EDITORS
Karin Anderson
Karin was raised near Utah Lake and surrounding mountains. She taught English at Utah Valley University for thirty years and promptly retired. She is the author of Before Us Like a Land of Dreams, the forthcoming novel What Falls Away, and co-editor of Blossom as the Cliffrose: Mormon Legacies and the Beckoning Wild, all published by Torrey House Press.
Amelia England
Amelia England is a poet, content marketer, and part-time tech journalist. Utah Lake Stories is Amelia’s second project with Torrey House Press; she also contributed to Blossom as the Cliffrose: Mormon Legacies and the Beckoning Wild (2020). She received her MA in Literature from Oregon State University and BA in English from Utah Valley University.
CONTRIBUTORS
Benjamin W. Abbott
Ben grew up in Orem Utah, minutes away from Utah Lake. As a child and teenager, he swam, fished, and rowed in the lake. Now he studies aquatic ecosystems around the world. His research focuses on understanding how human policy and management influence ecosystem and public health.
Stirling Adams
Stirling and his wife were both born in Utah Valley Hospital 3.3 miles from the eastern edge of Utah Lake. 57 years later they live about that same distance from the lake. For many of the last 40 years Stirling has fished, kayaked, or skated on the lake with family and friends.
Corey J. Boren
Corey is a recent graduate of Utah Valley University. He has called the area around Utah Lake home since birth. His work grapples with place, tradition, and queerness, and he was longlisted for the Button Poetry 2020 Chapbook Prize. For more, visit coreyjboren.com.
Dennis Marden Clark
Better known as PunDMC!, the author is a retired librarian living in Orem, Utah. When not writing, he is often out riding his recumbent bicycle, either grinding his way up the Provo River Trail to Vivian Park (and whizzing back down), or sedately pedaling on the Murdock Canal Trail with Valerie Clark, also a retired librarian.
Maureen Clark
Maureen lives and writes in Bountiful, UT. She recently retired from teaching writing at the University of Utah and was the director of the University Writing Center. She was a past president of Writers @ Work. The lakes and rivers of Utah often find their way into her poetry which has appeared in Bellingham Review, Colorado Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Gettysburg Review and The Southeast Review, among others.
Madeleine Cottle
Madeleine’s roots were planted in Utah and grow stronger each year. Seeing Utah Lake every day on her bus ride to work grounds her perspective: “Even if my bus trip only provides glimpses of Utah Lake between the houses, I feel connected to what Utah is, ancient and persevering.”
Alta Clinger Davis (posthumous)
Alta Clinger Davis (1914-2007) was born and raised in Lake View on the shores of Utah Lake. According to her daughter Kathleen, “many of her grandchildren would refer to her as ‘Crazy Grandma’ because of her adventurous spirit and her zest for life.” She picked up waterskiing in her 40s and, to get more time out on the lake, would keep Kathleen home from high school so she could have someone to drive the boat. She picked up windsurfing at age 70 and was the most accomplished windsurfer of her entire family.
Doug W. Evans
Doug and his wife Diane live near the Weber River in Oakley, Utah. Doug is a retired water and energy sustainability director of Mountain Regional Water District. Doug has spent his life in the environmental science industry, focusing on water resource protection, efficiency, and sustainability. Doug currently serves on the Summit County Board of Health, Oakley City Planning Commission, and is a South Summit Trails Foundation board member. An avid hiker and naturalist, Doug has spent much of his life writing about water.
Andrew P. Follet
Andrew P. Follett is a student at Yale Law School and eighth-generation resident of Utah, interested in the intersection between history, law, and the Mormon identity. Andrew became involved with Utah Lake issues as a BYU student in 2018 and has spent the last four years writing about Utah Lake, the public trust doctrine, and the Utah constitution. He has worked with a range of grass-roots Utah organizations to lobby against the Utah Lake islands project.
Jordan Ray Freytag
Jordan grew up in the cities beside Utah Lake, venturing to its shores to explore as a child and to cause mischief as a teenager. An only child, he read avidly and wrote stories to entertain himself. He studied creative writing and literature at Utah Valley University. He continues to paddle the fresh lakes and carve the variegated trails of Utah.
Jeffrey Goates
Growing up in Utah Valley, Jeffrey came to love and appreciate Utah Lake for its beauty and uniqueness/, always assuming it would be a constant presence. He fears how the loss of this special body of water would affect his attachment to this place.
George B. Handley
Long time environmental activist and educator, George is the author of the memoir Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River, a love letter to the watershed that sustains life in Utah Valley and of the novel, American Fork. He serves on the Provo City Council where he coordinated a recent effort to issue a joint resolution to protect Utah Lake.
Teri Lyn Harman
Teri is an ecofeminist, nature photographer, and author. Every week she explores the shores of Utah Lake, photographing the abundant animal and plant life. She shares these photos on Instagram: @teriharman. Teri has published in The Salt Lake Tribune, The Deseret News, ksl.com, and YogaFit. Her book Words Instead of Wings: Language to Understand and Embrace the Sacred Feminine is available on Amazon. Learn more at teriharman.com.
C.M. Hobson
C.M. is an author, violinist, and combat veteran. He and his wife, Jackie, served for 15 months in Iraq and married shortly after returning. An avid outdoor enthusiast, he spent nearly twenty summers fishing, boating, and enjoying the panoramic mountain views of Utah Lake. He keeps houses in Orem and Washington, Utah, with his wife and their five children.
Susan Izatt-Foster
Susan is a fifth generation Utahn with strong roots in Utah Valley. She is a graduate of the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing is centered around place and nature, and their critical importance to our well-being. She now lives at the intersection of the Colorado Plateau, the Great Basin, and the Mohave Desert.
Adele Clinger Leavitt
Adele Clinger Leavitt was born and raised in Lakeview, Utah, a beautiful farming community. She is a fifth generation Clinger in the area and a fourth generation Johnson: “I loved growing up on our dairy farm and being close to nature. Utah Lake was always in my sight. I have lived in Utah, County most of my life and have always delighted in Utah Lake.”
Don Leavitt
Don is a lifetime Utah Valley native who regards Utah Lake as the heart of his homeland identity.
Laura Barlow Leavitt
Laura grew up on the shore of Utah Lake and moved to New York City after college to work in design. There, she married a fellow Utah Lake dweller and Italian Studies scholar, Wayne Leavitt. Together, they moved back to the shores of the lake to raise their two daughters. Laura still works as a software designer.
Wayne Leavitt
Wayne grew up spending weekends and major holidays in Lake View at his grandparents’ farm. The announcement “goin’ down t’ the farm” or “goin’ down t’ the lake” is still the fastest way to get him to put his shoes on.
Ammon Medina
Ammon is the deputy director at Wyoming Equality. They received their MFA from the University of Wyoming. Ammon grew up fishing in Utah Lake as well as walking and biking along the shores. Ammon was a Norman Mailer fellow, and his chapbook Ragged Red Voice won the Florence Kahn Memorial award. His work appears in Kweli Journal, Western Confluence, Black Renaissance Noire, among other places.
Larry Menlove
Larry Menlove, a Utah County writer, has taken for granted the presence of a vast body of water that has been ever present there on the horizon, an anchoring place of silence, a stronghold of wilderness in a valley of ubiquitous humanity.
Natascha Meyer and Andrew Sutherland
Andrew grew up waterskiing and boating on Utah Lake. Natascha appreciates the beauty and tranquility of this natural wonder. Both are passionate about preserving Utah Lake in its natural state.
Rod Miller
Rod writes poetry, fiction, history, and magazine articles about the American West. Born and raised in Goshen, he is a graduate of Payson High School and Utah State University. Miller has written some two dozen books, and has been recognized with four Western Writers of America Spur Awards along with several other honors. He lives in Sandy.
Michael Minch
Michael lived in Utah from 1992 to 2020 and worked in Utah County from 1996 to 2020. He often wondered about the lake and its history. Having taught ethics, political theory, democracy, and matters of peace, justice, and conflict at UVU over the years, his profession has reflected in his reflections on Utah Lake.
Thomas W Murphy
Thomas recently retired from the Department of Anthropology at Edmonds College. Washington Association of Conservation Districts named Professor Murphy the 2011 Washington State Conservation Educator of the Year, highlighting his collaboration with Indigenous nations to combine traditional knowledge with environmental sciences to solve modern problems.
Michael William Palmer
Michael grew up in Pleasant Grove, Utah, with Utah Lake’s water visible from the rooftop (and blue at that distance). He lives in Illinois but still thinks about that water a lot. His first book, Baptizing the Dead and Other Jobs, was published by Bauhan Publishing in 2019. His work has appeared in Bellingham Review, CutBank, Alligator Juniper, and numerous other publications.
Lee Olsen
Originally from Ogden, Utah, Lee Olsen is a writer, editor, and educator currently living in Salt Lake City. He holds a PhD in environmental literature and an MFA in nonfiction writing. In their free time, Lee and his wife - a longtime Provoite - explore the mountains and canyons of northern Utah. Like the masses described by Jared Farmer, their eyes have for decades turned to Timpanogos, literally and figuratively – but with countless others they’re now turning their attention to Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake.
Steven L. Peck
Steven is an ecologist who has published over fifty scientific papers. His mother used to take him to Utah Lake as a child and he loves it still – especially its birds. He is a novelist, essayist, and poet, winning an AML Award three times: The Scholar of Moab; Gilda Trillim, and “Two-Dog Dose.” King Leere: Goatherd of the La Sals was a semifinalist in the Black Lawrence Press early novel prize. His poetry has appeared in Cold Mountain Review, Flyway, New Myths, Pedestal Magazine, Penumbra, Prairie Schooner, Red Rock Review, and elsewhere. His latest novel is Heike’s Void.
Juni-Jen Smith
Jennifer Smith grew up reveling in natural spaces across the Western United States. Now living in Utah, minutes from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and the shoreline of Utah Lake, she is an ardent advocate for re-acquainting the public with the magic and beauty of Utah Lake, and the importance of rehabilitation. Read more at feathersandbones.blog.
Brittany Bunker Thorley
Brittany is a law student at BYU Law School with an interest in natural resource management and local government. She can claim four of the seven Colorado River basin states as home and hopes the Southwest will use the current state of drought to invest in better planning for the various regional watersheds. She currently lives in East Provo with her husband and two children who only groan a little when she points out Utah Lake from various views around the valley.
Elizabeth J. Wenger
Elizabeth J. Wenger is a former member of the Utah Conservation Corps. She became interested in the impact of human development on ecology when working construction in the Utah Valley. She left Utah to start an MFA program in Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University. Utah still occupies her mind and appears in her writing.
Rachel White
Rachel makes poems that recognize all knowledge and sustenance comes from the land, praise the more-than-human world, and question the social relations destroying all that sustains us. She believes restoring ecological health to Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake is critical for this region to remain habitable.
Anne Whitehouse
Anne studied Biology at Brigham Young University and has a masters degree in Environmental Humanities from the University of Utah. She has lived in Utah County for most of the last decade. For her, Utah Lake is the site of cherished memories with roommates, friends, lovers, and family as well as a place of ecological and imaginative wonder. Anne writes about the relationships between humans and the natural world, especially in urban spaces. She is currently studying the literature and culture of Cheonggye Stream in Seoul, South Korea.