Coming Soon from BCC Press

As you all know, BCC Press has unleashed a tide of awesomeness on the universe that cannot be contained. And we have given up all pretense of even trying. On July 24–that magic Mormon miracle day–we will have our biggest release yet, as three (count-em, THREE) new books will be released all at once.

And what books! Four of the most prominent women on the Mormon arts and letters scene have combined together to produce the kind of cognitive feast you usually only see when they award the Nobel Prizes. Here is a sneak preview:

Third Wheel: Peculiar Stories of Mormon Women in Love, by Melissa Leilani Larson: This volume contains two AML-award-winning plays by the Mormon world’s uppingnest and comingnest playwright. And these are both plays that deal fearlessly with important issues. “Little Happy Secrets,” which won the AML award for drama in 2009, explores same-sex attraction among a pair of roommates at BYU. “The Pilot Program,” which won the same award in 2015, imagines the re-introduction of polygamy in a childless Mormon family. Utah audiences have seen these plays on stage already, and now everybody has a chance to read them. And you should read them. They will change your life. This selection can now be pre-ordered for the Kindle.

The Book of Laman, by Mette Harrison: Mette Harrison is one of the best-known Mormon authors currently writing about Mormonism for a national audience. Her Linda Wallheim mystery series (The Bishop’s Wife, His Right Hand, For Time and All Eternities, and, one hopes, many more to come) marks the first time ever that a strong and intelligent Mormon woman (or any other kind of Mormon woman for that matter) has had a starring role in a nationally marketed mystery series. In The Book of Laman, Harrison takes a concept that others have used for a quick joke–the idea of narrating the first part of the Book of Mormon from Laman’s perspective–and turns it into a serious and profoundly moving story of redemption that has the ability to make us all better readers, and, more importantly, better people. This selection can now be pre-ordered for the Kindle.

Mother’s Milk: Poems in Search of Heavenly Mother, by Rachel Hunt Steenblik (author) and Ashley Mae Hoiland (illustrator): There has never been anything in the world like this. Trust us. Rachel Hunt Steenblik (co-editor of the Oxford University Press volume Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings) has written 246 small poems about the profound human longing for a Heavenly Mother. And Ashley Mae Hoiland (author of One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly and creator of the We Brave Women card series) adds her trademark illustration style to the mix. Art and literature just don’t get any better.

And that’s what’s coming up folks. We are trying to be humble and keep our expectations in check. But it’s hard with a lineup like this. It is very possible that people will look back to Pioneer Day of 2017, and the publication of these three landmark books, and use it as a baseline for tracing the time that the world changed for ever.