Breeding Leah and Other Stories

 The prose in Bennon's first collection reflects his stories' Utah desert setting--somewhat arid and a little oppressive. The title piece, about a farmer whose brood sow turns on her piglets, is the least successful of the seven tales here; those about chemist Howard Rockwood, his family and his friends are grounded in Mormon tradition and more cohesive. ``Dust'' details Rockwood's crisis of conscience, wrought when his work on a government project results in a deadly gas. In his guilt he leaves his wife and children and goes to live in a cabin in the desert. A husband's abandoning his family, a frequent theme, is also explored in ``A Court of Love'' (which actually refers to an excommunication court), featuring Rockwood as a young man returned from a two-year mission in France to discover that his girlfriend has married someone else, his best friend is still immature and his parents are breaking up. ``Jenny, Captured by the Mormons'' takes an abandoned wife's point of view and is the best of the bunch. It follows Jenny's daily struggles to survive in Salt Lake City after her husband has embraced fundamentalism and left her and their children penniless. Without drawing moral conclusions, Bennion reveals the pain of the outsider in an extremely closed society.

Individual Stories

“By the Numbers.” Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 56 no. 4, Winter 2023, pp.137-152. For audio of the story go to Dialogue podcast, Winter 2023.

“Errorless Learning in Conditioning of Biosynth Clones.” Palaver, Spring 2020, pp. 3-12. 

From Falling Toward Heaven, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 32, no. 4, Winter 1999, pp. 181-188.

“The Burial Pool.” Irreantum: Exploring Mormon Literature, Sept. 1999, pp. 27-36. [This is the first chapter from Falling Toward Heaven, not the “Burial Pool,” published earlier in 1992.]

"Quilting Bee."  Weber Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, Winter 1996, pp. 162-173.

“The Burial Pool.” Wasatch Review International, vol. 1, issue 2, 1992, pp. 63-75.

"A House of Order."  Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 21, no. 3, 1988, pp. 129-48.

"The Interview."  Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 18, no. 2, 1985, pp. 167-76. Reprinted in Latter Gay Saints, edited by Gerald S. Argetsinger, Lethe Press, 2013, pp. 101-10.

"Dust."  Ascent, vol. 14, no. 1, 1988, pp. 1-10. Anthologized in The Best of the West II, edited by James Thomas and Denise Thomas, Peregrine Smith Books, 1989, pp. 120-34; and in Bright Angels and Familiars: Contemporary Mormon Stories, edited by Eugene England, Signature Books, 1992, pp. 281-293. 

Chapter from Falling Toward Heaven, Irreantum: Exploring Mormon Literature, September 1999, pp. 27-36.

"Breeding Leah." Utah Holiday, December 1989, pp; 46-50.

"A Court of Love."  Sunstone Magazine, vol. 12, no. 2, 1988, pp. 30-38.

"Dusty." New Era, Jan./Feb 1983, pp. 16-21.