Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Chapter 3: Metals And Metallurgy, Matthew Roper

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Jeremiah “The Prophet”, Loren Spendlove

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This article, which focuses on the role of Jeremiah as a prophet, is based on a study of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint. It also analyzes references to Jeremiah in the Book of Mormon and connects those references to current scholarly research on the book of Jeremiah. Consistent with the general consensus among biblical scholars today, as well as Nephi1’s own references to Jeremiah in the Book of Mormon, the author proposes that even though Jeremiah embodied the office of a prophet, he was not recognized as being “among the prophets” during his lifetime. This is a subtle …

Seeing With A Hat: How Joseph Smith Used A Hat In Translating The Book Of Mormon, Stan Spencer

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Joseph Smith’s use of a seer stone and hat in producing the Book of Mormon has been a point of confusion, dismay, and even embarrassment among some believers. These feelings may reflect a lack of understanding of the functions of these objects in enabling Joseph to receive divine revelation. As the term was used in the Bible and commonly used in Joseph Smith’s day, a seer was a “seer” of visions. Accordingly, a seer stone was a stone used for seeing visions. Joseph was reported to have used seer stones to receive the translation of the Book of Mormon in …

David W. Pattern Faithful Friend Or Heel Lifter?, Mark T. Lewis

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In 1843 Joseph Smith reflected on his experiences with the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in this dispensation, remarking that only Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball had not “lifted their heel” against him. Of the remaining ten members of the Quorum, nine faced documented disciplinary action or openly opposed Joseph, but David W. Patten did not. Patten’s loyalty, martyrdom, and frequent commendations from Joseph, the Lord, and his contemporaries make Patten’s exclusion from Joseph’s 1843praise of Brigham and Heber puzzling. Those who knew Patten spoke at length of his faithfulness and often listed his name …

"Being Therefore Perfect" Matthew 5:48 In Modern Restoration And Ancient Jewish Contexts, Trevan G. Hatch, Gerrit Van Dyk

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Matthew 5:48 (“Be ye therefore perfect . . . ”) is a salient passage of scripture for Latter-day Saints because of its seeming focus on becoming like God, a key doctrine of the Latter-day Saints faith. But what insights do we gain from analyzing its ancient Jewish context by comparing it to a parallel verse in Luke 6, by examining the verses immediately preceding it, and by considering the Greek grammar of the passage and the ancient meaning of the word translated as perfect in its various contexts? This essay explores these interpretive angles as well as survey show this …

3rd Grade Religion, Brooke Standish

Inscape

Brooke Stanish is a writer from Sunrise, Florida, and an MFA candidate in the Creative Writing Program at Louisiana State University. Her work appears in America, The Windhover, The Rectangle, Whale Road Review, Living Waters Review, Time of Singing, Green Blotter, Manzano Mountain Review, and other publications.

Forgetting, Beth Sherman

Inscape

Beth Sherman has an MFA in creative writing from Queens College, where she teaches in the English department. Her writing has been published in more than 100 literary magazines, including Portland Review, Tiny Molecules, 100 Word Story, Fictive Dream, and Bending Genres. Her work is featured in Best Microfiction 2024. She’s also a Pushcart, Best Small Fictions, and multiple Best of the Net nominee. She can be reached at @bsherm36 or at bethsherman.site.

Bathroom Still Life, Savannah Allred

Inscape

Savannah Grace Allred was born in 2000 in Gilbert, Arizona. She currently lives and works in Provo, Utah, while also attending Brigham Young University where she will receive her bachelor’s in art with a minor in art history. Allred has already been included in various school exhibitions and hopes to show her work in other spaces. Upcoming shows include the 38th Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah Exhibition.

Hare In The Wire, Jacob Dayton

Inscape

Jake Dayton is a writer based in San Francisco. His works explore queer life after Mormonism, community’s ability to foster connection or heighten isolation, and the weight of a life worth living. A Utah native, the natural beauty of the state worms its way into everything he writes.

Vernal Awakening, Susan Moss

Inscape

Throughout Susan Moss’s artistic journey, classical training laid the foundation for her creativity. Art has been a source of joy for her since childhood. As she raised her family, the untamed creativity of her children inspired collaborative art sessions. Over time, her fascination with abstraction deepened and grew stronger. Guided by mentors and a diverse artistic community, Susan learned the importance of giving back. Beauty, harmony, and balance drive her work, aiming to inspire viewers. Her art doesn’t follow realism but mirrors life’s imperfections, avoiding perfect lines and precise colors. Instead, it captures the essence of a rich, varied life. …

Finite Being, Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

Inscape

Nathaniel Lachenmeyer is an award-winning disabled author of books for children and adults. His first book, The Outsider, which takes as its subject his late father’s struggles with schizophrenia and homelessness, was published by Broadway Books. Nathaniel has forthcoming/recently published poems, stories and essays with Subtropics, The American Poetry Review, Poetry International Online, ANMLY, North Dakota Quarterly, The Coachella Review, Potomac Review and DIAGRAM. Nathaniel lives outside Atlanta with his family. Visit Nathaniel Lachenmeyer’s website at www.nathaniellachenmeyer.com.

Field Of View, Douglas Fritock

Inscape

After spending many years on the East Coast, Douglas Fritock now lives with his family in Redondo Beach, California but still pines away for snow. Previously a tobacco chemist, he has since given up the dark arts and now spends his days driving carpool, tending native - plants, swinging kettlebells, and working on poems. His work has previously appeared in Little Patuxent Review and is forthcoming in Ponder Review and Puerto del Sol.

To Make A Home Of Time, Alexa Brockamp Hoggatt

Inscape

Alexa Brockamp Hoggatt is a poet and programmer from Tacoma, Washington. Although there is endless machine to rage against, Alexa writes poetry as a sort of running list of reasons humans deserve to go on existing: The tenderness, the shared experience, the soft parts. Her dad woke up every morning after coughing through the night from breathing sand and dust at work and said “It’s another perfect day” and that is what she wants her poems to say: Even if you have sand in your lungs, it’s another perfect day.

Far West, Isaac James Richards

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

On Needing A Brother, Carly Quereto

Inscape

Carly is currently a BYU student studying creative writing at BYU. She loves her husband and baby, crocheting, and chocolate peanut butter ice cream. She dreams of someday writing a book.

Wake, Carolyn Oliver

Inscape

Carolyn Oliver is the author of The Alcestis Machine (Acre Books, 2024), Inside the Storm I Want to Touch the Tremble (University of Utah Press, 2022; selected for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize), and three chapbooks. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in TriQuarterly, Image, Copper Nickel, Poetry Daily, Prelude, Consequence, and elsewhere. She lives in Massachusetts.

Sequin, Rose Demaris

Inscape

Rose DeMaris’s poetry appears in Image, New England Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, Narrative, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She received Orison Books’ Best Spiritual Literature Award in Poetry in 2022 and the 2024 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award, and she was a Best New Poets nominee in 2023. She holds advanced degrees in English and Native American Studies as well as an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University, where she was a Creative Writing Teaching Fellow. She lives, writes, and wanders in Montana.

When I Am Awake, Angela Townsend

Inscape

Angela Townsend works for a cat sanctuary, where she bears witness to mercy for all beings. She is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, seven-time Best of the Net nominee, and the 2024 winner of West Trade Review’s 704 Prize for Flash Fiction. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Arts & Letters, Chautauqua, Epiphany, Five Points, Indiana Review, The Normal School, Pleiades, SmokeLong Quarterly, Terrain, Under the Sun, and World Literature Today, among others. She graduated from Princeton Seminary and Vassar College, has lived with Type 1 diabetes for over 30 years, and laughs with her poet mother every morning.

Stingray, Christopher Stewart

Inscape

Christopher Stewart is the author of What Came After (The Calliope Group) and co-author (with Quraysh Ali Lansana) of The Walmart Republic (Mongrel Empire Press). His poems have appeared in RHINO, Bellevue Literary Review, Plainsongs, Oberon, Connecticut River Review, Eastern Iowa Review, Atlanta Review, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of the 2025 RHINO Poetry Founder’s Prize.

The Fishmonger, Jeremy Radin

Inscape

Jeremy Radin is a writer and actor. His poems have appeared (or are forthcoming) in Poema- Day, Ploughshares, The Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, The Sun, Only Poems, and elsewhere. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Belly God (Orison Books, forthcoming 2026, selected by Ellen Bass), Dear Sal (Not A Cult, 2022), Slow Dance with Sasquatch (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). As an actor, he has worked extensively in theater, film and tv. He lives in New York, where he likes to sit in the park and point at birds.

Power Within, Vincent Frimpong

Inscape

Vincent Frimpong is a contemporary ceramic artist born in Accra, Ghana. He holds an MFA from the University of Arkansas and a BA in Industrial Arts (Ceramics option) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. His works have been showcased in multiple group exhibitions and the solo exhibitions Reserved: I Woke Up To A Dream at Colorado State University; The Frimpong Case in Fayetteville, AR; and The Frimpong Case Continued in Jackson, MS. He has won grants and awards from institutions across the United States. Frimpong is an assistant professor of art at Talladega College, AL and the 2025 …

Lobster Eyes, Lily Chen

Inscape

Lily Chen lives in San Diego, California, where she writes for a living during the day and tries to write for personal endeavors at night. She studied literature and writing at UC San Diego.

Crocuses, Holly Castleton

Inscape

Holly Castleton is a master’s student at the University of Edinburgh studying Creative Writing. She has an MA in Religion and Literature and graduated from BYU with a major in English in 2020. Her poetry has appeared in Rue Scribe by Underwood Press. She loves to read, eat, and practice yoga.

Ode To Sounds I Hear Only In Iran, Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad

Inscape

Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad is a poet and attorney. Her poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, and New England Review among others. She won the 2019 LUMINA La Lengua contest and the 2016 Pinch Literary Prize, and is a Best of the Net, Pushcart Prize, and Best New Poets nominee. Her work can be found at www.mt-poet.com.

Ode To The Maidenhair Tree, Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad

Inscape

Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad is a poet and attorney. Her poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, and New England Review among others. She won the 2019 LUMINA La Lengua contest and the 2016 Pinch Literary Prize, and is a Best of the Net, Pushcart Prize, and Best New Poets nominee. Her work can be found at www.mt-poet.com.

Ice, Mts Pillay

Inscape

Mary Tina Shamli Pillay’s poems, fiction and art have featured on BBC Radio, Kitaab, The Mean Journal, Blink-Ink, Borderless Journal, The Chakkar, Dusk Magazine, Madras Courier, The Pine Cone Review, The Literary Times Magazine, The Punch Magazine, and forthcoming on Shooter Magazine (cover art), Ink In Thirds (Art), Chestnut Review (Art), among others. She is passionate about Writing, Art, Politics and Food.

Barn Dreams, Michael Shoemaker

Inscape

Michael Shoemaker is a poet, haikuist, photographer, writer, and editor from Magna, Utah, where he lives with his wife and son and enjoys looking out on the Great Salt Lake every day. He is the author of four book-length poetry/photography collections, and his photography has appeared in several newspapers, literary journals, and art gallery exhibitions. He has also received an Artist Career Advancement Grant from the Utah Division of Arts and Museums for 2026, 2025 and 2024. He will be the artist-in-residence in May 2026 at Zion Canyon Mesa.

Full Issue

Inscape

No abstract provided.

Allen D. Breck Award Winner

Quidditas

The Breck Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a junior scholar at the annual conference.

Recipient of the Breck Award 2025

Kierra E. Burns

What Can Artificial Intelligence Tell Us About The Literary Skills Needed To Dictate A Text Like The Book Of Mormon?, Brian C. Hales

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The first oral draft of the Book of Mormon dictated by Joseph Smith reflected remarkable literary refinement and complexity. Such observations demonstrate that he exhibited highly developed composition and oratory skills. To date, no scholar has attempted to describe the specific skills Joseph manifested while dictating. This essay addresses whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) could generate an accurate list of the skills necessary. It begins by identifying and informally testing eleven chatbots to see if they can accurately predict the skills needed to perform a task. Seeing success, they are next asked a long question about the skills needed to dictate …