BYU Studies Quarterly
Article Title
The Search for Mormon Literary Quality: Bound on Earth, Rift, Long After Dark, and The Best of Mormonism 2009
Keywords
Mormon studies, review essay, literature, LDS culture
Abstract
For a hundred years or more, Latter-day Saints have been writing works of literary quality. We have had among us fine poets and novelists, playwrights and essayists, and, more recently, a few serious filmmakers. I'm not the only one who knows this secret. For three decades, students have taken Mormon literature courses at BYU, reading novels, poems, and plays virtually unknown to their parents and peers. I was one of those students in the early 1990s. It is difficult to see the effects this educational movement has had on LDS culture when visiting a Mormon bookstore today. But for me and thousands of others, reading works of literary quality by and about Latter-day Saints brought to our lives a treasured richness of literary appreciation and religious understanding. Still, the secret of Mormon literary writing remains untold to many Latter-day Saints all over the world.
Recommended Citation
Harrell, Jack
(2011)
"The Search for Mormon Literary Quality: Bound on Earth, Rift, Long After Dark, and The Best of Mormonism 2009,"
BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 50:
Iss.
1, Article 12.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol50/iss1/12