AuthorCast
Authorcast #109: David B. Ostler, author of Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question August 08 2019
In this episode of the Greg Kofford Books Authorcast, we chat with David B. Ostler about his book, Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question. We discuss his personal story and what led him to write this topic as well the larger trends of disaffection and disaffiliation from religion in Western society and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as ways to reach out and minister to those whose faith has changed.
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Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question “A deeply Christian book that calls upon us all to seek understanding and minister to the wounded.” —Terryl Givens |
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Authorcast #104: Laura Rutter Strickling, author of On Fire in Baltimore: Black Mormon Women and Conversion in a Raging City October 11 2018
On this episode, we chat with Laura Rutter Strickling, author of On Fire in Baltimore: Black Mormon Women and Conversion in a Raging City.
On Fire in Baltimore: Black Mormon Women and Conversion in a Raging City
By Laura Rutter Strickling
$20.95 paperback
$34.95 hardcover
197 pages
Free sample preview
Q&A with the author
AuthorCast #95: Interview with Newell G. Bringhurst April 03 2018
Interview with Newell G. Bringhurst
Hosted by Brian Whitney
In this episode, we interview Newell G. Bringhurst, author of Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism, 2nd ed. We discuss the history of the race-based priesthood and temple ban within Mormonism, the role that Mormon ethnic "whiteness" and "Ephraimite" identity played in Mormon racial views, and causes for the eventual policy shift within Mormonism that ended the priesthood and temple restriction to blacks.
Read Newell's article, "Five Times Mormons Changed Their Position on Slavery."
Newell Bringhurst will be signing books and speaking at Writ & Vision in Provo on Tuesday, April 24th at 7:00 PM, and at Benchmark Books in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, April 25th at 5:30 PM.
Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism, 2nd ed.
By Newell G. Bringhurst
Available April 10, 2018
Purchase your copy
AuthorCast #62: MHA presentation by Michael Austin July 14 2017
In this episode, Michael Austin presents "The Dime Novel Hero in Salt Lake City: Popular Fiction and the Contested Mormon Embrace of Modernity, 1890–1903." This presentation was given at the 2017 Mormon History Association Conference held in St. Charles, MO on June 3, 2017.
Preview the volume here.
Read a Q&A with the editors here.
AuthorCast #55: This Month in Mormon Studies June 16 2017
Join co-hosts Brian Whitney (Greg Kofford Books) and Brandt Malone (Mormon News Report) in this lively look at the latest happenings in the field of Mormon studies, including news, blogs, new book releases, and events from the past month.
Highlights from this month include: MHA 2017, barbecue, Book of Mormon as literature, Joseph Smith: Monogamist?, LGBT history in Utah, new history of the Church, and David Bokovoy's mustache.
In the News
Passing of Nathan Ulrich
Passing of Charles S. Peterson
Administrative changes at Maxwell Institute
On the Blogs
Ardis Parshall, "The Sailor and the Apostle: 'The Thinking Has Been Done'?"
Ben Park, "LDS Church Distances Itself from Boy Scouts: Some Thoughts"
Matt B, "Ted Chiang, 'Arrival,' Mormons, Science Fiction, Angels, Time Travel, Sex, Free Will, The Tower of Babel, and the Secular: A Roundtable"
Michael Austin, "The Chosen People are Always Wrong"
Michael Austin, "Scripture as Genre"
Steve Evans, "Book Review Roundup"
Blair Hodges, "Troubling the Old Stories with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich"
Juvenile Instructor Summer Book Club Update
Jeff Turner, "The End of the Gathering: Mormonism and Immigration Regulation"
Grant Shreeve, "The Book of Mormon Gets the Literary Treatment"
Digital Content
Joseph Smith Papers updates
Signature Books updates at Archive.org
Podcasts
LDS Perspectives: "A Heavenly Mother - Rachel Steenblik and Caitlin Connolly"
LDS Perspectives: "Joseph's Seer Stones - Michael Hubbard MacKay"
LDS Perspectives: "Tough Questions about Mormon Polygamy - Brian and Laura Hales"
Year of Polygamy: "The Succession Crisis"
Year of Polygamy: "Lorenzo Snow"
Faith Matters: "Conversations with Terryl Givens"
Recent Book Releases
Joseph Smith Papers: Documents, Vol 5 (Church Historian's Press)
Seth Anderson, LGBT Salt Lake (Arcadia)
Joseph M. Spencer and Jeremiah John, Embracing the Law: Reading Doctrine and Covenants 42 (Maxwell Institute)
Mark D. Ogletree, No Other Success: The Parenting Practices of David O. McKay (BYU RSC)
Papers/Articles
Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, "A New Voice from the Past: The Council of Fifty Minutes"
Brady Winslow, "Irregularities in the Work of the Nauvoo Lodge: Mormonism, Freemasonry, and Conflicting Interests on the Illinois Frontier"
Brian C. Hales, "Joseph Smith: Monogamist or Polygamist?"
Colby Townsend, "Behold Other Scriptures I Would That Ye Should Write: Malachi in the Book of Mormon"
Joseph Spencer, "Isaiah 52 in the Book of Mormon: Notes on Isaiah's Reception History"
Conferences and Events
Faith Matters: "New Perspectives on Joseph Smith and Translation"
Mormon Scholars in the Humanities
Mormon Transhumanist Association
JSP Documents, Vol 5 release event at Benchmark Books
Mormon History Association 2017 Conference
Sunstone 2017 SLC Symposium
FairMormon 2017 Conference
John Whitmer Historical Association 2017 Conference
Book of Mormon Studies Conference
Call for Papers/Applications
2018 Church History Symposium
2018 Mormon History Association Conference
AuthorCast #43: This Month in Mormon Studies May 01 2017
Join co-hosts Brian Whitney (Greg Kofford Books) and Brandt Malone (Mormon News Report) in this lively look at the latest happenings in the field of Mormon studies, including news, blogs, new book releases, and events from the past month.
Highlights from this month include: Blogs becoming independent presses, Mormon studies nerds filing briefs in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Marlin K. Jensen and insider baseball, summer book club, temple ships and Ouija boards, and big words like indigeneity!
In the News
Firm Foundation Expo and bad science
BCC Press; See also
Ben Park in Newsweek; See also
Signature Books digital archives project
Jana Riess The Next Mormons survey: trust gap
On the Blogs
Vincenzo di Francesca: Cultural Impediments in the Way of His Baptism
Mormon Scholars Opposed to Refugee and Immigrant Ban
Embracing the Chaos and Diversity of Mormonism's Past: Laurie Maffly-Kipp's MHA Presidential Address
Mormon Interpreter: Looking Back, Almost Five Years On
“Providing intellectual and devotional frameworks” (Nibley Fellow Reflections)
Looking Deeper Into Joseph Smith's First Vision: Imagery, Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Construction of Memory
An Evening With Elder Marlin K. Jensen
My Thoughts on Patrick Mason's Miller Eccles Presentation
BCC Press Q&A for academic historians
The Third Annual Summer Book Club: A House Full of Females
Podcasts
LDS Women at the Pulpit - Jenny Reeder and Kate Holbrook
Tithing and the Law of Consecration - Steven C. Harper
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and “A House Full of Females”
Darron Smith interviews on Gospel Tangents
Richard Bennett interviews on Gospel Tangents
On the Erasure of Native Americans from the Book of Mormon Conversation: Thomas Murphy
Kava, Culture, Indigeneity and Mormonism: Daniel Hernandez
God, the Image of God, Theosis, Sex and Godly Creation: Blair Ostler
Recent Book Releases
Steven Peck, Science the Key to Theology: Volume One: Preliminaries (BCC Press); See also
Reid L. Neilson and Nathan N. Waite, eds., Settling the Valley, Proclaiming the Gospel: The General Epistles of the Mormon First Presidency (Oxford University Press)
Carol Cornwall Madsen, Emmeline B. Wells: An Intimate History (University of Utah Press)
Published Articles
Brian Hauglid, “Book of Abraham and Translating the Sacred”
Robin Scott Jensen, “The Joseph Smith Papers and the Book of Abraham”
Christopher Blythe, “The Church and Kingdom of God: Ecclesiastical Interpretations of the Council of Fifty”
Conferences and Events
Reid Neilson and Nathan Waite at Benchmark Books
2017 UVU Mormon Studies Conference on YouTube: Thurs sessions, Friday sessions
Sunstone Symposium in Southern Utah
2017 Association for Mormon Letters conference; AML Book Awards, Fundraiser
Sunstone Symposium in Boise
2017 Mormon History Association Registration
2017 Sunstone Symposium SLC
2017 FairMormon Conference
2017 JWHA in Nauvoo
Call for Papers/Applications
The International Society of Landscape, Place and Material Culture
AuthorCast #40: This Month in Mormon Studies March 01 2017
Join co-hosts Brian Whitney (Greg Kofford Books) and Brandt Malone (Mormon News Report) in this lively look at the latest happenings in the field of Mormon studies, including news, blogs, new book releases, and events from the past month.
In the News
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich on NPR's Fresh Air
Neylan McBaine, “As potters at the wheel, let us shape Utah from inside and outside” in SL Trib
Henry J. Eyring named president of BYU-Idaho
Updates to Joseph Smith Papers website
On the Blogs
“More Thoughts on Mormons and Muslims” by Paul Reeve
“The Modern Mormon Athletic Image” by Ben Park
“The Complexities of History in The Ensign” by Ben Spackman
“The Dance of Discourse” by Hannah Jung
Profile on Greg Kofford Books at AML by Andrew Hall
“Canon as Context: Insights from the Bible Wars” by Mike Austin
Recent Book Releases
Scott Hales, The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl, Part Two (Greg Kofford Books)
Devery S. Anderson, Ed., Salt Lake School of the Prophets, 1867-1883 (Signature Books)
Reid L. Neilson and Nathan N. Waite, eds., Settling the Valley: Proclaiming the Gospel: The General Epistles of the Mormon First Presidency (Oxford University Press)
Jennifer Reeder and Kate Holbrook, eds., At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women (Church Historian's Press)
Book Reviews by Brandt
Ann Taves, Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths (Princeton University Press)
Events
Faith and Knowledge Conference
Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology
Kate Holbrook speaking at Tabernacle
Call for Papers/Applications
Joseph Smith Papers Conference
AuthorCast #36—This Month in Mormon Studies, November 2016 December 20 2016
Join co-hosts Brian Whitney (Greg Kofford Books) and Brandt Malone (Mormon News Report) in this lively look at the latest happenings in the field of Mormon studies, including news, blogs, new book releases, and events from the month of November!
Special guest: Stephanie Lauritzen from Signature Books.
In the News
Maxwell Institute Visiting Fellows
D. Todd Christofferson invocation on Senate floor
Retirement of "To Young Men Only" pamphlet
Revelations in Context Sunday School supplement
Gospel Topics Essays added to Sunday School lesson manual
On the Blogs
Ben Park, "2016 in Retrospect"
Christian Anderson, "Heavenly Parents at Conference"
Jessica Finnegan, Kari Waters, and Nancy Ross, "What are Mormon feminists trying to do?"
Nancy Ross review of One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly
Fair Mormon interviews:
Braving Isaiah with Joseph M. Spencer
Translating with Seer Stones with Michael Hubbard McKay
The Book of Mormon: A Closer Look with Brant Gardner
Emma Smith "An Elect Lady" with Matthew J. Grow
Steve Evans Book Review Roundup
Ashley Mae Hoiland "For many years my voice shook"
Johnathan Stapley, "Tools for teachers 2017"
Recent Book Releases
Donald Faber, James Jesse Strang: The Rise and Fall of Michigan's Mormon King (University of Michigan Press)
Scott Hales, The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl, Part One (Greg Kofford Books)
Richard S. Van Wagoner, Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet: 1805–1830 (Smith-Pettit Foundation)
Recent and Upcoming Events
"Intellectual Life of Mormonism" final panel at University of Utah
Call for Papers
2017 Mormon Scholars in the Humanities
AuthorCast #35—Conversation with Scott Hales, creator of The Garden of Enid December 13 2016
In this episode, we chat with Scott Hales, author and illustrator of The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl.
About the book:
Fifteen-year-old Enid Gardner is a self-proclaimed “weird Mormon girl.” When she isn’t chatting with Joseph Smith or the Book of Abraham mummy, she’s searching for herself between the spaces of doubt and belief. Along the way, she must grapple with her Mormon faith as it adapts to the twenty-first century. She also must confront the painful mysteries at the heart of her strained relationship with her ailing mother.
This edition of The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl recasts the award-winning webcomic as a two-part graphic novel. With revised and previously unpublished comics, it features the familiar story that captivated thousands online, yet offers new glimpses into Enid’s year-long odyssey.
Preview the volume here.
AuthorCast #26 - Adam S. Miller reads from Future Mormon June 16 2016
Adam S. Miller reads “A Manifesto for the Future of Mormon Thinking” from Future Mormon: Essays in Mormon Theology.
Future Mormon by Adam S. Miller presents a hypothetical future generation of Latter-day Saints and their relationship with Mormonism. If current religiosity trends continue, then future generations will face unique challenges in staying connected with their faith tradition in an increasingly non-affiliated society. Future Mormon is, in a sense, a time-capsule. A collection of thoughts and ideas that Adam styles “para-academic” in the sense that he uses academic tools but filters them through a pastoral and exegetical lens. He terms his approach “future-tense apologetics,” and although his volume defends Mormon thought, it is far from defensive. Future Mormon is grounded in the idea that every generation has to find its own connection with faith; and that every generation must re-think the faith tradition from the ground up. In these essays, Adam explores theological and philosophical possibilities: he writes extensively on grace and its role in Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement; he explores the concept of perfectibility in premortal and postmortal worlds; he challenges Platonism in Christianity; and wrestles with the “radical materialism” of Mormonism. This is only a sample of the ideas Future Mormon works through.
“Represents some of the most careful, creative, and charitable work going on in Mormon theology today.” — Association for Mormon Letters
Preview Future Mormon here.
Listen to our AuthorCast interview with Adam Miller.
AuthorCast #25 - Jack Harrell June 10 2016
An interview with Jack Harrell, author of Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft, and Mormonism.
Continuing a conversation as old as Mormonism itself, Jack Harrell explores the relationship between Mormonism and the writer. Mormons see the universe in mythic proportions. Their God is a creator, their devil a destroyer. This makes meaningful conflict fundamental to their worldview, and begs the terms for religious redemption, as well as the redemptive power of art. Harrell urges writers to be authentic as they embrace the difficulties inherent in the creative process. His essays blend faithful intellectual inquiry, personal narrative, research, and application to offer insights for anyone who cares about writing, creativity, and the human condition.
“A thought-provoking, inspiring, and beautifully written book.” — Margaret Blair Young, creative writing faculty at Brigham Young University, and co-author of the Standing on the Promises series
“If you care about Mormonism and good writing and the moral implications of fiction, you need to add this book to your library.” — Eric Samuelsen, playwright and former president of the Association for Mormon Letters
Preview the volume here.
**Join us for a special panel event at Writ & Vision on Tuesday, June 28 at 7:00 p.m. with Jack Harrell, Boyd Peterson, Darlene Young, and Eric Samuelsen discussing creativity, expresion, and a "Mormon literary theory." The event is free and light refreshments will be served.**
Authorcast #21 - Charles Shiro Inouye February 23 2016
An interview with Charles Shirō Inouye, author of The End of the World, Plan B.
Environmental decline, political gridlock, war and rumors of war, decadence, and immorality. The End of the World, Plan B traces the idea of the end, or destruction, of the world through a number of spiritual traditions. It shows that our present understanding of the “end game” has been distorted by a modern emphasis and demand on justice as the ultimate good. As an alternative to this self-destructive approach, Charles Shirō Inouye shows that in these traditions, justice is not the isolated end in itself that we ought strive for; rather it is taught in tandem with its balancing companion: compassion. Plan B is a hopeful alternative to our fears about how things are going.
Preview the volume here.
Join us this Saturday, February 27th at Writ & Vision in Provo for a special panel discussion on Mormonism and Eastern thought featuring Charles Shirō Inouye, James M. McLachlan, and Charles Randall Paul. The event begins at 6pm and is free to the public.
Writ & Vision
274 Center Stret
Provo, UT 84601
Authorcast #14 - Reading by James Faulconer December 02 2015
In our latest episode, James Faulconer reads the introduction to Common Ground—Different Opinions: Latter-day Saints and Contemporary Issues.
*Subscribers to our free newsletter will receive a complimentary e-book copy of Common Ground—Different Opinions. Click the banner below for more information: