DiaBLOGue

How a Mormon Ended Up at Union Theological Seminary: A Step Toward Racial Justice and a Better Church

March 29, 2023

Dialogue 56.1 (Spring 2023): 7–50
In the decade since I made that decision, a lot has happened that ultimately reoriented me back to the academy and to theological studies in particular. First, the job I took after graduating from Brigham Young University took me to Boston, Massachusetts. I immediately noticed a refreshing difference between the congregations I attended in Utah and congregations in Boston. These were the most educated people I had ever worshiped with in my adult life, and it was the safest I had ever felt being my authentic self at church.

Transcending Mormonism: Transgender Experiences in the LDS Church

March 29, 2023

Dialogue 56.1 (Spring 2023): 27–55
Enjoy an interview about this piece here.

Desiring to better understand how people are navigating these complex identity negotiations, I interviewed seven trans and/or gender nonconforming Mormons between eighteen and forty-four years old living in various regions of the United States as part of my graduate studies at Sarah Lawrence College in New York

The Correct [Domain] Name of the Church: Technology, Naming, and Legitimacy in the Latter-day Saint Tradition

March 28, 2023

Of all the changes made in response to the 2018 decision to emphasize the full name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, those made to the official Latter-day Saint web and digital…

Volume Art

February 20, 2023

Listen to the Out Loud Interview about this art here.

Second Place: Dispatches from Kolob

February 20, 2023

Listen to the Out Loud audio version of this article here. Listen to the interview about this piece here. Dear President Russell M. Nelson, For centuries, the pope has been addressed as Your Holiness, and they…

Honorable Mention: Butterflies

February 20, 2023

Trying to get to the nursery proper and all of the blooming plants—bright colors, heady smells, early summer at its best—Mona almost walked past his table. It was one of those fold-up numbers with foldout…

The Enduring Vertigo of the Elect Lady Libbie Grant, The Prophet’s Wife

February 20, 2023

Of the legacy of Joseph Smith, historian Bernard DeVoto wrote in 1936, “The vision perishes; it is the vertigo that endures.” Reading the novel The Prophet’s Wife by Libbie Grant is to feel that same…

Third Place: Penitent Magdalene, Donatello

February 20, 2023

Shock of agingin a wooden sculpture—more than yearsdisplayed here,her gauntand weathered faceportraying time had its way—sunken eyes,broken teeth,parched and haggard lips. The cathedralof her handsforms a gothic archbelow her chinsuggesting prayer,her frail body embracedby heavy…

First Place: The Ward Organist

February 20, 2023

Listen to the Out Loud audio version of this fiction piece here. Listen to the interview about this piece here. Never learn to play the organ, the old woman told me. I should call her…

First Place: His Own Hand

February 20, 2023

I desire to be to the Eternal Goodness what his own hand is to a man.—Theologica Germanica i. What the Right Hand Is Take my right hand—the index finger crookedfrom a long-forgotten break; the dintwhere…