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 Signature Books is thrilled to be working with the new director of the Smith-Pettit Foundation, Martha Bradley-Evans, who recently retired from the University of Utah. During her tenure at the university, she was a professor in the College of Architecture and Planning, served as dean of Undergraduate Studies, taught for the Honors College, and was senior associate vice president of Academic Affairs. Bradley-Evans takes the place of Gary James Bergera, who led the foundation from its inception in 1999 through his retirement in 2022. She has served on the board of directors of Signature Books for many years and is the author of Signature titles Pedestals and Podiums: Utah Women, Religious Authority, and Equal Rights, Glorious in Persecution: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1839–1844, and is co-author with Mary Brown Firmage Woodward of Four Zinas: A Story of Mothers and Daughters on the Mormon Frontier.
The Smith-Pettit Foundation supports Signature Books’s mission to foster the research and writing of topics in Mormon studies and to work with independent scholars to produce narrative and documentary histories.
Signature Authors Share Works at Sunstone
 Multiple Signature authors presented their work at July’s Sunstone Symposium in Sandy, Utah. Nearly 200 people attended the session marking the thirtieth anniversary of the “September Six,” in which Maxine Hanks, Paul Toscano, Lynn Whitesides, Janice Allred, and Margaret Toscano shared their personal experiences, and Signature director Barbara Jones Brown read D. Michael Quinn’s experiences from his forthcoming memoir from Signature, Chosen Path. The session began with historian Sara M. Patterson sharing an overview of this era of church discipline, based on her soon-to-be-released Signature title, The September Six and the Struggle for the Soul of Mormonism. Audio of this session is now available as a Signature Books Podcast and will be coming soon to Signature’s YouTube channel.
 In other sessions, Dayna Patterson read from her two recently published books of poetry, If Mother Braids a Waterfall and O Lady Speak Again. Dan Vogel spoke about his new book, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839. All five authors of the volumes published (so far) in our Brief Biography series appeared together on a panel: Newell Bringhurst, author of Harold B. Lee: Life and Thought; Stephen Carter, who wrote Virginia Sorensen: Pioneering Mormon Author; Kenneth L. Cannon II, whose book George Q. Cannon: Politician, Publisher, Apostle of Polygamy was just released; Constance L. Lieber, who gave us Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon: Suffragist, Senator, Plural Wife; and Gary Topping, author of D. Michael Quinn: Mormon Historian.
Katie Ludlow Rich and Heather Sundahl provided a preview of their forthcoming Signature title on the first fifty years of Exponent II, to be published in 2024. Founded in 1974 by Claudia Bushman, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and others, Exponent II maintains its role as a crucial outlet for discussing Mormon feminist issues.
Watch for some of these sessions to air as Signature Books Podcast episodes in August and September, courtesy of the Sunstone Education Foundation.
Utah Poet Laureate and Signature Author Awarded
 Last year, Governor Spencer Cox named Signature author (of Haste) and editorial advisory member Lisa Bickmore as Utah Poet Laureate. Now another honor has come her way. The Academy of American Poets awarded Bickmore a $50,000 fellowship as one of twenty-three persons to be so honored around the country. Bickmore told the Salt Lake Tribune that the academy was “interested in projects that would benefit young people or underserved people.”
Bickmore plans use the funds to “create and digitally archive micro-editions of chapbooks with writers throughout Utah” and “publish broadsides centered around the ecological crisis facing the Great Salt Lake.” Congratulations to Lisa Bickmore for this recognition and for focusing on such an important cause! Read the whole story here.
Signature’s Audiobook Library Grows
With our latest audiobook release of Lighthouse: Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Despised and Beloved Critics of Mormonism (winner of the Mormon History Association’s 2023 Best Biography Award) Signature’s audiobook library continues to grow! So far we have ten titles available, including Levi Peterson’s The Backslider and Losing a Bit of Eden: Recent Stories. Other audiobooks of fiction are Jack Harrell’s Caldera Ridge and Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner’s psychological thriller, The Contortionists. Michael Hicks will keep you entertained with Spencer Kimball’s Record Collection: Essays on Mormon Music.
Two books in our Brief Biography series recently became available, Constance L. Lieber’s Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon: Suffragist, Senator, Plural Wife, and Stephen Carter’s Virginia Sorensen: Pioneering Mormon Author. If you are interested in early Christian history, Gregor McHardy’s Eight Myths of the Great Apostasy is a great listen. And if you miss hearing Will Bagley’s voice, you’ll enjoy his autobiographical work, River Fever: Adventures on the Mississippi, 1969–1972.
If you love to listen to books, check these out. And there are more to come!
New Signature Podcast Releases
Our latest podcast release, as noted above, is the Sunstone session "The Spiritual Paths of the September Six." On July 11, Robert A. Rees discussed with marketing manager Devery Anderson, among other things, his books Why I Stay, and Why I Stay 2, which both have the explanatory subtitle, The Challenges of Discipleship for Contemporary Mormons. Rees’s books contain essays presented at the annual Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake, a session which has remained popular over the years. Listen to it here, or watch the YouTube video here. On July 25, Anderson and Kenneth L. Cannon II talked about his newly released book, George Q. Cannon: Politician, Publisher, Apostle of Polygamy. Cannon is generally acknowledged as second only to Brigham Young as the most visible leader of Mormonism in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. He became Young’s protégé and was an influential first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for almost twenty-five years, serving with presidents Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow. This work, which utilized Cannon’s recently released diaries, is groundbreaking and covers many details of his life that have been ignored in the past. Click here to listen or here to watch it on YouTube.
Speaking of George Q. Cannon . . .
Kenneth L. Cannon II will be signing his new biography of George Q. Cannon at two events in August. Mark your calendars to attend one—or both! He will be at The King’s English in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, August 16, from 6:00–7:00 p.m. Click here to learn more and to register to attend.
On Wednesday, August 23, at 5:30 PM, he will speak and sign books at Benchmark Books, also in Salt Lake City.
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