Mormon Women’s Literary Tour comes to UVU

The Mormon Women’s Literary Tour made its second-to-last stop in the Student Center on March 26. Ten Mormon women shared their writings, lending their voice to the collective voice of the female Mormon writer.

Joanna Brooks, Chairwoman of the English department at San Diego State had the idea for the tour, and for her the tour had one goal in mind.

“Our goal is to figure out what it means to be a Mormon woman writer in the twenty-first century,” Brooks said.

The first speech was given by Suzanne Scott, a member of the Community of Christ, a branch-off of the Mormon church. She read from “Temple in a Teapot,” which talked of the Mormon woman who broke her fine china to add to the slurry which gave the Kirkland Temple its shine.

Next, Lisa Hadley – a popular fiction writer from Utah – read from “Making Sandwiches from my Father,” which talked about her love of family and memories of her father. She then introduced Laura Nelsen Baxter who is another great Utah poet. She read three different poems, “Take Care of your Soul it’s Flapping in the Wind,” “One Man’s Might Fall,” and “My Name isn’t Mormon, it’s Laura.”

Baxter then introduced Judith Curtis from Tempe, Ariz. Curtis started writing poetry at age 50. She read two poems, “A Key” and “The Donor.” She was followed by Cassie Eddington, a UVU alumnus raised by a single mother in Utah Valley. Then Elizabeth Pinbrom, a BYU graduate and now a student at Yale, spoke.

Pinbrom had the opportunity to introduce Kathryn Soper, an amazing woman who founded the magazine “Seguliah.”  Her memoirs were published a year ago, and she read from the second chapter of her book, entitled “Solitaire.” This spoke of when she had her son Thomas who has Down syndrome. She had to call her friends and family and she looked to them for support. She was followed by UVU’s own Dr. Julie Nichols who read a short story entitled “Without Number,” which she got from the Book of Moses. It spoke of her love of family, and of her husband Paul and son Christopher.

UVU senior Whitney Mower then spoke. She read two poems, “On Celebration,” and “Dyna Era.” The last speaker was Joanna Brooks who wanted to reward her audience for sitting patiently for so long. She read a story entitled “Tell it Again,” which is about girls telling stories around a girl’s camp fire.