Exponent II Summer 2012 Issue Now Available

Order your hard copy (delivered the beginning of August) or read the free PDF here.

Before our letter from the editor, just a few notes…this issue will be for sale at the Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium (are you going? it’ll be awesome!) this week and in the mail next week for our subscribers.

Speaking of Sunstone, we’ll do our annual Exponent lunch this year on Thursday. Meet us at the Exponent table at Sunstone vendor area at 12:30 or at the Olpin Student Center’s food court whenever you’re able. We’ll have a big table and a sign.

To our loyal readers:

It’s a happy time of growth for Exponent II right now, and to celebrate that, we’ve put together this summer issue, full of uplifting and lighthearted pieces. We have three personal essays dealing with marriage, including Lorraine Jackson’s careful crafting of a civil Mormon wedding ceremony, Mary Clyde’s ideas on relationships post-divorce, and Kelly Montgomery, an excommunicated lesbian, who decided with her partner to be active members of the Church. While it’s been almost a year since she passed away, we wanted to take the time to celebrate and give Sister Chieko N. Okazaki, an influential Mormon pioneer, a proper farewell with Carol Lee Hawkin’s funeral address and some of our readers’ stories about how Chieko influenced them. We celebrate our foremothers in Brenda Thomas’ sacrament talk about Relief Society and look for a better future for our daughters in this issue’s Sisters Speak and Dana Haight Cattani’s “To PEC or Not to PEC.” We had fun putting together “Two Mormon Feminists Walked into a Bar,” a humor feature, and we feel like we’re on the cutting edge of pop culture with some Mormon-themed “Hey Girl” Ryan Gosling images, created by members of the rising generation of Mormon women: Ellen Lewis, Sagan Gotberg, and Whitney Paige, who all recently graduated from high school.

This issue begins Aimee’s and my third year as co-editors of Exponent II. During the first year, we focused on laying a foundation, finding dedicated and talented editors and staff members, and adapting to the rigorous pace of hitting deadlines for a quarterly production schedule. This year has been more fun as we continue to grow at the organizational level, beyond the publication. We have a new president and treasurer who are getting our financial situation in order. We’ve also had a dedicated fundraising team plan and execute a successful fundraising drive. Finally, we’ve had a dedicated editor, Elizabeth  Pinborough, who published Exponent II’s first book in over 30 years, which we completely sold out of within days of the first printing.

The second edition of Habits of Being: Mormon Women’s Material Culture will be available on our website as a hard copy and as an e-book by the time you receive this issue. And, we’re looking forward to reading the submissions for our upcoming political issue during this Mormon Moment in the United States’ history.

Right now, Mormon feminism is producing plenty of powerful work through a variety of mediums. It’s exciting to be on this journey, and we celebrate what an exciting time it is to be a Mormon feminist. Come continue the celebration with us this fall at our annual Exponent retreat with keynote speaker and Exponent founding editor, Claudia Bushman, and a line-up of workshops that has me positively giddy.
Emily Clyde Curtis
Exponent II Co-Editor