The Marilyn Brown Novel Award was an occasional award given to the best unpublished novel focusing on realistic cultural experiences of the Utah region submitted for consideration. The award includes a $1,000 honorarium.The Marilyn Brown Novel Award 2009
The award was founded by Marilyn Brown and her husband to encourage quality fiction focused on regional Mormon experience. Beginning in 2000, the award was presented every other year by the Association for Mormon Letters. Beginning with the 2009 award, the Utah Valley University's English Department accepted stewardship over the award. Jen Wahlquist was the professor in charge, and she broadened the award's scope to all fiction about the Utah region with the intent to make it an annual award. The award has a $30,000 endowment.UVU Humanities, budget report (PowerPoint)
Upon Walquist's retirement and given a low number of novel submissions, the endowment was repurposed into a scholarship fund for UVU students, and renamed the Marilyn & Bill Brown Endowed Writing Scholarship. The scholarship is managed by the UVU library.
Past winners
2000 Every Knee Shall Bow (later published as Vernal Promises) by Jack Harrell Honorable Mention: Windows by Dorothy W. Peterson Honorable Mention: Barry Monroe’s Missionary Journal by Alan Rex Mitchell Honorable Mention: The Wildest Waste by Laura Dene Card
2002 Mormonville by A. Jeff Call
2004 House Dreams by Janean Justham
2006 The Coming of Elijah by Arianne Cope Honorable Mention: Seeker by Donald Marshall
2008 Rift by Todd Robert Petersen Honorable Mention: Voices at the Crossroads by Helynne Hollstein Hansen Honorable Mention: Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys by Janet Kay Jensen
2009 Avenging Saints by John Bennion
2010 Across a Harvested Field by Robert Goble
2011 Putting up Stars by Susan Auten
2012 Boots and Saddles: A Call to Glory by Paul Colt
2013 A Boy Scout’s Field Guide to the Red-shifting Universe by Scott Hatch
2014 Clawing Eagle by Christy Monson
References