December 2011 Prize Sponsors

Last month's prize winners announced HERE.

Please take a moment to learn more about this month's wonderfully generous sponsors.


The Death of a Disco Dancer by David Clark

One night, eleven-year-old Todd Whitman receives a terrifying but hilarious midnight visitor: his cockatoo-plumed, dementia-stricken, John Travolta-smitten Grandma Carter. In constant nocturnal search of the mysterious "Dancer," Grandma clutches her absurdly precious Saturday Night Fever album cover and giggles her way through the dance steps of her youth.

When forty-something Todd returns home to help his dying mother, he reflects on that pivotal summer of 1981: the unique relationship he developed with his grandmother, the chaos of finding his place in a large Mormon family, the near misses of impressing the one-and-only Jenny Gillette, and the utter social catastrophe of junior high.

David Clark is a terrible dancer, former fake fighter, and recovering oranger. His oranging career effectively ended when he was intercepted and physically detained in a dark alley by a victimized college football player and was then forced to either rat out his friends or have his arm broken. His friends have still not forgiven him.

He is now engaged in much safer pursuits as a corporate lawyer and formerly served as the general counsel of a major international media company, and has practiced law and lived in New York City and San Diego. He now resides with his family in his hometown, Mesa, Arizona.

Fire in the Pasture by Tyler Chadwick, ed.

"…the bounty of [this] anthology reminded me of Christ’s generosity in feeding the five thousand. Christ took real substances—a little bread, two small fish—and he created from them…food that nourished the people and made it possible for them to return to their lives both physically and spiritually renewed. Poets take matter (language, emotion, thought, experience) and make of that matter a new creation, a work of art that did not exist before the poet organized it, a work that has the potential (each poet hopes) to nourish—to make readers see what they did not see before, to offer insight, to create empathy, to provoke thought, or to express beauty, soundness, depth. To offer abundance in place of scarcity." —from the Foreword by Susan Elizabeth Howe

Fire in the Pasture includes works from over 80 poets. See complete list here.


Tyler Chadwick spearheaded the Mormon Poetry Project, collecting works from a wide variety of 21st century LDS poets. Originally from Utah, Chadwick now lives with his wife in Idaho, where he is a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Idaho State University.






Latter-day Liberty by Connor Boyack

Individual liberty is a fundamental aspect of the good news of the gospel. But what is liberty exactly, and what role does it play in our lives? Connor Boyack explores these questions and much more in this detailed analysis of historical developments, secular information, and scriptural insights. The war in heaven continues on earth today, and our agency and liberty are under attack.

A fundamental aspect of the good news of the gospel is the message of liberty. As President Joseph F. Smith said, “The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of freedom; the gospel of the Son of God is the gospel of liberty.” Men of God, both ancient and modern, have spoken on this issue repeatedly. Latter-Day Liberty: A Gospel Approach to Government and Politics provides an analysis of what liberty is and how it applies to government and politics, using logic, reason, and secular sources of information, in addition to the abundant scriptures and statements from prophets and apostles which relate to these issues.

Connor Boyack is a web developer, political economist, and social media consultant focused on advancing the cause of liberty. Best known for his blog at www.connorboyack.com, he currently serves as the state coordinator for the Tenth Amendment Center in Utah. He is a frequent guest on radio shows and regularly publishes opinion pieces in a variety of newspapers and websites.

A California native and Brigham Young University graduate, Connor currently resides in Lehi, Utah, with his wife and two children.






Monsters & Mormons by Wm Morris & Theric Jepson, ed.

Thirty Tales of Adventure and Terror.

Run the gamut of battling demons, ghosts, zombie apocalypse, aliens, golems, ninja monkeys, mad scientists, cyborgs and more!

Authors include Nathan Shumate, David J. West, Graham Bradley, Eric James Stone, Dan Wells, and many others.

Click here for a complete list of authors and story titles.



Wm Morris blogs at A Motley Vision, where he keeps an eye on the world of Mormon arts and culture. He is a PR professional working at a nonprofit, private technical college in Minneapolis. Neither the 19th century socialist poet, artist and designer nor the leviathan talent agency, but he has a foot in both of the worlds they represent.

Theric Jepson, another AMV blogger, has been blogging since 2005, but he’s been a gadfly-in-the-making for much, much longer. Most of his professional publications have been under his legal name, Eric W Jepson, but online he is better known by a variety of monikers beginning with the digraph th. You can read his personal blog at Thmazing's Thutopia.



CLICK HERE for details on how to win these books.

CLICK HERE for details on sponsoring the contest.