AML Awards

The AML Awards are given annually by the Association for Mormon Letters 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 in 2013, the AML began creating a shortlist in certain categories. Beginning in 2015, all wins were preceded by announced shortlists.

1977

Presented at the Third Annual Symposium, held at the Marriott Library, University of Utah, on October 7, 1978.

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

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

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

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^[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

(lost)

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 The Editors of 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 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"

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

Honorary Lifetime Membership'^[10]'

• Emma Lou Thayne
• Richard Scowcroft

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]

1993

Biography

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

Children's Literature

• Michael O. Tunnell for Chinook!

Drama

• Neil Labute for In the Company of Men

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

• Eugene England for "Monte Cristo"

Poetry

• Linda Sillitoe for "Crazy Living"

Sermon

• Chieko N. Okazaki for Lighten Up!

Service to Mormon Letters

• Neila Seshachari

Short Fiction

• Darrell Spencer for "Our Secret's Out"

Young Adult Literature

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

1994

Biography

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

Criticism

• Gideon O. Burton

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][11]

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 A March Tale

Novel

• Mack Hedges for Last Buckaroo

Personal Essay

• Terry Tempest Williams for "Desert Quartet"

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"^[12]

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^[12]

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"

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^[13]

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^[13]

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^[14]

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^[14]

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^[15]

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 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”

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"

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^[15]

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-Petit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Douglas H. Thayer

Lifetime AML Membership

• Terryl L. Givens^[16]

2009

Drama

• Melissa Leilani Larson for Little Happy Secrets

Film

• Jed Wells for Fire Creek

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• James D'Arc

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"

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Levi Peterson

Young Adult Literature

• Carol Lynch Williams for The Chosen One ^[16]

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^[17]

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

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^[18][19]

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^[20][21]

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-Petit 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^[22]

2014

Given out March 28, 2015, at the Utah Valley University Library.^[23]

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.^[24]

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

• Phyllis Barber^[25]

The Association for Mormon Letters Lifetime Achievement Award

• Donald R. Marshall^[25]

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^[26]

• 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^[27]

• 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^[26]

• 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^[26]

• 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^[28]

• Peace Officer

Other finalists

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

Lyrics^[29]

• 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^[30]

• 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^[31]

• 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^[29]

• 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^[29]

• 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^[27]

• 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^[31]

• “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^[31]

• 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 Novel^[30]

• 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

See also

• Whitney Awards

Citation notes

References