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an image of a family of five in black and white taken during August 1941

In the midst of conducting an interview with Russell M. Nelson for their recently published book Fathers of the Prophets: From Joseph Smith Jr. to Russell M. Nelson, authors Emily Madsen Jones and Rebecca Madsen Thornton were surprised to find that the tables had suddenly been turned.  Rather than learning more

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a young Black basketball player holds a ball dressed in his uniform

Before he was an Aggie basketball hall of fame legend, before he played with the Seattle Supersonics, Jimmy Moore was “Shimmy”—the tenth child of a pulpwood worker and domestic servant, growing up in the tiny town of Leakesville, Mississippi. There Black men and women labored in hard, and often risky,

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a family of four children and a husband and wife stand in a field together

Medical school nearly broke Kyle Bradford Jones. Throughout his residency training, Jones ‘05 was caught between the conflicting pressures modern medicine espouses: be fast but thorough with patient exams, prescribe tests but not overly so, be compassionate but work 30 hour shifts without sleep, and most importantly, beat death—an impossible goal.

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a collection of old fishing gear including reels and lures

Quinn Grover wasn’t exactly studious in college. He often skipped class to go fly fishing up Logan Canyon in search of wild spaces. It was a different kind of education than one finds on a syllabus. “What was I looking for, and did I even know it when I found it?”

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falcon looking off to the side

War, genocide, infanticide, gang violence. These subjects often filled Matthew LaPlante's notebooks while reporting for outlets like the Salt Lake Tribune and CNN. But the daily dose of bad news wore him down. “I was sad and angry and I didn't like me very much, but I felt what I was doing

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panorama of snowy mountains

Excerpt from The Traveling Feast: On the Road and At the Table with My Heroes by Rick Bass '79  Rick Bass spent four years on the road paying homage to literary giants the best way he knew how: by preparing a home-cooked meal. He visited writers such as Doug Peacock, Gary Snyder,

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Book Cover Father unto many sons

Rod Miller ’75 studied journalism at Utah State, graduated to a career in broadcast, and found his creative footing in advertising. But the former USU Rodeo Team member never lost sight of his Western roots. Miller began crafting cowboy poetry in the mid-1990s and later writing fiction. He’s won four

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