The Red Brick Store

Irreantum Fiction Contest Winners

The Association for Mormon Letters is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Irreantum fiction contest. A committee of judges considered 71 entries and awarded three cash prizes.

First place ($250): “A Confession,” by Lisa Rubilar of Niskayuna, New York

Second place ($175): “Abominations,” by Heather Halcrow of Orem, Utah

Third place ($100): “When We Remembered Zion,” by Thom Duncan of Sandy, Utah

Next year’s fiction contest will be announced in early 2010. With no official connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Irreantum fiction contest is supported by the Utah Arts Council, with funding from the State of Utah and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

Irreantum 2009 Charlotte and Eugene England Personal Essay Contest Winners

The Association for Mormon Letters is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Charlotte and Eugene England Personal Essay contest. A committee of judges considered 42 entries and awarded three cash prizes as well as two honorable mentions.

First place ($200): “Mornings and Nights,” by Melissa Inouye of Costa Mesa, California

Second place ($150): “Reluctant Saints,” by Alison Stone Roberg of Bridgewater, New Jersy

Third place ($100): “Garden of Dead,” by Catherine Curtis of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Honorable mentions were given to “Blue,” by Stephen Carter of Lyman, Wyoming and “The Missionary,” by Stephen David Grover of Sugarland, Texas.

Next year’s personal essay contest will be announced in early 2010. With no official connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Charlotte and Eugene England Personal Essay Contest is funded through the estate of Eugene England.

Congratulations to all the winners!

August 31st, 2009 | Tags: essay contest, fiction contest, Irreantum, prizes, winners | Category: Irreantum | Comments (1)

When is an angel helpful to a piece of writing? It’s a question that crossed my mind a few times as I helped judge a fiction contest recently. Two of the stories had angels in them. In the first story, the angel appeared at the beginning. In the second, it appeared at the end. One appearance annoyed me. The other intrigued me. Can you guess which was which?

What does an angel do to a story? Functionally, it seems to me that angels represent the absolute value that drives the story. They embody that which lies at the heart of the story’s value system. The question, then, is where is that value best placed for maximum dramatic value?

Depends on how you look at the function of a protagonist. More »

August 26th, 2009 | Category: Sunstone | Comments (21)

by Features Editor Shelah Miner

I’ve had a very grumpy weekend. My husband was on call, which never does much for my mood, and I’m feeling the crunch of all the things that need to be done before school starts next week (but not the accompanying motivation to actually hit the mall and Target and Office Max). Most of all, I’ve been peevish because I know that a great party has been going on practically in my backyard, yet I’m on the other side of town, refereeing fights and going to piano recitals and folding laundry.

When we lived in Missouri and Minnesota and Texas, we’d get information about the Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium in the mail, and I’d sigh and say, “If we ever move to Utah, I’m there.” So we moved, and I came. But you probably didn’t see me (not that you were looking). Because instead of listening to speakers, attending dinners, devotionals and sing-a-longs, meeting old friends in the hallway, and singing karaoke late into the night, I got babysitters only for the two panel discussions on which I was participating, then rushed home to do the mom thing. I got enough of a glimpse of how much fun everyone else was having (through their blog posts and tweets and facebook status updates) that I’ve felt very jealous all weekend.

So next year, my husband and I have a plan. We’re going to sign up for the symposium, book a hotel downtown, find someone to keep the kids for the weekend, and tell everyone we’re going someplace sexy, like maybe Vegas or San Diego. No one will have to know that we’re only five miles away– close enough to rush home to change that exceedingly poopy diaper or drive the kids to soccer practice. Instead, we’ll be tourists in our hometown. I can’t wait.

Since I didn’t make it to much, rub it in. Tell me about all the great stuff I missed.

August 16th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (4)

The 2009 Symposium is in full gear!

While the participants at The Red Brick Store are busy mingling and presenting, you can still join us at the Sheraton in downtown Salt Lake. There are single session and single day registration options available, with some great discussions and presentations planned.

And tonight – free! – come visit with our blogging friends. We’re getting together for an informal party after the Friday plenary session, right around 10 PM. Stephen Carter is going to perform his Riverdance routine to a selection from Pantera. Seriously, don’t miss it.

Read more reports about Symposium:

Mommy Blogging, expanded! MormonTimes – The ‘travails and triumphs’ of Mormon mommies blogging http://bit.ly/x1U5X

MormonTimes – Sunstone Symposium: Why Emma stayed in Nauvoo http://bit.ly/z8bri

Deseret News | Sunstone speaker says church can learn from Toyota http://bit.ly/1eCQwD

Deseret News | Sunstone Symposium: Speaker discusses women’s religious feats http://bit.ly/uAmTo

MormonTimes – Sunstone Symposium: Anti-debt diva dispenses ideas http://bit.ly/Jk96T

August 14th, 2009 | Category: Sunstone | Leave a comment

Because the Sunstone symposium is starting on Thursday. Everyone from this blog will be there, as well as many from Feminist Mormon Housewives, By Common Consent, and Times and Seasons. We’ll be hosting the Bloggersnacker at around 10 p.m. Friday night. Come meet your favorite bloggers. Bask in their intellect, marvel at their eloquence, ascend into paroxyms of joy as they utter, “That would make a great blog post!”

The symposium takes place Thursday through Saturday at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. We have great discounts for first-time attendees.

Web registration is closed; but you’re welcome to register at the event itself.

For more info: click here.

August 11th, 2009 | Tags: bloggersnacker, sheraton, symposium | Category: Sunstone | Comments (2)

In many ways I’m a very lucky guy. My favorite visual artist happens to live in my same town, and she’s at the beginning of her career, so I get to buy her stuff without paying thousands or millions of dollars. Some of my favorite authors, like Margaret Blair Young and Patricia Karamesines, frequent the same email lists and blogs I do. One of my favorite filmmakers knows my first name, as does one of my favorite playwrights.

However, my luck ran out on October 2005 when Wayne C. Booth died without finding out that I’m his biggest fan.

Of course, I didn’t realize I was until this last week when I read My Many Selves: The Quest for a Plausible Harmony, published by Utah State University Press. I found out, in fact, that when I grow up, I Wanna Be Wayne. More »

August 4th, 2009 | Tags: autobiography, community, Eugene England, Wayne Booth | Category: Sunstone | Comments (3)

We are moving, again.  The easiest, and the hardest things to pack are the books.  Here’s this year’s tally:

3 boxes Dialogue

1 box JMH, BYU Studies

1 box Mormon women’s history

What about you?  What’s on your shelves?  Do the relative proportions of things reflect your personality and interests?  I find, for instance, that grad school themes are drastically overrepresented compared to what I really do all day.  On the other hand, there are also not-so-subtle hints about what it is I should be doing all day in the boxes of music.  What have you discovered packing up your library (or unpacking it, like Walter Benjamin)?

July 30th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (14)

You know how, all winter long, amidst the work deadlines and kids’ basketball games and the demands of prime time television, you told yourself you were planning to use your summer to deplete the stack of must-read novels waiting on your nightstand? Did you have an image of yourself stretched out on a beach (or at least stretched out on a couch), book in hand, comfortable and satisfied?

Well summer’s about halfway over. How’s the reading coming?

I ask because as I prepare for my family’s vacation to Yellowstone I’m interested in some reading recommendations. I’m up for just about anything—heavy or fluffy, creepy or funny—just as long as it’s good. I’ll kick it off with my list: More »

July 22nd, 2009 | Tags: good books, reading recommendations, summer | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (15)

It was Friday night. Late. So I called my wife.

“Honey, do you mind if I stay an extra day?” I pleaded.

Before I had left, I told her that I was only going for two days. But I absolutely had to stay for one more.

You see, I was at my first Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, and I was convinced at that moment that being a Mormon was the coolest thing in the world.

For me, Mormonism is about exploration and creation. Our history is full of explorers: Lehi and his family, Zeniff, Hagoth, the Sons of Mosiah, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young. All of them used their unique worldview and mission to forge new paths and create new spiritual insights. And that’s what these people at Sunstone were doing. They were taking the blocks of Mormonism and saying, “Now what can we build with this?” More »

July 17th, 2009 | Tags: Caitlin Ryan, Community of Christ, FMH, Michael Farnworth, symposium | Category: Sunstone | Comments (2)