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 Erica Soon Olsen. Olsen was born in Hollywood, California. A graduate of the University of Montana MFA program, she is the author of Recapture & Other Stories, […]
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.
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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.”
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
