Articles on Utah literary arts, Utah authors, Utah literature and poetry published in 15 Bytes.
Our stories are our bodies. Our bodies are our legacy… So writes Sarah May, a local artist and community organizer known for her multimedia collaborations with Great Salt Lake. May is a master of ecosystem-assemblages. In the backseat of her car you will usually find a box of […]
At times we have a disconnect with writing: we believe writing exists within an unseen, made-up world. But Ashley Brown’s writing begs to differ. A Pleasant Grove native, Brown spent her formative years exploring the mountains and trails of the Wasatch Front. This had a profound effect on […]
Jan Hamer has been contributing to the Utah literary scene for many years, not only by publishing her own collection of poems and essays titled A Story by Ravens (2022, Binary Press Publications) but also by training the next generation of writers and creatives in Utah. Hamer taught […]
What inspires someone to become a writer? For many, it begins with a private impulse—an urge to hold language as carefully as a newborn, to express something essential before it vanishes. Yet countless voices never find the space to be heard. In the rush of daily noise and […]
Do you remember the excitement of show and tell when you were a child? That giddy feeling of being able to bring your treasure to class and captivate your classmates with stories about your belongings? Maybe someone else in class also had a similar treasure, or you were […]
In honor of National Poetry Month, 15 Bytes editor Shawn Rossiter sits down with Utah poet Lance Larsen to discuss his newest collection, Making a Kingdom of It. In this intimate conversation, Larsen reads from the collection and reflects on the nature of poetry, memory, and emotion. Together, […]
Artists of Utah is thrilled to announce that Always Crashing in the Same Car by Lance Olsen has been awarded the 2024 15 Bytes Book Award for Fiction. Olsen, an experimental novelist, essayist, and professor, is renowned for his innovative exploration of memory, time, and consciousness. His prismatic, […]
Since its inception in 2013, the 15 Bytes Book Awards have honored exceptional books by Utah authors or those with a Utah connection, showcasing the diverse voices in the state’s literary landscape. Artists of Utah is proud to announce the finalists for this year’s award in Fiction. The […]
He lived every second of his life for acclaim while pretending it was merely this unexpected, unwanted byproduct of his oh-so-authentic and eccentric cutting-edge art. Like he would produce that art whether or not he got the veneration. Bollocks. Everything he did he did to be adored. That’s […]
Not unlike the historical epoch from which it emerged, What Falls Away is a novel that looks back in anger, while it looks ahead with hope. As in our lives, the anger is aimed at a greedy, patriarchal order that refuses to yield power, while the hope is […]
In considering the stories collected in David G. Pace’s American Trinity: And Other Stories from the Mormon Corridor, I keep thinking of lineage. Not priesthood lineage but the literary kind. Mormon writers—excuse me, Latter-day Saint writers—have inherited the problem of genre writers through the ages. Each generation of […]
Celebrating its launch with events in both Ogden and Salt Lake City, a new literary magazine promises a fresh voice, blending tradition with a modern sensibility. Co-founded by poets Rachel White and Ken Waldman, The Nomad takes its name from Waldman’s life as a wandering writer and musician, […]
If you never thought to burn down your father’s house, or to murder him in his sleep—included here as a free psychic bonus—Michael Gills’ collection of 11 stories, accurately labeled “short,” may not be for you. If you were so fortunate as to grow up in a perfectly […]
“All the lives I could live, all the people I will never know, never will be, they are everywhere.” With those words, Aleksandar Hemon introduces readers to the voice of a cipher, the mystery man at the center his novel The Lazarus Project. This might also be a […]
Too many immigrant stories in America are about innocents who come here seeking a new life, only to run afoul of hostility and violence. Think of John Lennon, citizen of the world, harassed by the government and then shot down in cold blood on a New York City […]
“I was taught from a young age that the earth was sacred,” is how Stacie Shannon Denetsosie’s The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories begins. “Yet, every two weeks or so, I’d back my little truck up to the edge of the Divergent Dam and throw our garbage into […]
The 15 Bytes Book Award, which has been recognizing literary excellence since 2013, honors Rio Cortez’s Golden Ax, published by Penguin Poets, with its 2023 award in poetry. With her debut poetry collection, Cortez offers a window into the complexities of the Black experience in the American West. […]
Craig Childs’ Tracing Time, a compelling work of creative nonfiction inspired by the author’s excursions through the American Southwest, has been awarded a 2023 15 Bytes Book Award. With a career spanning several decades, Childs has distinguished himself through a unique blend of adventurous exploration and deep scholarly […]
In recognition of its innovative syle and bold storytelling, Alyssa Quinn’s debut novel Habilis has been awarded this year’s 15 Bytes Award for Fiction. Published in 2022 by Dzanc Books, Habilis is a mesmerizing confluence of history, science, and personal narrative. Quinn’s groundbreaking novel follows Lucy, a woman […]
Patrick Ramsay is a queer Utah-based poet who was raised in and along the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake. He earned his B.A. in English & creative writing at Weber State University, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of Metaphor Literary Journal. He owns Happy Magpie Book & […]
