On the heels of Mormonism for Dummies
and the hilarious Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer
, Bigelow leans on his background as founding editor of the Mormon literary magazine Irreantum
to explore questions of LDS writing and literature. This anthology of interviews with 28 LDS authors explores a range of genres from young adult romance to screenplays, poetry to sci-fi and fantasy. Powerhouses like novelists Levi Peterson and Terry Tempest Williams, essayist Eugene England, filmmaker Richard Dutcher and humorist Robert Kirby all weigh in. The questions go from the sublime (Is there a coherent Mormon literary scene? Will there ever be an LDS Saul Bellow or Flannery O'Connor? What is faithful writing?) to the nuts and bolts of writing habits, publishing houses and marketing. It has some blatant holes in its roster (no Gerald Lund or Orson Scott Card), but most of all it lacks an epilogue from the editor that could have provided some analysis of recurring themes and internal debates. That work is left entirely to the reader. Nevertheless, this collection will be valuable to the growing field of Mormon studies and will be a must-read for aspiring LDS writers. (May)
