Eugene England is a critic, essayist, teacher, and pioneering scholar in the field of Mormon letters. He is responsible for many of the advances in Mormon letters in the twentieth century. In 1966 he founded Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, which has provided a venue for the publication of Mormon stories, poetry, and criticism. He has more recently edited anthologies of Mormon poetry, short fiction, and criticism (see below). He has shaped both the past and future of Mormon writing through the Association for Mormon Letters, which he cofounded and has actively promoted, through his book reviews and through his scholarly assessment of the Latter-day Saints' literary tradition. His most complete overview of Mormon literature can be found online here. England has championed the personal essay as a genre for Mormon expression, authoring three books of essays and promoting the form for others. Eugene England taught Mormon Literature at Brigham Young University from 1977-99 and currently teaches Mormon Literature at Utah Valley State College.

Contributions to Mormon Literature

Eugene England and Lavina Fielding Anderson, eds. Tending the Garden: Essays on Mormon Literature. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996.

The online version has been adapted slightly from its print version (with some updated bibliographic material and the addition of weblinks). An abbreviated version of this same essay may be found in Lavina Fielding Anderson and Eugene England, eds., Tending the Garden: Essays on Mormon Literature (Salt Lake City: Signature, 1996). An earlier, seminal version is England's "The Dawning of a Brighter Day: Mormon Literature After 150 Years" Brigham Young University Studies 22 (Spring 1982): 131–60, reprinted in After 150 Years: The Latter-day Saints in Sesquicentennial Perspective. Ed. Thomas G. Alexander and Jessie L. Embry (Provo, Utah: Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, 1983): 97-146.

Eugene England. Why the Church Is as True as the Gospel Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1986; Salt Lake City: Tabernacle, 1999

Eugene England. Making Peace: Personal Essays Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995.

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