READ LOCAL First

Lessons in Printing: Klancy Clark de Nevers

Klancy Clark de Nevers’ memoir, Lessons in Printing, explores the life of her father, Kearny Clark, a printer by trade who began to hear voices after the author went to college. Mental illness haunted her father until death but Clark de Nevers was at least ambivalent, or entirely detached at the time. In this beautiful work of atonement, we learn about a “loving but melancholy printer who inherited a small print shop based on old technology, operating in a town in decline.” Yes, we learn about how the author’s father lived and died. But as importantly, we learn about how Klancy de Nevers reconciles the past in order to continue living.

Hector Ahumada

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This month we bring you Hector Ahumada, a Chilean poet and naturalized citizen who has lived in Salt Lake City for nearly forty years. “Poetry belongs to all genders,” says Hector, a participant […]

Brian Staker

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This month we bring you Brian Staker, who received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Utah in 1993. Since then, his poems have appeared in numerous literary publications, […]

Kim Welliver: Four Poems

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This month we bring you four poems by Kim Welliver. In 2018, Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum awarded her poem, “Thriving,” First Place in the Utah Original Writing Competition. Welliver has lived in Indiana […]

Stephen Trimble: The Blue Gate

This month we bring you Stephen Trimble—one of Utah’s most influential artists in Utah’s 15 (Vol. II). Among his other honors: The Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award for photography and conservation; The National Cowboy Museum’s Western Heritage “Wrangler” Award; and a Doctor of Humane Letters from his alma mater, Colorado College.

Trimble’s latest work includes an anthology of the best writing about Captiol Reef, The Capitol Reef Reader, to be published by the University of Utah Press in June 2019. His introduction to the Reader (his 25th book) grew from this piece, “The Blue Gate.”

Stefene Russell: Microfiction

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This week we bring you Stefene Russell, a St. Louis-based poet, writer, editor and actor. She is a Salt Lake City native and graduate of the University of Utah where, she […]

Shane Camoin: “Lightheaded”

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This week we bring you Shane Camoin, winner of the 60th annual Utah Original Writing Competition in the novel category. A second generation American, Camoin was born in L.A. and raised in […]

Provo Poetry Contest Provides Prestige, Prizes, and Poemball Machines

Among the Utah literary set, “south of the border” can sometimes mean Utah County, but with its two major universities (Brigham Young—think former poet laureate Lance Larsen — and Utah Valley—think “sonosopher” and performance artist Alex Caldiero) as well as its robust independent lit organizations, you overlook it […]

Jennifer Tonge: CATAFALQUE & seven syllabic acrostics

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This week we bring you poet Jennifer Tonge. Tonge resides in Salt Lake City and earned an MFA at the University of Utah. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and, […]

Joni Hemond: Between Beats

This week we bring you Joni Hemond, Doctor of Medicine, who has been a practicing pediatrician for twenty years. Much of her professional life has focused on providing care to medically underserved populations, and she is continually touched by the struggles, sorrows, and joys of her patients and their families. Her book, “Coyote Sky,” was born from writing fictionalized accounts of her experiences. It won First Place in the 2017 Utah Original Writing Competition, Book-Length Collection of Stories Category judged by Becky Bradway. Joni lives with her husband and three children in Salt Lake City where she is an academic pediatrician at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Larkin Weyand: We Will Be a Thing

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This week we bring you Larkin Weyand, who teaches courses in English education, creative writing, and composition at BYU. He taught high school English and art for nine years at American Fork High […]

Andrew Haley: Romeo

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This week we bring you poet, fiction writer, essayist, and translator Andrew Haley. Haley received a Master’s of Arts in British and American Literature from the University of Utah and now […]

Todd Robert Petersen, self-portrait, taken near his shed with a 50mm prime lens.

Todd Robert Petersen: The Impeccable Driver

  READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This week we bring you Todd Robert Petersen. The excerpt was originally from a short story, which took 2nd Place in the 2002 Utah Original Writing Competition. It is now […]

Tim Glenn: Forever Desolation

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This week we bring you an excerpt from Tim Glenn’s 2017 Original Writing Competition First Place novel manuscript, Forever Desolation. Glenn is a historian and museum director living in Green River, Utah. He earned […]

Aaron Cance: Solomon

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This week we bring you an excerpt from Aaron Cance’s novel-in-progress, The Past Day Will Shine. Cance, proprietor of Sandy-based indie bookstore The Printed Garden, earned a B.A. in English Literature from the University of […]

Reiser Perkins’ West Temple

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary non-fiction, and memoir. This week we bring you Reiser Perkins, a Utah native who currently lives in Hawaii. She joins a distinguished group of writers, including Utah Poet Laureate Paisley Rekdal, former Utah Poet Laureate Katherine […]

Clifton H. Jolley: Four Poems

READ LOCAL First represents Utah’s most comprehensive collection of celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This week we bring you four previously unpublished poems by Clifton H. Jolley. A widely published poet and essayist, Jolley joins Utah Poet Laureate Paisley Rekdal and former Utah Poet Laureate Katharine Coles, […]