What do you do when a member of your family becomes a legend?

For Stephen Carter, the answer was to go looking for her.

In this episode, Carter discusses his great-aunt May Swenson, one of the most distinctive American poets of the twentieth century. Raised in Logan, Utah, in the Latter-day Saint faith, Swenson left for New York in her early twenties and built a life far beyond the expectations of her family and upbringing.

She was queer, fiercely independent, and devoted to her art. Her life and especially her loves raise fascinating questions about faith, family, desire, identity, and freedom.

Carter explores those questions in his new book, Creature: The Life and Loves of May Swenson, which grew in part from his own connection to Swenson and his desire to understand the woman behind the family legend.

In our conversation, Stephen and I talk about May’s remarkable life, her poetry and relationships, the tension between her Mormon upbringing and her queer identity, and what it means to uncover a family story that was never quite finished.

Stephen Carter is the author of Virginia Sorensen: Pioneering Mormon Author and editor of Sunstone magazine. His graphic novel, iPlates: Prophets, Priests, Rebels, and Kings (with illustrator Jett Atwood), was named one of the Association for Mormon Letters’ 100 significant works of Mormon literature, along with his edited collection, Moth and Rust: Mormon Encounters with Death. In recognition he received the 2023 Smith-Pettit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters. He has a PhD in narrative studies and lives in Orem, Utah, with his family.

What makes someone a prophet, and what makes someone a fraud?

In this episode, Beth Brumer-Reeve talks with author G. Thomas Burgess about his new novel, Kingdoms of the Night Sky, a fascinating exploration of faith, charismatic leaders, and our search for meaning and belonging.

Set in a near-future America, the novel follows the legacy of Isaac Snow, the prophet behind a new spiritual movement. Through his son's telling of his life, we explore how belief systems emerge, why people follow charismatic leaders, and what happens when one person's ideas transform the lives of millions.

We also talk about some of the connections to Mormonism, the nature of prophecy, and why people are drawn to movements that promise community.

Kingdoms of the Night Sky is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at local bookstores.

Originally from the West Coast, G. Thomas Burgess now resides in Maryland and is an associate professor of African history. This is his first novel. You can follow him on Instagram @burgessgthomas. 

How do you write deeply personal poems without revealing too much about the people you care about?

In this episode, poet David Thacker talks about his collection Some Hard Stars and the delicate work of writing about people and events that hold meaning to him. 

David’s poems don’t turn away from hard topics, but they don’t leave us there either. With insight and tenderness, he reminds us to notice beauty, even in heavy moments, and to hold both loss and hope at once.

David Thacker is a recipient of the Creative Writing Award from the Western Literature Association, a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, and he was selected by Tracy K. Smith for Best New Poets. His poems have appeared in Image, The Kenyon Review, Orion, Ploughshares, Tin House, and elsewhere. He received his MFA from The University of Idaho and his PhD from Florida State University. He teaches at The Ethel Walker School, where he chairs the English Department, runs the Visiting Writer Seminar, and is the Director of Community Partnerships (a relationships-based service program). Some Hard Stars is his first book.

You can follow David on Instagram @_david_thacker

After uncovering complex and, at times, troubling family history, Millie Tullis did what she does best: she wrote about it in verse. She joins Beth Brumer Reeve to discuss her new collection, These Saints Are Stones.

We talk about the process of researching her family history and what it means to sit with the unknown—how gaps in the archive can be approached with both truth and imagination. Millie shares how writing this collection became a healing act, helping her confront her roots and make sense of inherited history, faith, and identity.

We also explore the balance between vulnerability and restraint: how do you write honestly about family while deciding what to protect, if anything?

A thoughtful conversation for poetry lovers and anyone interested in Mormon history.

Millie Tullis is a poet, editor, and researcher from northern Utah. She holds an MFA from George Mason University and an MA in American Studies & Folklore from Utah State University. Her poetry has been published in Dialogist, Sugar House Review, Cimarron Review, Dialogue, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. Her digital micro-chapbook, Dream with Teeth, was published by Ghost City Press in 2023. Her research has won awards from the Utah Historical Society, the Folklore Society of Utah, and the American Folklore Society. She is the editor-in-chief of Exponent II. Find more at millietullis.com.

You can also follow Millie Tullis on Instagram @millie_tullis.

Check out all of our books at SignatureBooks.com, and follow us on Instagram @signature.books.

Do Eli McCann’s parents think he is funny? Hear his answer on our latest podcast episode while we talk about his new book, We’re Thankful for the Moisture: A Gay Guy’s Guide to Mormon Faith, Family, and Fruit Preservation, a collection of essays adapted from his humor columns in The Salt Lake Tribune.

Eli shares how he knew from a young age that he wanted to be a writer—and how voices like David Sedaris, Erma Bombeck, and Tina Fey shaped his comedic style. We also talk about his childhood love of Lucille Ball and the unforgettable Halloween when he and his friend Sam dressed as nuns after watching The Sound of Music.

It’s a funny, heartfelt conversation about faith, family, queerness, and finding your voice.

Eli McCann is a lawyer, writer, and podcaster. His monthly humor column for The Salt Lake Tribune explores cultural and religious ideas, usually through his experiences living as a gay man in Utah. Since 2016, McCann has produced and cohosted the storytelling podcast and live show, Strangerville. His work has been featured in publications around the world, including The Washington Post, Newsweek, HuffPost, BBC, and others. His writing and other creative projects can be found at his website, It Just Gets Stranger.

Please join us at his book launch on February 24th, 2026, at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art at 7:00 PM. Seating for this event is limited, so get your tickets here.

You can follow Eli on TikTok, Instagram, and X.

Tracy Young Cannon had a vast influence on the musical voice of Mormonism in the twentieth century. In this episode, Shelby Fisher, a professor of music and a gifted organist, shares what she learned about Cannon as she researched his life. Cannon was a Salt Lake Tabernacle organist from 1905 to 1930, oversaw the creation of two hymnals and an expansive organist and chorister education program while chairing the General Music Committee of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fisher’s new biography, Tracy Y. Cannon: Tabernacle Organist & Pioneering Musician, 1879–1961, is now available in paperback and ebook formats.

Fisher earned masters’ degrees in both organ performance and education from the University of Utah and a doctorate in sacred music from the Graduate Theological Foundation. Her scholarly work centers on the influence of religious belief on musical performance practice. She serves as Director of Organ Studies at Utah State University and is an active musician. She and her husband are the parents of three daughters. 

In one of the most unlikely coups in college basketball history, BYU signed basketball phenomenon AJ Dybantsa—the number one high school player in the U.S. Dybantsa’s decision stunned the sports world, and AJ continues to garner national attention. 

In their new book, Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball, guests Matthew Bowman and Wayne LeCheminant explore why it is that a player like Dybantsa, who had his pick of any college in the nation, chose BYU. In answering that question, the authors delve into recent court rulings and institutional reform that put money at the forefront of college sports in ways the American public has never seen. And for generations before that, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built a theological structure and institutional commitment to basketball that historically led to the sport being central in its youth and missionary programs as well as at BYU. Bowman and LeCheminant place Dybantsa in the context of this history and culture and explore the tensions in the sport today. 

Game Changers is now available in hardback, paperback, ebook, or audiobook format.

Award-winning historian Gary Bergera joins John Hatch to talk about the complicated legacy of Ernest L. Wilkinson, who served as BYU president from 1951–71. From Wilkinson’s dogged determination, to the challenges he posed for church presidents David O. McKay and Harold B. Lee, Bergera unpacks how Wilkinson’s personality shaped the university—and how he often misunderstood the impact he had on others. Bergera is the editor of the new documentary history, Educating Zion: The Diaries of BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson.

Gary James Bergera was managing director of Signature Books from 1984 to 2000 and managing director of the Smith–Pettit Foundation from 2001 to 2022. He is the author or editor of eleven books. Most recently he edited the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, published in three volumes as Confessions of a Mormon Historian. His publications have received awards from the Charles Redd Center at BYU, the Utah Historical Society, the Mormon History Association (MHA), the John Whitmer Historical Association, and the Dialogue Foundation. He served on the board of directors of MHA and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Mormon History and the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal. In 2018 he received MHA’s Leonard J. Arrington lifetime achievement award.

Author Brian Q. Cannon sits down with editorial manager John Hatch to discuss his new book, Building a Global Zion: The Life and Vision of David O. McKay. The interview offers an up-close look at how McKay’s compassion and love for others shaped his leadership and his global vision for building unity within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Brian Q. Cannon is the Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Professor of Western American History at BYU. He is the author of four books and coeditor of three, as well as more than forty articles and book chapters regarding rural history, Western American history, Latter-day Saint history, and social and cultural history.

Beloved and acclaimed author, poet, and playwright Carol Lynn Pearson talks about the diaries she has kept for some seventy years—and why she decided to publish them. Speaking with Signature Books director Barbara Jones Brown, Pearson shares her personal experiences from the 1950s to the 1980s that made her a feminist, activist, and LGBTQ ally. 

Pearson describes herself as a troublemaker and a problem solver. A fourth-generation Latter-day Saint who grew up in Utah and now lives in California, she loves the church that taught her courage enough to challenge harmful concepts, even those of her own community. Her first collection of poems, Beginnings, sold more than 150,000 copies, followed by numerous books, lyrics, and stage plays. Her 1986 bestseller, Goodbye, I Love You, tells of her marriage to Gerald Pearson—a gay man—and their eventual divorce and her caring for him in her home as he died from AIDS. The profound impact of this story marked a turning point in the national perception of the gay community.