Faces of Latter-day Saint Women
A Conversation with Marilyn Brown
Latter-day Saints expect to receive personal revelation while reading the scriptures, but it may come as a surprise while reading the classics. When Marilyn Brown was ten years old she read George Eliot’s novel Adam Bede and felt inspired to ask a question that has guided her life for the last sixty years: “Where is the body of comparable literature about Mormons?” She’s dedicated her life to find and cultivate “a great literature that defines the Mormon Experience,” a mission she considers her calling.
“Mine is certainly a spiritual calling,” she says. “No bishop or leader has said, ‘Marilyn, please help to develop a great Mormon literature.’ I was hungry for that literature. From the beginning of my quest to fill that void, I knew that a vanguard of outstanding young Mormon writers would someday arise.”
During the six generations since her childhood epiphany, Marilyn has lived a full life. She received a BA and an MA from BYU and an MFA from the University of Utah. She had a daughter from a marriage that ended in divorce, then married Bill Brown, a widower with five young children. Even while she was busy raising six children, she dedicated her talents to developing Mormon literature. She’s published more than fifteen books, two plays, and dozens of poems. She and Bill were owners of the Villa Playhouse in Springville, Utah, and during their tenure there they produced more than eighty plays. They now run the Brown House of Fine Arts Gallery/Studio on Springville’s Main Street, where they are often found painting and working with other visual artists.
Another of Marilyn’s passions is mentoring young writers. She’s been involved in helping young playwrights see their works published and staged at Villa Playhouse, and she established an award for an outstanding unpublished novel by a Mormon author. The Marilyn Brown Novel Award offers $1,000 each year to a novel chosen by a panel of judges from the Utah Valley University English department. Marilyn says the purpose of the award is to “encourage [Mormon] writers to write about themselves in the best language and artistic structure possible.”
Marilyn recognizes that it can sometimes be hard for a culture that strongly values positive and uplifting experiences to create interesting fiction. “Positive can get pretty boring,” she says. “There have to be conflicts, interesting characters, and plots in stories that people will enjoy. I feel the quality of writing done by people who understand the Mormon culture has increased.”
Incorporating conflict can be tricky for Mormon authors and audiences. “Mormons don't like serious literature because it has to deal with chiaroscuro,” Marilyn says. But she also feels that it’s important to share discouragements and conflicts. “I too love to hear the discouraging parts because we all have them! And overcoming them is the triumph. I have a long history of difficulties, but I can honestly say that for having some difficulties in my teens and college years, these last years—‘that for which the first was made’ as Browning told us—are the best years of my life. In some ways I feel as though I have just begun to fight.”
When Marilyn’s children were young, she didn’t question if she would write, but figuring out when to write was often tricky. “I often played the Juanita Brooks trick of getting up at 3:30 in the morning so I could have one quiet hour to write,” she says. “I was always nourished by my writing. It seems I have to do it, as one has to eat or sleep.” When waking up in the middle of the night wasn’t practical, Marilyn figured out other ways to squeeze in some writing while tending to the children. “Every summer I took all six of them to the local swimming pool, and while they splashed around I wrote. I finished The Earthkeepers this way. I also wrote at my husband's office in the afternoons and hired young girls to come and tend the kids when they got home from school. One of those young women moved the dining table out on the patio and put a blanket on the floor to have a picnic! These girls were wonderful, and sometimes much more creative than I would have been.” Creating doesn’t always make for an orderly life, but Marilyn nurtured her children’s approach to creativity, as well as her own, even though it meant they sometimes had a lot of cleaning up to do once her writing was done.
While life with a husband and six kids can be messy, Marilyn didn’t regret jumping headlong into having a big family. “I have always said I wanted it all. I was not going to be a Willa Cather and never enjoy marriage or children. I felt that insularity would stunt my ability to create art. I’ve always had a testimony of the gospel, and I’ve always believed that marriage was a commandment, and that life was an art. I always wanted to make my life a work of art worthy to be examined by anyone—especially the Savior.”
With a grandmother's perspective, Marilyn now recognizes that the way she juggled parenting and writing and tried to have it all doesn't always work for mothers with small children, even those who have a writer's gift and ambition. “In some periods of our lives it is hard to find time for artistic creativity,” she says. “Now I tell people to tweak their attitudes to think of creating as creating good habits in their children and creating their generous and kindly responses to the human family. Every day is ‘Creating Day.’ All of us should ask the question, ‘What did I create today?’”
When we broaden the view of creativity to include attitudes and habits and responses, Marilyn suggests, it’s possible to see that we can be creative beings even on the days when the paintbrushes and the journals go untouched.
When she was young, Marilyn realized that in order to have a life that was rich in both family and creativity, she’d have to prioritize other areas of her life. These days, she relies on her husband to keep her up to date on current events. She answers the telephone selectively, throws junk mail in the trash, and deletes junk emails without opening them. “It's much more important to me to be happy and calm than imposed upon by salespeople. I sometimes delete important things, but they always manage to call again.” She’s also great at multitasking, writing in her journal, and researching for her books while exercising. “I used to write poems while I was driving because I could write a line over the steering wheel and put it down on the seat and think about it. I can also write poetry while the TV is on—especially ball games, which I can ignore.”
Prioritizing and multitasking have freed Marilyn’s time for the things and the people she loves. She and Bill walk for an hour each morning and a half hour each afternoon, enjoying the beautiful paths near their Hobble Creek Canyon home. She has time to write and paint and act in plays at the Villa Playhouse and enjoy her grandchildren. She also involves her grandchildren in her writing.
“When I cannot ‘court’ agents or editors, I ‘court’ my grandchildren by sending them poems about themselves,” Marilyn says. “It just keeps me writing when I am not successful elsewhere.” She feels that writing positive things about the people she loves inspires them do better in their lives. “One of my favorite things to do is to turn toward the family as my audience. For one ten-year period I did a monthly newsletter, writing wonderful rose-colored blurbs about positive events in the lives of each member of the family. When I put stories about their goodness on paper, they responded with more excellent behavior!”
In establishing the Marilyn Brown Novel Award, Marilyn provides would-be novelists with something she knows from experience that all writers need—encouragement and hope. “I might never have kept going if I hadn’t received first prizes for poetry and short story from the League of Utah Writers, the first Mayhew Award ever given at BYU, the first AML award ever given for a published novel, and the first prize of $1,000 from the Utah Arts Council for a yet-unpublished manuscript entitled Road to Covered Bridge.”
Over a fifty-year writing career, she’s also developed coping strategies for the times when the awards and the book deals run dry. She self-published four books of poetry and her first novel, The Earthkeepers, which was later republished by Covenant Communications. She brought her own refreshments to book signings in order to lure shoppers to her table. She also established good relationships with publishing companies, who in turn published her works. “I must admit that I am still hoping someday for a bestseller. I keep reminding myself that Tolkien was seventy-four when he hit his stride.”
As far as accomplishing her life’s mission of improving the quality of Mormon literature, Marilyn says, “I think we are coming closer. Most of the nation doesn't have a positive knowledge of our culture. We need to write such good books that the great essence of our religion shines. Some high-profile Mormon authors, in order to be published by New York, relax their standards to fit the world's liberal attitude. I wanted to encourage writers of our area to write about the beauty of their lives in the gospel, as well as the tragedies. I've tried to write the kind of literary book that would interest George Eliot, even with a Mormon theme. So far New York isn't interested. But I still have a few years left to try.”
While Marilyn keeps pressing forward with her personal goals as Mormon writer, she’s thrilled to see other women doing their part. When Segullah approached her about an interview, she said, “I am so impressed with this group . . . [You combine] your dedication to the gospel—motherhood, personhood!—with your determination to broadcast it through your art. As far as I’m concerned you are called to this work every bit as much as anyone is ever called to a spiritual mission.”
While we feel humbled and grateful that Marilyn sees Segullah in such a positive light, we know that our inspiration comes from her and others who have paved the way. Marilyn originally received her calling to Mormon literature for herself, but through her influence she continues to share her mission with all those who love writing and love the gospel.
Shelah Mastny Miner joined the LDS Church as a teenager in Connecticut and is making the move from Texas to Utah this spring. She has a BA in English Teaching from BYU and an MA in American Culture Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. She’s taking a break from teaching college-level writing and now fills her days playing with her four kids, running, blogging, reading, and working as the features editor for Segullah.
