Arrington Writing Award Winners Selected

The winner of the 2015 Arrington Writing Award, a competition held in conjunction with the Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture at Utah State University, was announced at the Friends of Merrill-Cazier Library spring lecture March 17. The selection committee named two award recipients this year, first and second place.

This year’s first place award went to Joshua Wagner with a $1,000 prize with his essay titled “Two Extremes: Persisting Dualities in Portrayals of Black Mormons.” Camilla Anderson took the $500 second place award for “Mormon Feminism Among the Early Saints.”

The writing competition is open to university students studying at any of the region’s universities. Students entering the competition submitted an essay written after attending the Arrington Mormon History Lecture. The lecture was in fall 2015 and featured a presentation titled “Narrating Jane: Telling the Story of an Early African American Mormon Woman” by Quincy D. Newell. The completed essays responded to and expanded upon the lecture.

Wagner, the writing competition winner, grew up in Texas and came to Logan to attend USU in 2009 where he began studies in pre-medical biology. He served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Argentina (2011-13) and then decided his real passion was history. He graduates this spring with a degree in that discipline. He said he is enthusiastic about Mormon history, but also the history of Latin America and the Caribbean, along with their current cultures and political climates. He plans to enter law school in fall 2017 where he hopes to study international and comparative law and policy.

Anderson is also a student at USU pursuing a bachelor’s in journalism and communications with a minor in religious studies. She began her college career at Brigham Young University, where she attended two years. She served as a missionary for the LDS church in San Diego, California. Upon completion of her church service she chose to attend USU where she was the recipient of the Deans Transfer Student Scholarship. She will graduate in spring 2017. Outside of her studies, she said she enjoys reading, running, art, traveling, fly fishing, horticulture and writing.

The winning essays will be available on the University Libraries’ Digital Commons site. They can be found, along with previous winning essays, by searching “Arrington” from the libraries’ Digital Commons tab.

Contact: Brad Cole (435) 797-8268, brad.cole@usu.edu

Writer: Patrick Williams (435) 797-1354, patrick.williams@usu.edu