AML Awards
The AML Awards are given annually by the Association for Mormon Letters to the best work "by, for, and about Mormons."
The award categories vary from year to year depending on what the AML decides is worthy of honor.
1977
Criticism
- Clifton Holt Jolley for "The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith: An Archetypal Study"
Poetry
Short Fiction
1978
Criticism
- Steven P. Sondrup for "Literary Dimensions of Mormon Autobiography"
Poetry Honorable Mention
- Clinton F. Larson for "The Western World "
- Marden J. Clark for "God's Plenty"
- Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown for "Grandmother"
Short Fiction
Short Fiction Honorable Mention
- Karen Rosenbaum for "Hit the Frolicking, Rippling Brooks"[2]
1979
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[3]
1980
Biography
Criticism
- Linda Sillitoe for "New Voices, New Songs: Contemporary Poems by Mormon Women"
Novel
Poetry
1981
Criticism
- George S. Tate for "The Typology of the Exodus Pattern in the Book of Mormon"
Poetry
Poetry and Short Fiction
Short Fiction
- Robert A. Christmas for "Another Angel"[5]
1982
(lost)
1983
Criticism Honorable Mention
- Eugene England for "The Dawning of a Brighter Day: Mormon Literature after 150 Years"
Drama
- Thomas F. Rogers for God's Fools: Plays of the Mitigated Conscience
Editing & Publishing Honorable Mention
Humor Honorable Mention
- Calvin Grondahl for Freeway to Perfection
- Clifton Holt Jolley for "Selling the Chevrolet: A Moral Exercise"
Novel
Poetry
Poetry Honorable Mention
- Holly Ann Welker for "Feet";"Patience";"On My Father's 50th Birthday";"The Birthday Present"
Sermon Honorable Mention
Short Fiction
Special Award Honorable Mention
1984
Editing & Publishing
Novel
Personal Essay
- Eugene England for A Dialogue with Myself: Personal Essays on Mormon Experience
Special Award
1985
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
Short Fiction
- Neal C. Chandler for "Benediction"[8]
1986
Children’s Literature
- Steve Wunderlie (author) and Brent Watts (illustrator) for Marty’s World
Personal and Family-History Book
- Myrtle McDonald for No Regrets
Personal and Family-History Essay
- Paul M. Edwards for "When Will the Little Woman Come Out of the House?"
Short Story
- Michael Fillerup for "Hozohoogoo Nanina Doo"
Poetry
- Dennis Marden Clark for "Sunwatch"
Personal Essay
- Susan Taber for "In Jeopardy Every Hour"
Religious literature
- Dennis Rasmussen for The Lord’s Question
Novel
1987
Criticism
- Bruce W. Jorgensen for "Romantic Lyric Form and Western Mormon Experience in the Stories of Douglas Thayer"
Novel
Personal Essay
- Mary Lythgoe Bradford for "Leaving Home"
Poetry
- Robert A. Christmas for "Self-Portrait as Brigham Young"
Short Fiction
1988
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)[11]
Honorary Lifetime Membership
1989
Criticism
- Michael Hicks for Mormonism and Music: A History
- Dennis Clark for "Mormon Poetry Now!: The State of the Art"
Editing & Publishing
Novel
- Judith Freeman for The Chinchilla Farm
Personal Essay
Poetry
- Susan Elizabeth Howe for "Things in the Night Sky"
Short Fiction
- Pauline Mortensen for "Back Before the World Turned Nasty"[13]
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"[14]
1991
Biography
Editing & Publishing
Novel
Personal Essay
Poetry
- Philip White for "Island Spring"
Short Fiction
- Michael Fillerup for "Lost and Found"
Young Adult Literature
1992
Biography
- Rudi Wobbe for Before the Blood Tribunal
Children's Literature
- Barbara J. Porter for All Kinds of Answers
Honorary Lifetime Membership
- Marden J. Clark
- Edward L. Hart
- Clinton F. Larson
- William Mulder
- Helen Cardland Stark
- Virginia Eggertsen
- Sorensen Waugh
- Maurine Whipple
Novel
Personal Essay
- Marden J. Clark for Liberating Form: Mormon Essays on Religion and Literature
Poetry
- Kathy Evans for "Wednesday Morning"; "Midweek"; "Eight Windows"; "Vows"; "Love to the Second Power"
Short Fiction
1993
Biography
- Phyllis Barber for How I Got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir
Children's Literature
- Michael O. Tunnell for Chinook!
Drama
Editing & Publishing
- M. Shayne Bell for Washed by a Wave of Wind: Science Fiction from the Corridor
Novel
- Gerald N. Lund for Thy Gold to Refine
- Leslie Beaton Hedley for Twelve Sisters
Personal Essay
Poetry
Sermon
Service to Mormon Letters
Short Fiction
- Darrell Spencer for "Our Secret's Out"
Young Adult Literature
1994
Biography
- William G. Hartley for My Best for the Kingdom: John Lowe Butler, A Mormon Frontiersman
Criticism
Drama
Novel
Personal Essay
Poetry
- Pamela Porter Hamblin for "Magi"
Short Fiction
- Wayne Jorgensen for "Who Tarzan, Who Jane"
Young Adult Literature
Honorary Lifetime Membership
1995
Biography
Criticism
- Michael Austin for "How to Be a Mormo-American; Or, The Function of Mormon Criticism at the Present Time"
Drama
- Tim Slover for A March Tale
Novel
- Mack Hedges for Last Buckaroo
Personal Essay
Poetry
- Marden J. Clark for "Snows"
Short Fiction
- Tory C. Anderson for "Epiphany"
Young Adult Literature
1996
Biography
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
Short Fiction
- Paul Rawlins for No Lie Like Love: Stories
Young Adult Literature
- Pat Bezzant for Angie[21]
1997
Criticism
- Richard Dilworth Rust for Feasting on the Word: The Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon
Devotional Literature
Drama
Personal Essay
- Holly Welker for "What You Walk Away From"
Poetry
- Susan Elizabeth Howe for Stone Spirits
Short Fiction
1998
Devotional Literature
- Clark L. Kidd for A Convert's Guide to Mormon Life
Marilyn Brown Novel Award
- Jack Harrell for Vernal Promises
Novel
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
1999
Devotional Literature
Drama
Novel
Personal Essay
- Martha Beck for Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
Short Fiction
2000
Criticism
Devotional Literature
Drama
Film
Honorary Lifetime Membership
Marilyn Brown Novel Award
- Alan Mitchell for Angel of the Danube
Novel
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"[25]
2001
Children's Literature
Criticism
- Dian Saderup Monson for "Believing in the Word"
Drama
- J. Scott Bronson for Stones
Honorary Lifetime Membership
Marilyn Brown Novel Award
- A. Jeff Call for Mormonville
Middle Grade Literature
- Carol Lynch Williams for My Angelica
Novel
Review
Young Adult Literature
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
Film Honorable Mention
Film Adaptation
- Janine Whetton Gilbert for Charly
Honorary Lifetime Membership
In Memoriam
Novel
Picture Book
- Rick Walton for Bertie Was a Watchdog
Poetry
- Kimberly Johnson for Leviathan with a Hook
Short Fiction Susan Palmer for "Breakthrough"
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
2003
Drama
- LeeAnne Hill Adams for Archipelago
Editing
Film Adaptation
Historical Fiction
Marilyn Brown Novel Award
- Janean Justham for House Dreams
Novel
Publishing
Short Fiction
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
2004
Criticism
Film
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
Young Adult Literature
Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention
- Mette Ivie Harrison for Mira, Mirror
- Janette Rallison for Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws[29]
2005
Biography
Criticism
- William Morris, P. G. Karamesines, Kent Larsen, and Eric Russell for A Motley Vision
Film
Marilyn Brown Novel Award
Marilyn Brown Novel Award Honorable Mention
- Donald Marshall for Seeker
Novel
Novel Honorable Mention
Poetry
- Lance Larsen for In All Their Animal Brilliance
Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters
Special Award
Young Adult Literature
Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention
- Dean Hughes for Search and Destroy
- David Farland for Of Mice and Magic, Ravenspell Book One[30]
2006
Criticism
- Patricia Karamesines for "The Rhetoric of Stealing God"
Drama
Film
Film Honorable Mention
- Melissa Puente for Sisterz in Zion
- Tom Russell for Angie
Novel
- Toni Sorensen Brown for Redemption Road
Novel Honorable Mention
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
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
Special Award
- James V. D'Arc, Blaine L. Gale, E. Hunter Hale, and Richard I. Hale for Trapped By the Mormons
Young Adult Literature
Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention
2007
Biography
Criticism
Drama
Film
Marilyn Brown Novel Award
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
Novel Honorable Mention
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”
Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters
Special Award
Special Award Honorable Mention
- Gideon Burton for "Mormons and Film"
Young Adult Literature
- Ann Dee Ellis for This Is What I Did:
Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention
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
Drama
- James Goldberg for Prodigal Son
Personal Essay
- Patrick Madden for "A Sudden Pull Behind the Heart"
- Stephen Carter for "Calling"
Film
Special Award in Criticism
Special Award in Textual Criticism and Bibliography
Special Award in History
Smith-Petit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters
Lifetime AML Membership
2009
Drama
- Melissa Leilani Larson for Little Happy Secrets
Film
Honorary Lifetime Membership
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
Novel Honorable Mention
- Jamie Ford for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Online Writing
Poetry
- Lance Larsen for Backyard Alchemy
Publishing
- Christopher Bigelow for Zarahemla Books
Service to AML
Short Fiction
- Larry Menlove for "Path of Antelope, Pelican, and Moon"
Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters
Young Adult Literature
- Carol Lynch Williams for The Chosen One [34]
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
Editing
- Eric W. Jepson for "Comics!" Sunstone #160
- Angela Hallstrom for Dispensation: Latter-day Fiction
Memoir
- George Handley for Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River
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
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
Young Adult Literature
See also
References