The Association for Mormon Letters announced awards for publications and other works across 14 categories online on May 2.
More than 55 works, from picture books and literature to screenplays and films, that are by, for or about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been named as finalists. The annual conference this year was canceled due to the pandemic.
The 2019 AML award for a comic went to “That’s One Small Step for a Mom, One Giant Leap for Missionarykind,” by Kevin Beckstrom.
• The award for creative nonfiction went to “Crossings: A Bald Asian- American Latter-Day Saint Woman Scholar’s Ventures Through Life, Death, Cancer and Motherhood,” by Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye.
• In the criticism category, the award went to “Poetic Representations of Mormon Women in Late Nineteenth-Century Frontier America” by Amy Easton-Flake.
• For narrative feature film, the award went to “The Other Side of Heaven 2: Fire of Faith,” directed by Mitch Davis.
• “Jimmer: The Lonely Master,” directed by Scott Christopherson, received the award in the documentary feature film category.
• The award for short film when to “Father of Man,” directed by Barrett Burgin.
• “Project X” by Taylor Hatch received the award for drama.
• For middle grade novel, “Words on Fire” by Jennifer A. Nielsen won the award.
• In the novel category, the award went to “Muddy: Where Faith and Polygamy Collide,” by Dean Hughes.
• “Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Extraordinary Women from Church History,” by McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding and illustrated by Kathleen Peterson, won the award in the picture book category.
• In the young adult novel category, “Lovely War” by Julie Berry won the award.
• The award for poetry went to “Homespun and Angel Feathers” by Darlene Young. In the short fiction category, Karen Rosenbaum’s “Next of Kin” published in Irreantum’s Winter edition won the award.
• In the religious nonfiction category, the award went to “A Place to Belong: Reflections from Modern Latter-day Saint Women” edited by Hollie Rhees Fluhman and Camille Fronk Olson.
• A special award in literature and art went to Arch Hive’s Hive Zine and a special award for literature and performance went to “Thorns and Thistles: A Concert of Literature.”
• A special award in literature went to “Irreversible Things” by Lisa Van Orman Hadley.
Author and educator R.A. Christmas was presented with the Association for Mormon Letters Lifetime Achievement Award, and playwright James Arrington was presented with the Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters.
See associationmormonletters.org/blog/2020/05/2019-aml-award-winners/ for judge’s comments and a link to the presentation on YouTube.