bradford for Global Mom: Eight Countries, Sixteen Addresses, Five Languages, One Family

Drama

• Ariel Mitchell for A Second Birth

Film

• Garrett Batty for The Saratov Approach

Special Award

• Scott Hales for The Garden of Enid

Novel

• Sarah Eden Longing for Home

Poetry

• Alex Caldiero sonosuono (awarded on March 28, 2015)

Other finalists

• Susan Elizabeth Howe Salt
• Lance Larsen Genius Loci

Short Fiction

• Brad R. Torgersen “The Chaplain’s Legacy”. Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/August 2013 (awarded on March 28, 2015)

Other finalists

• “The Righteous Road” by Ryan Shoemaker, Silk Road Review, Summer/Fall 2013
• “Expiation” by Richard Dutcher, Sunstone 171, July 2013
• “Duplex” by Eric Freeze, Prairie Fire 34.1, Spring 2013
• “The Gift of Tongues” by Annette Haws, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Winter 2013

Smith-Pettit Award for service to Mormon Letters

• Charlotte Hawkins England

Outstanding Achievement Award

• Dean Hughes

Young Adult Fiction

• Cindy M. Hogan Gravediggers

Young Adult Speculative Fiction

• Brandon Sanderson for The Rithmatist^[23]

2014

Presented March 28, 2015, at the Utah Valley University Library.^[24]

Comics

• iPlates, Volume 2: Prophets, Priests, Rebels, and Kings by Stephen Carter and Jett Atwood

Creative non-fiction

• Hemingway on a Bike by Eric Freeze

Other finalists

• To the Mountain: One Mormon Woman’s Search for Spirit by Phyllis Barber
• Way Below the Angels: The Pretty Clearly Troubled But Not Even Close to Tragic Confessions of a Real Live Mormon Missionary by Craig Harline
• Hippie Boy: A Girl’s Story by Ingrid Ricks

Criticism

• Ender’s World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card, editor

Other finalists

• “Of Many Hearts and Many Minds: The Mormon Novel and the Post-Utopian Challenge of Assimilation” by Scott Hales. Dissertation, University of Cincinnati
• “Toward a Mormon Literary Theory” by Jack Harrell. BYU Studies Quarterly 53.3, 2014

Drama

• Pride and Prejudice by Melissa Leilani Larsen

Other finalists

• The Weaver of Raveloe by Erika Glenn and Melissa Leilani Larsen
• Single Wide by George Nelson and Jordan Kamalu
• Evening Eucalyptus by Mahonri Stewart

Film

• Saints and Soldiers: The Void, Ryan Little, director

Other finalists

• Inspired Guns, Adam White, director
• The Last Straw, Rob Diamond, director
• Meet the Mormons, Blair Treu, director
• Mitt, Greg Whiteley, director

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Lance Larsen
• Karen Rosenbaum

Middle Grade Novel

• The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

• Honorable Mention: The End or Something Like That by Ann Dee Ellis

Other finalists

• Almost Super by Marion Jensen
• Time of the Fireflies by Kimberley Griffiths Little
• Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull

Novel

• City of Brick and Shadow by Tim Wirkus

• Honorable Mention: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Other finalists

• A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray
• The Bishop’s Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison
• The Thieves of Summer by Linda Sillitoe

Picture Book

• Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Courageous Women from the Bible by McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding, illustrated by Kathleen Peterson

• Honorable Mention: The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Other finalists

• Fetch by Adam Glendon Sidwell, illustrated by Edwin Rhemrev
• The World According to Musk Ox by Erin Cabatingan, illustrated by Matthew Myers
• The Tooth Fairy Wars by Kate Coombs, illustrated by Jake Parker

Poetry

• Picture Dictionary by Kristen Eliason

Other finalists

• Uncommon Prayer and Made Flesh: Sacrament and Poetics in Post-Reformation England by Kimberly Johnson
• In the Museum of Coming and Going by Laura Stott

Religious Non-Fiction

• Re-Reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World’s Greatest Poem by Michael Austin

Other finalists

• Seeking the Promised Land by David E. Campbell, John C. Green, and J. Quin Monson. Cambridge University Press
• Wresting the Angel by Terryl Givens

Short Fiction

• “Two-Dog Dose” by Steven L. Peck, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 2014

Other finalists

• “Recollection” by Nancy Fulda, Carbide Tipped Pens
• “Anatomy” by Tim Wirkus, Weird Fiction Review, June 2014
• “Jesus Enough” by Levi S. Peterson, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Winter 2014

Smith–Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Margaret Blair Young

Young Adult General Novel

• Death Coming Up the Hill by Chris Crowe

Other finalists

• Forbidden by Kimberley Griffiths Little
• On the Fence by Kasie West
• Signed, Skye Harper by Carol Lynch Williams
• Stronger than You Know by Jolene Perry

Young Adult Speculative Novel

• Atlantia by Ally Condie

Other finalists

• The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg
• The Unhappening of Genesis Lee by Shallee McArthur
• Son of War, Daughter of Chaos by Janette Rallison
• Ruins by Dan Wells
• Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White

2015

Presented March 5, 2016, at the Heber J. Grant building on Brigham Young University-Hawaii campus.^[25]

The Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Phyllis Barber^[26]

The Association for Mormon Letters Lifetime Achievement Award

• Donald R. Marshall^[26]

Special Awards for Scholarly Publishing

• The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism edited by Terryl L. Givens and Philip L. Barlow
• Nephi Anderson's Dorian: A Peculiar Edition With Annotated Text & Scholarship edited by Eric W. Jepson

Comics^[27]

• Dendō: One Year and One Half in Japan by Brittany Long Olsen

Other finalists

• Stripling Warrior by Brian Andersen and James Neish
• My Hot Date by Noah van Sciver

Creative Non-Fiction^[28]

• My Wife Wants You to Know I’m Happily Married by Joey Franklin

Other finalists

• The Accidental Terrorist by William Shunn
• Fresh Courage Take: New Directions by Mormon Women edited by Jamie Zvirzdin

Criticism^[27]

• Jana Riess "Mormon Popular Culture" from the first of the two nominated collections below

• The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism edited by Terryl L. Givens and Philip L. Barlow

Other finalists

• Nephi Anderson's Dorian: A Peculiar Edition With Annotated Text & Scholarship edited by Eric W. Jepson

Drama^[27]

• Pilot Program by Melissa Leilani Larson

Other finalists

• A/Version of Events by Matthew Ivan Bennett
• Princess Academy by Lisa Hall Hagen, adapted from Shannon Hale

Film^[29]

• Peace Officer

Other finalists

• Christmas Eve
• Freetown
• Just Let Go
• Once I Was a Beehive

Lyrics^[30]

• The Desired Effect from Brandon Flowers

Other finalists

• Smoke + Mirrors from Imagine Dragons
• Ones and Sixes from Low
• Until I Live from The National Parks

Middle Grade Novel^[31]

• Mothman’s Curse by Christine Hayes

Other finalists

• A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
• Mysteries of Cove: Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage
• The Sound of Life and Everything by Krista Van Dolzer
• Survival Strategies of the Almost Brave by Jen White

Novel^[32]

• Sistering by Jennifer Quist

Other finalists

• The Agitated Heart by J. Scott Bronson
• Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia
• His Right Hand by Mette Ivie Harrison

Picture Book^[30]

• Zombelina Dances the Nutcracker by Kristyn Crow

Other finalists

• Talon Wrestles an Anaconda by Auntie M (McArthur Krishna)
• Girls Who Choose God: Stories of strong women from the Book of Mormon by McArthur Krishna, Bethany Brady Spalding, and Kathleen Peterson
• Job Wanted by Teresa Bateman

Poetry^[30]

• Hive by Christina Stoddard

Other finalists

• Glyphs by Colin Douglas
• Lake of Fire: Landscape Meditations from the Great Basin Deserts of Nevada by Justin Evans
• Let Me Drown With Moses by James Goldberg

Religious Non-Fiction^[28]

• Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History by Brant A. Gardner

Other finalists

• The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism edited by Terryl L. Givens and Philip L. Barlow
• Postponing Heaven: The Three Nephites, the Bodhisattva, and the Mahdi by Jad Hatem, translated by Jonathon Penny
• Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt by Patrick Q. Mason

• Relational Grace: The Reciprocal and Binding Covenant of Charis by Brent J. Schmidt

Short Story^[32]

• "Remainder" by Spencer Hyde

Other finalists

• "The Naked Woman" by Theric Jepson
• "Absolute Zero" by Scott Parkin
• "An Immense Darkness" by Eric James Stone

Short-Story Collection^[32]

• Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Wives by Karen Rosenbaum

Other finalists

• Dark Watch and Other Mormon-American Stories by William Morris
• Wandering Realities: Mormonish Short Fiction by Steve L. Peck

Young Adult Nove'^[31]

• The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

Other finalists

• Shutter by Courtney Alameda
• Ink and Ashes by Valynne Maetani
• Firefight by Brandon Sanderson
• Fish Out of Water by Natalie Whipple

2016

Presented at Utah Valley University, April 22, 2017.^[33]

The Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Orson Scott Card^[34]

The Association for Mormon Letters Lifetime Achievement Award

• Susan Elizabeth Howe^[35]

Comics

• Precious Rascals by Anthony Holden

Other finalists

• Mormon Shorts, Vol. 1 by Scott Hales
• White Sand by Brandon Sanderson (story), Rik Hoskin (script), Julius Gopez (art), and Ross Campbell (colors)

Creative Non-fiction

• Sublime Physick by Patrick Madden

Honorable Mention

• Baring Witness: 36 Mormon Women Talk Candidly about Love, Sex and Marriage edited by Holly Welker

Other finalists

• Immortal for Quite Some Time by Scott Abbott
• The Latter Days: A Memoir by Judith Freeman
• One Hundred Birds Taught me to Fly by Ashley Mae Hoiland

Criticism

• Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft, and Mormonism by Jack Harrell

Drama

• Burn by Morag Shepherd

Other finalists

• Gregorian by Matthew Greene
• Kingdom of Heaven by Jenifer Nii
• The King’s Men by Javen Tanner

Film

• The Split House by Annie Poon

Other finalists

• Masterminds by Jared Hess
• The Next Door by Barrett Burgin
• Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made by Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen
• Saturday’s Warrior by Michael Buster

Middle Grade Novel

• Summerlost by Ally Condie

Other finalists

• The Kidnap Plot: The Incredible Adventures of Clockwork Charlie by Dave Butler
• Cinnamon Moon by Tess Hilmo
• Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff

Novel

• Over Your Dead Body by Dan Wells

Other finalists

• Slave Queen by Heather. B. Moore
• Pigs When they Straddle the Air by Julie J. Nichols
• Daredevils by Shawn Vestal

Picture Book

• Our Heavenly Family, Our Earthly Families by McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding. Illustrated by Caitlin Connolly

Other finalists

• What Would It Be Like by McArthur Krishna, Illustrated by Ayeshe Sadr & Ishaan Dasgupta
• She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero by Loki Mulholland and Angela Fairwell. Illustrated by Charlotte Janssen
• Defenders of the Family by Benjamin Hyrum White. Illustrated by Jay Fontana

Poetry

• Strange Terrain by Matthew James Babcock

Other finalists

• Leviathan by Neil Aitken
• flicker by Lisa Bickmore
• Who is the Dancer, What is the Dance by Alex Caldiero
• Kill February by Jeffrey Tucker

Religious Non-fiction

• As Iron Sharpens Iron: Listening to the Various Voices of Scripture edited by Julie M. Smith

Other finalists

• Nothing New Under the Sun: A Blunt Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes by Adam S. Miller
• The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy by Carol Lynn Pearson
• The Vision of All: Twenty-five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi’s Record by Joseph M. Spencer

Special Award for Religious Non-fiction Publishing

• Let Your Hearts and Minds Expand: Reflections on Faith, Reason, Charity, and Beauty by Thomas F. Rogers, edited by Jonathan Langford and Linda Hunter Adams

Short Fiction

• "Kid Kirby" by Levi S. Peterson (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 49:2, Summer 2016)

Other finalists

• "And Thorns Will Grow There" by Emily Belanger, Sunstone #180, Spring 2016
• "Light as Wings" by Spencer Hyde, Glimmer Train. Fall 2016, #97
• "The Mandelbrot Set" by Heidi Naylor, Sunstone Magazine, #182, Fall 2016
• "Incomplete Slaughter" by Steven L. Peck, The Colored Lens, Summer 2016
• "Purytans" by Brad R. Torgersen, Analog: Science Fact and Fiction, July/Aug 2016

Short Fiction Collection

• The Last Blessing of J. Guyman LeGrand and Other Stories by Darin Cozens

Other finalists

• Invisible Men by Eric Freeze
• Windows into Hell by various authors, edited by James Wymore

Video Series

• Last Chance U Greg Whiteley, director

Other finalists

• Adam & Eve Davey & Bianca Morrison Dillard, directors
• Studio C Jared Shores and Matt Meese, co-creators
• The Talking Fly Steve Olpin, director

Young Adult Novel

• The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

Other finalists

• The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry
• And I Darken by Kiersten White

2017

The final winners were presented March, 23 2018.

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters^[36]

• Lavina Fielding Anderson

AML Lifetime Achievement Award^[36]

• Robert Kirby

Novel^[37]

• Gilda Trillim: Shepherdess of Rats by Steven L. Peck

• The Field is White by Claire Åkebrand
• Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan
• Prayers in Bath by Luisa Perkins
• Nothing Left to Lose by Dan Wells

Short fiction^[37]

• "The Pew" by Alison Maeser Brimley (originally published in Dialogue)

• "Le Train à Grande Vitesse" R.A. Christmas (originally published in Dialogue)
• "The Thicket" by Bradeigh Godfrey (originally published in Sunstone)
• "Jane’s Journey" by Heidi Naylor (originally published in Sunstone)
• "Bishop Johansen Rescues a Lost Soul: A Tale of Pleasant Grove" by Steven L. Peck (originally published in Dialogue)

Creative nonfiction^[38]

• That We May Be One: A Gay Mormon’s Perspective on Faith and Family by Tom Christofferson

• Learning to Like Life: A Tribute to Lowell Bennion by George B. Handley
• The Burning Point by Tracy McKay
• Open Midnight: Where Ancestors and Wilderness Meet by Brooke Williams

Notable mentions

• Heterodoxologies: Essays by Matthew James Babcock
• The OCD Mormon: Finding healing and hope in the midst of anxiety by Kari Ferguson
• Do Clouds Rest? Dementiadventures with Mom by Michael Hicks

Religious nonfiction^[38]

• What is Mormonism? A Student’s Introduction by Patrick Q. Mason

• Feeding the Flock: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Church and Praxis by Terryl L. Givens
• The Sun Has Burned My Skin by Adam S. Miller
• Perspectives on Mormon Theology: Apologetics edited by Blair G. Van Dyke and Loyd Isao Ericson

Middle-grade novel^[39]

• You May Already Be A Winner by Ann Dee Ellis

• Under Locker and Key by Allison K. Hymas
• Mustaches for Maddie by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown
• Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry
• Paper Chains by Elaine Vickers

Young-adult novel

• Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

• Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKell George
• The Duke of Bannerman Prep by Katie A. Nelson
• Last Star Burning by Caitlin Sangster
• Now I Rise by Kiersten White

Comics^[40]

• Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham

• Batman ’66 / Legion of Super Heroes #1 (DC Comics) by Lee Allred, Michael Allred, Laura Allred
• The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl, Vol. 2. by Scott Hales
• Comic Diaries by Brittany Long Olsen
• Necropolis by Jake Wyatt and Kathryn Wyatt

Picture book^[40]

• Colour Blocked by Ashley Sorenson and David W. Miles

• Heroic Stories from The Book of Mormon by Shauna Gibby and Casey Nelson
• Quiet as a Church Mouse by Stephen Bevan and Jeff Harvey

Drama^[41]

• Virtue by Tim Slover

• The Drown’ed Book, or the History of William Shakespeare, Part Last by Mahonri Stewart
• Not One Drop by Morag Shepherd

Film^[41]

• Socorro written and directed by Marshal Davis

• The Man in the Camo Jacket written and directed by Russ Kendall
• Out of the Ground written and directed by Barret Burgin
• A Pug & Wolf Christmas created by Davey and Bianca Morrison Dillard
• We Love You, Sally Carmichael! written by Daryn Tufts and directed by Christopher Gorham

Criticism^[42]

• “The Second Coming of Mormon Music,” by Michael Hicks from The Kimball Challenge at Fifty: Mormon Arts Center Essays (part of original nominee The Kimball Challenge at Fifty: Mormon Arts Center Essays from Mormon Arts Center)

• On the Problem and Promise of Alex Caldiero’s Sonosophy: Doing Dialogical Coperformative Ethnography; Or, Enter the Poetarium by Tyler Chadwick

Anthology^[42]

• Moth and Rust: Mormon Encounters with Death edited by Stephen Carter

• Seasons of Change: Stories of Transition from the Writers of Segullah edited by Shelah Mastny Miner and Sandra Clark Jergensen
• States of Deseret edited by Wm Morris

Poetry^[42]

• Mother's Milk by Rachel Hunt Steenblik

• Babbage’s Dream by Neil Aitken
• What Was Left of the Stars by Claire Åkebrand
• Ephemerist by Lisa Bickmore
• Owning the Moon by Linda Sillitoe

Special Award in Religious Non-Fiction Publishing

• Proceedings of the Mormon Theology Seminar, published by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship’s Mormon Theology Seminar, Adam S. Miller, director

See also

• Whitney Awards

References