Levi S. Peterson

Letters to the Editor

Bode and Iris

Listen to the piece here. It may seem odd that an experienced fornicator like Bode Carpenter would get the girl pregnant in the first place—particularly because he carried a condom in the watch pocket of…

The Shyster

Arne met Leanne Holburn at church during his final year in an MBA program at the University of Washington. He found her very attractive. Of medium height, she had sculpted cheeks, an aquiline nose, and…

Kid Kirby

His name was Reeves Kirby and he was eighteen that summer. He was small of stature and unlikely to grow bigger. Moreover, he had a mild temperament, blond hair, bland blue eyes, and a downy…

Road to Damascus

At evening Paul contemplated two trees on a distant ridge. They were both firs, one tall, straight, conical; the other curiously warped midtrunk into a great bent bush of a tree. The crippled tree troubled…

The Gift

On a snowy evening, Gerard de Valois stepped from a tram near Quai Marcellis in the Belgian city of Liege. He positioned his hat more firmly, tucked his scarf tightly into the collar of his…

Panorama, Drama, and PG at Last | Orson Scott Card, A Woman of Destiny

This novel comes in glossy green and gold paperback with an embossed title and a blurb announcing it as “the epic saga of a woman who dared to search the world for love.” Such commercial…

The Third Nephite

Shortly after sunrise Otis Wadby was driving to work in Circleville. He stayed nights with his son in Junction, his wife having expelled him from his home in Circleville because he had taken up with…

Juanita Brooks’s Quicksand and Cactus: The Evolution of a Literary Memoir

Juanita Brooks holds an undisputed place among Mormon historians. Her landmark and still definitive history of the Mountain Meadows massacre was first published by Stanford University Press in 1950 and reprinted by the University of…

In Defense of a Mormon Erotica

Despite my title, I do not intend to defend pornography, Mormon or otherwise. But I do intend to discuss Mormon attitudes toward erotica and suggest that a dearth of sexuality in Mormon literature may be…

Twenty Years with Dialogue: A Tribute to Dialogue

I could justly praise DIALOGUE for many qualities . But for the sake of brevity I will concentrate upon a single overriding virtue. DIALOGUE makes my religion interesting.  When I was a boy, I believed…

Juanita Brooks, My Subject, My Sister

I have recently finished writing a biography of Juanita Brooks. The fame of this Mormon housewife and teacher from Utah’s Dixie resides in the definitive books she authored about the Mountain Meadows massacre and its…

Eternity Be Damned? The Impact of Interfaith Vows: Eternity with a Dry-Land Mormon

I’ve heard them called both dry Mormons and dry-land Mormons. They are people who live intimately among the Mormons without becoming members of the Church. They are a puzzling lot because they often behave so…

Plight and Promise | Linda Sillitoe, Windows on the Sea and Other Stories

Linda Sillitoe is a powerful wielder of the story writer’s craft. In the stories at hand, her plots are organic, her sentences are flexible and lucid, and her metaphors convey a kinetic motion. Over and…

My Mother’s House

I spent the thirteenth of December 1985 traveling by automobile from Ogden, Utah, to Snowflake, Arizona, to attend my mother’s funeral. It was my fifty-second birthday. My wife, daughter, and I commandeered a bedroom in…

Young at Heart | Judith Freeman, Set for Life

In five short years Judith Freeman has established herself as a serious contender in the arena of American fiction. Her first major work was a collection of short stories, Family Attractions, published by Viking Penguin…

Lavina Fielding Anderson and the Power of a Church in Exile

Over the years Lavina Fielding Anderson’s friendship and approval have helped me understand I am a real, if irregular, Mormon. It is therefore ironic that she, who believes so devoutly, has been excommunicated while I…

My Early College Years

My mother and I moved to Mesa during my senior year of high school so that she could finish her teaching certificate at Arizona State University. I didn’t like Mesa or the high school, and…

Salvaged for Mormonism | Remarks at the Memorial Service for Eugene England, Provo, Utah. August 25, 2001

I feel greatly honored to be asked to speak at this memorial service. I hope I can add a dimension to our mutual recognition of Gene’s virtues and qualities. I suppose that Charlotte and the…

Brothers

About a year and a half after Mitch fell, he decided on a comeback climb. Understandably, his wife was less than enthusiastic about it. Everyone agreed the fall should have killed Mitch or, worse, made…

Thinking Globally: Explorations into a Truly International, Multi-Cultural Church

With this issue, Dialogue begins a special series which, rather than filling a single issue, will present a number of articles in successive issues. Under the supervision of guest editor Ethan Yorgason, this series will…

Editor’s Introduction: Celebrating Forty Years of Dialogue

Unquestionably, Dialogue has a tradition. It has been on the Mormon scene for forty years now, and those who manage, edit, and read it are determined to see it make another forty. 

“Astonished Each Day”: An Interview with Richard J Van Wagoner Utah Artist

Note: This interview, conducted by Dialogue’s editor, introduces Richard J Van Wagoner, whose art is featured in this issue. Richard is a retired professor of art from Weber State University, where he and Levi sat…

Celebrating Forty Years: Retrospection and Assessment

Our readers may recall the announcement of our commemoration of Dialogues fortieth year in our last issue. In keeping with that announcement, we publish here two retrospective statements from earlier editors of the journal. One…

Badge and Bryant, or, the Decline and Fall of the Dogfrey Club

Badge and Bryant Braunhil were first cousins, but they could have passed for fraternal twins, having—both of them—bright blue eyes, big grins, and unkempt blond hair. They lived in Linroth, a Mormon town in northern…

The Dream

Niles awoke from a strange dream to find that his snoring had once again driven his wife from their bed. On his way to the bathroom, he peered into the darkened living room and, as…

Sandrine

These things happened fifty years ago. It was 1962, the year of the World’s Fair in Seattle. I was twenty-one and had just finished my junior year at Utah State University in Logan. My forestry…

Jesus Enough

1886  When Darby turned fifteen, his mother Cora said if he didn’t make up his mind to accept Jesus pretty soon, it would be too late. She said he had to make the choice either…