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 small panel of judges.

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

Criticism

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

Poetry

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

Short Fiction

• Douglas H. Thayer for "Under the Cottonwoods"
• Donald Marshall for "Frost in the Orchard"

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"

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

1980

Biography

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

Criticism

• Linda Sillitoe for "New Voices, New Songs: Contemporary Poems by Mormon Women"

Novel

• Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown for The Earthkeepers

Poetry

• Emma Lou Thayne for "Once in Israel"

1981

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"

1982

(lost)

1983

Criticism

• 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

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

1984

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

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

• Emma Lou Thayne

Short Fiction

• Neal C. Chandler for "Benediction"

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"

1987

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

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)

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

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"

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"

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"

Short Fiction

• Michael Fillerup for "Lost and Found"

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

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

• Orson Scott Card for Lost Boys

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

• Margaret Blair Young for "Elegies and Love Songs"

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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

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"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2014

Given out March 28, 2015, at the Utah Valley University Library.

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.

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

• Phyllis Barber

The Association for Mormon Letters Lifetime Achievement Award

• Donald R. Marshall

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

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

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

Creative Non-Fiction

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

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

Criticism

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

Drama

• Pilot Program by Melissa Leilani Larson

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

Film

• Peace Officer

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

Lyrics

• The Desired Effect from Brandon Flowers

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

Middle Grade Novel

• Mothman’s Curse by Christine Hayes

• 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

• Sistering by Jennifer Quist

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

Picture Book

• Zombelina Dances the Nutcracker by Kristyn Crow

• 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

• Hive by Christina Stoddard

• 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

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

• 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

• “Remainder” by Spencer Hyde

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

Short-Story Collection

• Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Wives by Karen Rosenbaum

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

Young Adult Novel

• The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

• 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