NEW RELEASES, A NEW PODCAST, AND A NEW ERA
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These are exciting times at Signature Books! Last year we celebrated our fortieth anniversary, and on March 1, Barbara Jones Brown began her tenure as company director. We can proudly look back at the past four decades and of all we have accomplished—the books, the awards, the friendships—and look to the future with a firm belief and commitment that the best is still to come.
So far this year we've released three new titles and have seven more coming by the end of 2022. We have also decided to try out a few new things. Read on to find out all about it.
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Signature Partners with Leakey Foundation, Releases Science Title
In a departure from its forty-one year mission of producing the best in Mormon studies, Signature Books has partnered with the Leakey Foundation to publish Discovering Us: Fifty Great Discoveries in Human Origins. There is no Mormon content, but if the questions "Where did we come from?" and "Why are we here?" are relevant to you, let science take a stab at answering them from that perspective (the third one, "Where are we going?" is not attempted here!).
The Leakey Foundation was established in 1968 to support and expand the work of Louis and Mary Leakey and others. The foundation has provided money for numerous researchers and scientist over the years and has played an invaluable role in expanding our knowledge of human origins. It was the Leakey Foundation that provided Jane Goodall grant money for her early research on chimpanzees. Click here to learn more and to purchase the book.
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Signature Podcast Has Launched!
Signature Books Podcast is now a reality! The first episode, featuring John Sillito talking about his new book, B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena, was released on Monday, February 14. This podcast will feature authors talking about recently released books, and some who authored some of our popular backlist titles. Please subscribe so that you can stay aware of and listen to future episodes. You can listen to the first one by clicking here. Signature Books Podcast is currently available on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Spotify. Two more are ready to go and will be released during April. After some initial kinks, we are planning on releasing two episodes per month. Watch for Gary Topping's interview about his new biography of D. Michael Quinn to post shortly.
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University of Utah Hosts D. Michael Quinn Conference
The Mormon studies community was shocked to learn in April 2021 of the sudden death of D. Michael Quinn, a beloved historian whose books on the LDS hierarchy and the practice of folk magic within Mormonism have been among the most widely read and well-received within the field. Most of his titles were published by Signature Books, but he was a friend as well as an author.
Benjamin E. Park of Sam Houston State University recently organized and gathered several sponsors to host an event on March 25, 2022, at the University of Utah Alumni House attended by over 100 people in person and another 100 over Zoom. "D. Michael Quinn: The Life and Times of a Mormon Historian" was a one-day event featuring papers by scholars and was a first of its kind.
The presentations from the conference are available to watch by clicking here. Also, our new book, D. Michael Quinn: Mormon Historian, by Gary Topping can be purchased by clicking here. This is the second volume in our Mormon Lives series.
You can also listen to Ben Parks's interview with Doug Fabrizio on Radio West about Mike Quinn here. Gary Topping and Barbara Jones Brown were featured guests on the Mormon Land podcast recently where they also discussed Quinn and his work. You can listen to that by clicking here.
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Michael Fillerup Returns to Signature with New Book of Short Stories
Longtime Signature readers will remember Michael Fillerup for his books Visions and Other Stories (1990), and Beyond the River (1995). Fillerup has won numerous awards for his fiction from Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, the Association for Mormon Letters, the Mormon Festival of the Arts, and the Brookie and D.K Brown Memorial Fiction Contest.
Now he is back with The Year They Gave Women the Priesthood and Other Stories, a collection that you will find captivating and likely to engage all emotions. The title essay draws you in but the entire volume is one great ride. Click here to read his guest blogpost at the Association for Mormon Letters' blog, Dawning of a Brighter Day. Check out Fillerup's website here.
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Evan Hadingham
hardback, $64.95
Available later this month.
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Gary Topping
paperback, $9.95
ebook, $4.99
Available!
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MIchael Fillerup
paperback, $16.95
ebook, $9.99
Available!
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Romney Burke
hardback, $29.95
ebook, $9.99
Available mid-April
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BOOKSTORE SPOTLIGHT:
The Book Bungalow
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Located in St. George's historic district, The Book Bungalow opened on September 26, 2018, with a grand opening that followed three weeks later. The story behind the store is a fascinating one. Owner Tanya Mills opened it so that she could help her son Jason, who has high functioning autism, by assuring him a job and possible ownership of the store one day. It is St. George's only independent bookstore. "You may think indie bookstores are dying, but it's not so," Mills writes on the store's website. "Between 2009 and 2015 when so many other small businesses were going under, the number of independent bookstores rose—so much so that a Harvard professor set out to study the anomaly to find out what they were doing differently."
The study found out that they had three things in common, something he called "the 3 Cs." These are community, convening, and curation. "That's what we have planned to do with our bookstore."
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It seems to be working. The Book Bungalow has survived the COVID pandemic and managed to expand its shelf space in the building. Come check them out if you live in the area or are passing through. You will be glad you did. In 2019 The Book Bungalow hosted Rod Decker, who spoke and signed copies of his book Utah Politics, published that year by Signature. We hope to have other authors speak there in the future. The store will be ordering more Signature titles and so watch out for them!
Be sure to check out The Book Bungalow by clicking here to visit their website. They are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
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EVENTS
June 2–5, 2022
Mormon History Association
Utah State University Campus, Logan, Utah
July 27–30, 2022
Sunstone Symposium
Mountain America Expo Center, Sandy, Utah
September 15–18, 2022
John Whitmer Historical Association
Community of Christ Temple, Independence, Missouri
October 26, 2022
Utah State Historical Society Conference
Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, Provo, Utah
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