AML Award

The AML Awards are given annually by the Association for Mormon Letters to the best work "by, for, and about Mormons."

The award categories vary from year to year depending on what the AML decides is worthy of honor.

1970s

1977

Criticism

• Clifton Holt Jolley for "The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith: An Archetypal Study"

Poetry

• Linda Sillitoe for "The Old Philosopher" and "Letter to a Four-Year-Old Daughter"
• Arthur Henry King for "The Field behind Holly House"

Short Fiction

• Douglas H. Thayer for Under the Cottonwoods
• Donald Marshall for Frost in the Orchard

1978

Criticism

• Steven P. Sondrup for "Literary Dimensions of Mormon Autobiography"

Poetry Honorable Mention

• Clinton F. Larson for "The Western World"
• Marden J. Clark for "God's Plenty"
• Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown for "Grandmother"

Short Fiction

• Levi S. Peterson for "The Confessions of Augustine"

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Karen Rosenbaum for "Hit the Frolicking, Rippling Brooks"

1979

Criticism

• Cindy Lesser Larsen for "Whoever Heard of a Utah Poet?: An Overview of Poetry in the Early Church"

Poetry

• Marden J. Clark for "Moods: Of Late "
• Edward L. Hart for To Utah

Short Fiction

• Béla Petsco for Nothing Very Important and Other Stories

1980s

1980

Biography

• Frank W. Fox for J. Reuben Clark: The Public Years

Criticism

• Linda Sillitoe for "New Voices, New Songs: Contemporary Poems by Mormon Women"

Novel

• Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown for The Earthkeepers

Poetry

• Emma Lou Thayne for "Once in Israel"

1981

Criticism

• George S. Tate for "The Typology of the Exodus Pattern in the Book of Mormon"

Poetry

• Robert A. Rees for "Gilead"

Poetry and Short Fiction

• Linda Sillitoe for "Lullaby in the New Year";"Demons"

Short Fiction

• Robert A. Christmas for "Another Angel"

1982

(lost)

1983

Criticism Honorable Mention

• Eugene England for "The Dawning of a Brighter Day: Mormon Literature after 150 Years"

Drama

• Thomas F. Rogers for God's Fools: Plays of Mitigated Conscience

Editing & Publishing Honorable Mention

• Levi S. Peterson for Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon Short Stories
• The Editors of Exponent II

Humor Honorable Mention

• Calvin Grondahl for Freeway to Perfection
• Clifton Holt Jolley for "Selling the Chevrolet: A Moral Exercise"

Novel

• Douglas H. Thayer for Summer Fire

Poetry

• Clinton F. Larson for "Romaunt of the Rose: A Tapestry of Poems"

Poetry Honorable Mention

• Holly Ann Welker for "Feet";"Patience";"On My Father's 50th Birthday";"The Birthday Present"

Sermon Honorable Mention

• Neal A. Maxwell

Short Fiction

• Levi S. Peterson for The Canyons of Grace

Special Award Honorable Mention

• Jack Weyland

1984

Editing & Publishing

• Scott Kenney

Novel

• Orson Scott Card for Saints

Personal Essay

• Eugene England for A Dialogue with Myself: Personal Essays on Mormon Experience

Special Award

• Carol Lynn Pearson

1985

Criticism

• Steven Walker for "Seven Ways of Looking at Susanna"

Novel

• Herbert Harker for Circle of Fire

Personal Essay

• Edward Geary for Goodbye to Poplarhaven

Poetry

• Emma Lou Thayne

Short Fiction

• Neal C. Chandler for "Benediction"

1986

Children’s Literature

• Steve Wunderlie (author) and Brent Watts (illustrator) for Marty’s World

Personal and Family-History Book

• Myrtle McDonald for No Regrets

Personal and Family-History Essay

• Paul M. Edwards for "When Will the Little Woman Come Out of the House?"

Short Story

• Michael Fillerup for "Hozohoogoo Nanina Doo"

Poetry

• Dennis Marden Clark for "Sunwatch"

Personal Essay

• Susan Taber for "In Jeopardy Every Hour"

Religious literature

• Dennis Rasmussen for The Lord’s Question

Novel

• Levi Peterson for The Backslider

1987

Criticism

• Bruce W. Jorgensen for "Romantic Lyric Form and Western Mormon Experience in the Stories of Douglas Thayer"

Novel

• Linda Sillitoe for Sideways to the Sun

Personal Essay

• Mary Lythgoe Bradford for "Leaving Home"

Poetry

• Robert A. Christmas for "Self-Portrait as Brigham Young"

Short Fiction

• Darrell Spencer for A Woman Packing a Pistol

1988

Biography

• Levi S. Peterson for Juanita Brooks: Mormon Woman Historian

Criticism

• Wayne C. Booth for The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction

Novel

• Ann Edwards Cannon for Cal Cameron by Day, Spider-Man by Night

Personal Essay

• Karin Anderson England for "The Man at the Chapel"

Poetry

• Clinton F. Larson for Selected Poems of Clinton F. Larson
• Dennis Marden Clark for Tinder: answer might be. With an almost Augustinian Dry Poems

Short Fiction

• John Bennion for "A Court of Love," "A House of Order," "Dust"

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Elouise Bell
• Wayne Booth
• Mary L. Bradford
• John S. Harris
• Gerald N. Lund
• Hugh Nibley
• Levi S. Peterson
• Steven P. Sondrup
• Douglas Thayer
• Emma Lou Thayne
• Laurel T. Ulrich
• Terry Tempest Williams
• William A. Wilson

1989

Criticism

• Michael Hicks for Mormonism and Music: A History
• Dennis Clark for "Mormon Poetry Now!: The State of the Art"

Editing & Publishing

• Sunstone
• Signature Books

Novel

• Judith Freeman for The Chinchilla Farm

Personal Essay

• Emma Lou Thayne for "As for Me and My House"

Poetry

• Susan Elizabeth Howe for "Things in the Night Sky"

Short Fiction

• Pauline Mortensen for "Back Before the World Turned Nasty"

1990s

1990

Criticism

• William A. Wilson for "In Praise of Ourselves: Stories to Tell"

Novel

• Franklin Fisher for Bones

Personal Essay

• Elouise Bell for "Only When I Laugh"

Poetry

• Loretta Randall Sharp for "Doing It"

Short Fiction

• Walter Kirn for "My Hard Bargain"

1991

Biography

• Laurel Thatcher Ulrich for A Midwife's Tale

Editing & Publishing

• Signature Books for Peculiar People: Mormons and Same-Sex Orientation

Novel

• Orson Scott Card for Xenocide
• Gerald N. Lund for Like a Fire is Burning

Personal Essay

• Terry Tempest Williams for Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

Poetry

• Philip White for "Island Spring" and "The Perseids"

Short Fiction

• Michael Fillerup for "Lost and Found"

Young Adult Literature

• Louise Plummer for My Name is Sus5an Smith. The 5 is Silent

1992

Biography

• Rudi Wobbe for Before the Blood Tribunal

Children's Literature

• Barbara J. Porter for All Kinds of Answers

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Marden J. Clark
• Edward L. Hart
• Clinton F. Larson
• William Mulder
• Helen Cardland Stark
• Virginia Eggertsen Sorensen Waugh
• Maurine Whipple

Novel

• Orson Scott Card for Lost Boys

Personal Essay

• Marden J. Clark for Liberating Form: Mormon Essays on Religion and Literature

Poetry

• Kathy Evans for "Wednesday Morning"; "Midweek"; "Eight Windows"; "Vows"; "Love to the Second Power"

Short Fiction

• Margaret Blair Young for "Elegies and Love Songs"

1993

Biography

• Phyllis Barber for How I Got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir

Children's Literature

• Michael O. Tunnell for Chinook!

Drama

• Neil LaBute for In the Company of Men

Editing & Publishing

• M. Shayne Bell for Washed by a Wave of Wind: Science Fiction from the Corridor

Novel

• Gerald N. Lund for Thy Gold to Refine
• Leslie Beaton Hedley for Twelve Sisters

Personal Essay

• Eugene England for "Monte Cristo"

Poetry

• Linda Sillitoe for Crazy for Living

Sermon

• Chieko N. Okazaki for Lighten Up!

Service to Mormon Letters

• Neila Seshachari

Short Fiction

• Darrell Spencer for Our Secret's Out

Young Adult Literature

• Martine Bates for The Dragon's Tapestry

1994

Biography

• William G. Hartley for My Best for the Kingdom: John Lowe Butler, A Mormon Frontiersman

Criticism

• Gideon O. Burton

Drama

• Eric Samuelsen for "Accommodations: A Play in Three Acts"

Novel

• Anne Perry for The Sins of the Wolf

Personal Essay

• Richard D. Poll for "A Liahona Latter-day Saint"

Poetry

• Pamela Porter Hamblin for "Magi"

Short Fiction

• Wayne Jorgensen for "Who Tarzan, Who Jane"

Young Adult Literature

• Dean Hughes for The Trophy

1995

Biography

• Maureen Ursenbach Beecher for The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow

Criticism

• Michael Austin for "How to Be a Mormo-American; Or, The Function of Mormon Criticism at the Present Time"

Drama

• Tim Slover for A March Tale

Novel

• Mack Hedges for Last Buckaroo

Personal Essay

• Terry Tempest Williams for "Desert Quartet"

Poetry

• Marden J. Clark for "Snows"

Short Fiction

• Tory C. Anderson for "Epiphany"

Young Adult Literature

• Louise Plummer for The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman

1996

Biography

• Marian Robertson Wilson for Leroy Robertson: Music Giant from the Rockies

Children's Literature

• Rick Walton for You Don't Always Get What You Hope For

Criticism

• Bruce W. Jorgensen for "Heritage of Hostility: The Mormon Attack on Fiction in the 19th Century";"Roughly One of the R's: Some Notes of a BYU Fiction Teacher (with a Pedantry of Endnotes)"

Drama

• Tim Slover for Joyful Noise

Novel

• Judith Freeman for A Desert of Pure Feeling

Personal Essay

• Kenneth O. Kemp for "3/4-inch Marine Ply"

Poetry

• Leslie Norris for Collected Poems

Short Fiction

• Paul Rawlins for No Lie Like Love: Stories

Young Adult Literature

• Pat Bezzant for Angie

1997

Criticism

• Richard Dilworth Rust for Feasting on the Word: The Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon

Devotional Literature

• Chieko N. Okazaki for Sanctuary

Drama

• Eric Samuelsen for Gadianton

Personal Essay

• Holly Welker for "What You Walk Away From"

Poetry

• Susan Elizabeth Howe for Stone Spirits

Short Fiction

• Brady Udall for "Beautiful Places"

1998

Devotional Literature

• Clark L. Kidd for A Convert's Guide to Mormon Life

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Jack Harrell for Vernal Promises

Novel

• Dean Hughes for Far from Home

Personal Essay

• Tom Plummer for Eating Chocolates and Dancing in the Kitchen: Sketches of Marriage and Family

Poetry

• Alex Caldiero for Various Atmospheres: Poems and Drawings

Short Fiction

• Helen Walker Jones for "The Six-Buck Fortune"

Young Adult Literature

• Martine Bates for The Taker's Key

1999

Devotional Literature

• Neal A. Maxwell for One More Strain of Praise

Drama

• Eric Samuelsen for The Way We're Wired

Novel

• Anne Perry for Tathea

Personal Essay

• Martha Beck for Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

Short Fiction

• Mary Clyde for Survival Rates

2000s

2000

Criticism

• Benson Parkinson

Devotional Literature

• Patricia Terry Holland for A Quiet Heart

Drama

• Margaret Blair Young for I Am Jane

Film

• Richard Dutcher for God's Army

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Richard Cracroft

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Alan Mitchell for Angel of the Danube

Novel

• Margaret Blair Young for One More River to Cross

Personal Essay

• Gordon B. Hinckley for Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes

Short Fiction

• Darrell Spencer for Caution: Men in Trees

2001

Children's Literature

• Don H. Staheli for The Story of the Walnut Tree

Criticism

• Dian Saderup Monson for "Believing in the Word"

Drama

• J. Scott Bronson for Stones

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Thomas F. Rogers

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• A. Jeff Call for Mormonville

Middle Grade Literature

• Carol Lynch Williams for My Angelica

Novel

• Brady Udall for The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint

Review

• Jeffrey Needle

Young Adult Literature

• Louise Plummer for A Dance for Three

2002

Drama

• Reed McColm for Hole in the Sky

Drama Honorable Mention

• Melissa Leilani Larson for Wake Me When It's Over
• Tim Slover for Hancock County

Film

• Christian Vuissa for Roots & Wings

Film Honorable Mention

• Andrew Black for "The Snell Show"
• Ryan Little for Out of Step

Film Adaptation

• Janine Whetton Gilbert for Charly

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Lavina Fielding Anderson
• Bruce Wayne Jorgensen

In Memoriam

• Neila C. Seshachari

Novel

• Chris Crowe for Mississippi Trial 1955

Picture Book

• Rick Walton for Bertie Was a Watchdog

Poetry

• Kimberly Johnson for Leviathan with a Hook

Short Fiction

• Susan Palmer for "Breakthrough"

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Karen Rosenbaum for "Out of the Woods"
• Linda Paulson Adams for "First"

Young Adult Literature

• Ann Edwards Cannon for Charlotte's Rose

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Martine Leavitt for The Dollmage
• Kimberley Heuston for The Shakeress

2003

Drama

• LeeAnne Hill Adams for Archipelago

Editing

• Chris Bigelow for Irreantum

Film Adaptation

• Anne K. Black, Jason Faller, and Katherine Swigert for Pride and Prejudice

Historical Fiction

• Margaret Blair Young and Darius Aidan Gray for Standing on the Promises

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Janean Justham for House Dreams

Novel

• Douglas Thayer for The Conversion of Jeff Williams

Publishing

• BYU Studies

Short Fiction

• Coke Newell for "Toaster Road"

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• William Shunn for "The Day Pietro Coppino Spoke to the Mountain"
• Robert Van Wagoner for "A Good Sign"

Young Adult Literature

• Kimberley Heuston for Dante's Daughter

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Shannon Hale for The Goose Girl
• Kristen D. Randle for Slumming

2004

Criticism

• Meridian Magazine

Film

• Adam Abel for Saints and Soldiers

Middle Grade Literature

• Patricia Wiles for My Mom's a Mortician

Middle Grade Literature Honorable Mention

• Randall Wright for Hunchback

Novel

• P. G. Karamesines for The Pictograph Murders

Novel Honorable Mention

• Amber Esplin for Leaving Eden

Poetry

• John Talbot for The Well-Tempered Tantrum

Special Award Honorable Mention

• The J. Willard Marriott Library of the University of Utah

Young Adult Literature

• Shannon Hale for Enna Burning

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Mette Ivie Harrison for Mira, Mirror
• Janette Rallison for Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws

2005

Biography

• Richard Lyman Bushman for Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling

Criticism

• William Morris, P. G. Karamesines, Kent Larsen, and Eric Russell for A Motley Vision

Film

• Greg Whiteley for New York Doll

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Arianne B. Cope for The Coming of Elijah

Marilyn Brown Novel Award Honorable Mention

• Donald Marshall for Seeker

Novel

• Brandon Sanderson for Elantris

Novel Honorable Mention

• Orson Scott Card for Magic Street
• Roger Terry for God's Executioner

Poetry

• Lance Larsen for In All Their Animal Brilliance

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Dean Hughes for Children of the Promise

Special Award

• Michael and Laura Allred for The Golden Plates

Young Adult Literature

• Shannon Hale for Princess Academy
• Patricia Wiles for Funeral Home Evenings

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Dean Hughes for Search and Destroy
• David Farland for Of Mice and Magic, Ravenspell Book One

2006

Criticism

• Patricia Karamesines for "The Rhetoric of Stealing God"

Drama

• Tim Slover for Treasure

Film

• Annie Poon for The Book of Visions

Film Honorable Mention

• Melissa Puente for Sisterz in Zion
• Tom Russell for Angie

Novel

• Toni Sorenson Brown for Redemption Road

Novel Honorable Mention

• Orson Scott Card for Empire
• Brandon Sanderson for Mistborn: The Final Empire

Personal Essay

• John Bennion for "Like the Lilies of the Field"

Personal Essay Honorable Mention

• Wilfried Decoo for "The Unspeakable"
• Patricia Karamesines for "The Birds of Summer"

Service to AML

• Angela Hallstrom

Short Fiction

• Kristen Carson for Atta Boy

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Virginia Baker for "And Cry the Name of David"
• Heather Marx for "Brother Singh"
• Aaron Orullian for "Judgement Day"

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Rick Walton

Special Award

• James V. D'Arc, Blaine L. Gale, E. Hunter Hale, and Richard I. Hale for Trapped By the Mormons

Young Adult Literature

• Brandon Mull for Fablehaven

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Shannon Hale for River Secrets
• Janette Rallison for It's a Mall World After All

2007

Biography

• Carol Cornwall Madsen for An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870-1920

Criticism

• Terryl L. Givens for People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture

Drama

• Carol Lynn Pearson for Facing East

Film

• Helen Whitney for The Mormons

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Todd Petersen for Rift

Marilyn Brown Novel Award Honorable Mention

• Helynne Hollstein Hansen for Voices at the Crossroads
• Janet Kay Jensen for Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys

Novel

• Coke Newell for On the Road to Heaven

Novel Honorable Mention

• Dean Hughes for Before the Dawn
• Brandon Sanderson for The Well of Ascension

Short Fiction

• Lisa Torcasso Downing for "Clothing Esther"

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Darin Cozzens for "Light of the New Day"
• Sigrid Olsen for "The Nature of Comets”

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Anne Perry

Special Award

• Segullah

Special Award Honorable Mention

• Gideon Burton for "Mormons and Film"

Young Adult Literature

• Ann Dee Ellis for This Is What I Did

Young Adult Literature Honorable Mention

• Mette Ivie Harrison for The Princess and the Hound
• Brandon Sanderson for Alcatraz Vs. the Evil Librarians

2008

Poetry

• Neil Aitken for The Lost Country of Sight
• Warren Hatch for Mapping the Bones of the World

Short Fiction

• Stephen Tuttle for "Amanuensis"

Novel

• Angela Hallstrom for Bound on Earth

Youth Fiction

• Brandon Mull for Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague

Drama

• James Goldberg for Prodigal Son

Personal Essay

• Patrick Madden for "A Sudden Pull Behind the Heart"
• Stephen Carter for "Calling"

Film

• Christian Vuissa for The Errand of Angels
• Ron Williams for Happy Valley

Special Award in Criticism

• Alan F. Keele

Special Award in Textual Criticism and Bibliography

• Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee and Richard L. Jensen for The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals Series, vol. 1, Journals 1832-1839

Special Award in History

• Richard E. Turley, Jr.; Glen M. Leonard, and Ronald W. Walker for Massacre at Mountain Meadows

Smith-Petit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Douglas H. Thayer

Lifetime AML Membership

• Terryl L. Givens

2009

Drama

• Melissa Leilani Larson for Little Happy Secrets

Film

• Jed Wells for Fire Creek

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• James D'Arc

Humor

• Elna Baker for The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance

Memoir

• Kathryn Lynard Soper for The Year My Son and I Were Born

Novel

• Todd Robert Petersen for Rift

Novel Honorable Mention

• Jamie Ford for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Online Writing

• Sandra Tayler for One Cobble at a Time

Poetry

• Lance Larsen for Backyard Alchemy

Publishing

• Christopher Bigelow for Zarahemla Books

Service to AML

• Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury

Short Fiction

• Larry Menlove for "Path of Antelope, Pelican, and Moon"

Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Levi Peterson

Young Adult Literature

• Carol Lynch Williams for The Chosen One

2010s

2010

Biography

• Marilyn Arnold for Bittersweet: A Daughter's Memoir

Criticism

• Grant Hardy for Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide

DramaWebFilm

• Jeffrey Parkin & Jared Cardon for The Book of Jer3miah

Editing

• Eric W. Jepson for "Comics!" Sunstone, issue 160
• Angela Hallstrom for Dispensation: Latter-day Fiction

Memoir

• George Handley for Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River

Novel

• Brady Udall for The Lonely Polygamist

Online Writing

• Ardis Parshall for "Beards" on Keepapitchinin

Personal Essay

• Patrick Madden for Quotidiana

Poetry

• Marilyn Bushman-Carlton for Her Side of It: Poems

Service to AML

• Darlene Young

Short Fiction

• Jack Harrell for A Sense of Order and Other Stories

Short Fiction Honorable Mention

• Darin Cozzens for Light of the New Day and Other Stories

Smith-Pettit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Richard Cracroft

Young Adult Literature

• Ally Condie for Matched

2011

Autobiography

• Emma Lou Warner Thayne for The Place of Knowing: A Spiritual Autobiography

Biography

• Terryl L. Givens and Matthew J. Grow for Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism

Criticism

• Brant A. Gardner for The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon

Film

• Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten for Sons of Perdition

Honorary Lifetime Membership

• Gideon Burton

Marilyn Brown Novel Award

• Paul Colt for Boots and Saddles: A Call to Glory

Novel

• Steven L. Peck for The Scholar of Moab

Personal Essay

• Adam Miller

Poetry

• Tyler Chadwick for Fire in the Pasture: 21st Century Mormon Poets

Short Fiction

• Douglas Thayer for Wasatch: Mormon Stories and a Novella

Short Story

• David G. Pace for "American Trinity"

Smith-Pettit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters

• Marilyn Brown

Special Award in Graphical Narrative

• Michael Allred

Special Award in Literary Journalism

• Andrew Hall

Youth Adult Novel

• Robison Wells for Variant