Levi Savage Peterson (born 1933) is a

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

biographer, essayist and fictionist whose best-known works include a seminal biography of

Juanita Brooks Juanita Pulsipher Brooks (January 15, 1898 – August 26, 1989) was an American historian and author, specializing in the American West and Mormon history. Her most notable contribution was her book related to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, to wh ...

, his own autobiography, and his novel '' The Backslider'', a "standard for the contemporary Mormon novel." He was born and reared in the

community of

Snowflake, Arizona Snowflake () is a town in Navajo County, Arizona, Navajo County, Arizona, United States. It was founded in 1878 by Erastus Snow and William J. Flake, William Jordan Flake, Mormon pioneers. Snowflake is south of Interstate 40 in Arizona, Interst ...

and is an emeritus professor of English at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in French-speaking Switzerland and Belgium from 1954 to 1957. He edited '' Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought'' from 2004 to 2008. Peterson's work as a writer centers in "the possibility of wrong behavior"; his works "variously examine the tension between Sainthood as fact and Sainthood as aspiration, between belief and doubt, and between expected blessings and the traumas of reality." Similarly, he taught his writing students to "write from the other side of your inhibitions." In an essay entitled "In Defense of a Mormon Erotica," Peterson stated that " prudery reinforces pornography" by hiding sexual feelings. He encouraged Mormon authors to include sexual content and obscenities (in an appropriate amounts) in their work, writing that "there is a vitality in sexual imagery and obscenities." Peterson has been the recipient of several

AML Awards The AML Awards are given annually by the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) to the best work "by, for, and about Mormons." They are juried awards, chosen by a panel of judges. Citations for many of the awards can be found on the AML website. ...

: Short Fiction (1978) for "The Confessions of Augustine", Short Fiction (1982–1983) for "The Canyons of Grace", Special Award for Short Story Anthology (1982–1983) for ''Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon Short Stories'', Novel (1986) for ''The Backslider'', Special Recognition in Biography (1988) for ''Juanita Brooks: Mormon Woman Historian'', Honorary Lifetime Membership (1988), Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters (2009), and Short Fiction (2016) for "Kid Kirby". Additionally, his work has been a finalist in the short fiction category twice: 2014 ("Jesus Enough") and 2019 ("Bode and Iris").

Partial bibliography

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

*
Mormon Expression interview with Levi Peterson

Mormon Stories interview with Levi Peterson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Levi S. 1933 births 20th-century American novelists American Latter Day Saint writers American male novelists Living people Mormon studies scholars Weber State University faculty Novelists from Utah Novelists from Arizona People from Snowflake, Arizona Mormon memoirists Latter Day Saints from Arizona Latter Day Saints from Utah American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers Association for Mormon Letters people