Presenters
Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson
is the author of the bestselling novels Housekeeping, Gilead, and Home as well as the nonfiction worksThe Death of Adam and Mother Country. Housekeeping was a finalist for the
1982 Pulitzer Prize and was included in The New York Times Books of
the Century as well as listed as one of the 100 greatest novels of
all time by the UK Guardian Observer. Gilead
was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. In 1997
she received a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters.
A talented educator, Robinson has taught at universities
throughout the nation such as Amherst, The University of Massachusetts and
Yale. She currently teaches at the prestigious
Iowa Writers’ Workshop in Iowa City.
Brian Doyle
Brian Doyle is a hirsute shambling shuffling
mumbling grumbling muttering muddled maundering meandering male being who edits
Portland Magazine at the University of Portland,
in Oregon – the best university magazine in America,
according to Newsweek, and “the best
spiritual magazine in the country,” according to author Annie Dillard, clearly
a woman of surpassing taste and discernment.
Doyle is the
author of ten books: five collections of essays, two nonfiction books (The Grail, about a year in an Oregon
vineyard, and The Wet Engine, about
the “muddles & musics of the heart”), two collections of “proems,” most
recently Thirsty for the Joy: Australian
& American Voices (published in Australia), and the sprawling novel Mink River (Oregon State University Press).
A collection of essays (Grace Notes)
and of short fiction (Bin Laden’s Bald
Spot & Other Stories) will be published in 2011.
Doyle’s books
have four times been finalists for the Oregon Book Award, and his essays have
appeared in The Atlantic Monthly,
Harper’s, Orion, The American Scholar,
and in newspapers and magazines around the world. His essays have also been
reprinted in the annual Best American
Essays, Best American Science &
Nature Writing, and Best American
Spiritual Writing anthologies. Among various honors for his work is a
Catholic Book Award, two Pushcart Prizes, and, mysteriously, a 2008 Award in
Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, this last
particularly amazing because previous recipients include Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut,
Flannery O’Connor, and Mary Oliver, and wouldn’t that be a great dinner table, you know?
His greatest
accomplishments are that a riveting woman said yup when he mumbled a marriage proposal, that the Coherent Mercy
then sent them three lanky snotty sneery testy sweet brilliant nutty muttering
children in skin boats from the sea of the stars, and that he once made the
all-star team in a Boston men’s basketball league that was a really tough league, guys drove the lane
in that league they lost fingers, man, one time a guy drove to the basket and
got hit so hard his right arm fell
off but he was lefty and hit both free throws, so there you go.
Barry Lopez
Barry
Lopez is the author of the National Book Award winner Arctic Dreams, and Of Wolves 
and Men, a National Book Award finalist and winner of the John
Burroughs and Christopher medals. He is
also the author of eight works of fiction, including Light Action in the
Caribbean, Field Notes, and Resistance. An avid essayist, his essays
are collected in Crossing Open Ground and About This Life. He
contributes regularly to many
prestigious publications in the United States and around the world,
including Best American Essays, Best Spiritual Writing, and the “best”
collections from National Geographic, and The Paris Review.
Lopez lives in Oregon and has travels extensively.
Lance Larsen
Lance Larsen has published three poetry
collections, most recently Backyard Alchemy (Tampa 2010). Individual
poems have appeared in Paris Review, Orion, Raritan, Poetry, Ploughshares, New
York Review of Books, TLS, LIT, The Best of Pushcart Poetry, Best American
Poetry 2009, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from Sewanee, The
Joseph Campbell Foundation, Ragdale, and the National Endowment for the
Arts.
As an essayist he has won the Writers
at Work nonfiction fellowship prize, and two pieces have been listed as notable
essays—in Best American Essays 2005 and 2009. He has published other
pieces in Iowa Review, Black Warrior Review, Southern Review, Agni Online,
Brevity, and elsewhere. He teaches at BYU, where he serves as associate
chair. In 2009 and 2010 he co-directed a theater study abroad program in
London, and in 2012 he will direct a similar program in Madrid.
Susan Elizabeth Howe
Susan
Elizabeth Howe is
a contributing editor of Tar River Poetry and served for eleven years as
the poetry editor of Dialogue. Her own poems have appeared in such
journals as The New Yorker, Poetry, The Southern Review, and Prairie
Schooner. Her first collection of poetry, Stone Spirits, was
published in 1997 and won the Charles Redd Center Publication Prize. It also
received the Association for Mormon Letters award in poetry for 1998. She has
just completed a second collection of poems with Florida poet Terri Witek, To
Lie with a Landscape (forthcoming). Susan lives with her husband Cless
Young and their three aging dogs in Ephraim, far enough away from the Wasatch
Front to be a peaceful haven she can escape to when she’s not teaching.
George Handley
George Handley is the author of the
recent environmental memoir, Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo
River, a book that is the culmination of over a decade of thinking about
and working on improving the dialogue about the environment in the state of
Utah. He has taught at BYU since moving back to his state of birth in
1998 and has written extensively on the intersections between literature,
religion, and the environment, including various essays that explore the religious principles of environmental stewardship. He has also been active in
several environmental initiatives, including Faith and the Land, Utah Valley
Earth Forum, LDS Earth Stewardship, and Utah Interfaith Power and Light, where
he serves as Chair of the Executive Board. He and his wife, Amy, live in
Provo with their four children.
Patrick Madden
Patrick Madden is the author of Quotidiana, winner of book of the
year awards from the Association for Mormon Letters, Independent Publisher, and
ForeWord Reviews, and finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative
Nonfiction. His essays have been published in Fourth Genre, the Iowa
Review, Hotel Amerika, the Normal School, and other journals,
and they've been republished in the Best American Spiritual Writing and Best Creative Nonfiction anthologies. He teaches in the MFA program at
Brigham Young University and maintains an online anthology of classical essays
at www.quotidiana.org.
Resonance Story Theater
Resonance is an organization that addresses the need for greater community connectedness in our society. Using the art of story, Resonance creates programs and specialized storytelling experiences designed to foster connection, education and imagination. In a media-saturated world, Resonance believes that there is power in all forms of story to widen perspectives, heal hearts, spark learning, and connect individuals, families, and cultures. Resonance believes that connecting through story is vital to growing a community where all of its members are appreciated, accepted and valued.
Resonance member Wendy Gourley is working on a degree in Theater for Young Audiences and is a professional storyteller. She was on the teaching staff at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, was co-director of Vocalworks, and taught music and drama at The Colby School. Currently she is President-elect of The Utah Storytelling Guild, writes for Storytelling Magazine, and serves on The Timpanogos Storytelling Conference Committee.
Besides being part of Resonance Story Theater, Karla Huntsman is a faculty member in BYU's Theatre and Media Arts Department, where she teaches storytelling and child drama, and works on the Arts Initiative. She is a professional storyteller, director and actor. She has taught theatre arts in elementary, secondary and university classrooms for over 35 years. She has also presented at numerous conferences. She serves on The Timpanogos Storytelling Conference Committee.
Member Nannette Watts is a graduate of BYU's Music-Dance-Theatre program and now works as a professional storyteller. She is the author of Youth Tell: Starting a Youth Storytelling Festival. She is a performer with the Utah Performing Arts Tour and the Timpanogos Outreach Program. She is also a choreographer and actor. Nannette serves on The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival Committee.
Trent Hickman
Trenton Hickman is an associate professor of English at Brigham Young University and the coordinator of its graduate program. He teaches courses and publishes scholarship on various topics in late twentieth century, contemporary American, and U.S. Latino and Latina literature and culture. He is currently in the process of finishing a book of Dominican-American literary history. Trent lives in American Fork with his wife Wendy and their three sons.
Steffani Raff
Storyteller Steffani Raff brings her humor, energy, music and a variety of stories to the stage in an assembly that will inspire the children to consider how the choices they make now eill help shapte their future. Former president of Timp Tellers, a local branch of the Utah Storytellers Guild, Steffani is an accomplished storyteller with a recently released CD of stories, Looking Through a Kaleidoscope.
Deborah Thornton
DebThornton received her BA and MA from BYU, and was awarded a PhD from the University of New Mexico. A passionate teacher, Dr. Thornton is a professor of English at UVU focusing on American literature, composition and editing.
Brian Jackson
Brian Jackson earned a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in Rhetoric, Composition and the Teaching of English. Currently Dr. Jackson is a professor of English at Brigham Young University where he focuses on rhetoric, American religious writing and persuasive writing.
