What to Say to Someone Who’s Dying

A young boy searches for answers.
A family adds, subtracts, multiplies and divides.
A girl and her mother pass meaningful moments together.
An elderly German woman tends her bees.

This debut collection of tightly written prose weaves together themes of loss and family as well as the hope peculiar to youth. In this slender volume, author Chanel Earl presents five stories of acceptance and resolve that ask questions about love and the beauty of life, while exploring the many faces of grief: the grief of children, parents, those set to die and those left behind.

No Ordinary Day

When an extraordinary boy meets an extraordinary flamingo, nobody expects ordinary things to happen.

This picture book features gorgeous illustrations from Caitlin Tibbs.

Reading 5×5

Five stories, five times. This charity anthology contains five science fiction and fantasy themes that are each explored five times by five different authors. Twenty-five great authors demonstrate just how varied and interesting SF&F can be, and how each author’s style and approach make all the difference.

By Chanel Earl—”Between Ashes and Wings”—psychic anthropologist Nicki Stravinsky investigates the remains at an urban dig site, and she finds a story. 

Starward Tales II

Starward Tales II is a collection of short stories, poems, and visual art retelling legends, myths, and fairy tales as science fiction.

By Chanel Earl—”Poisonapple.exe—This loose, science fiction re-telling of Snow White starts out in a world of boxy positronic robots before it moves into a digital space that the “evil queen” couldn’t even imagine. 

Names of Christ: A Study Journal

This journal contains 300 names, titles or concepts of the Lord Jesus Christ taken from the scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of these were taken from the Bible Dictionary, but others were pulled out of the Book of Mormon. This book is intended to be a place to record thoughts, impressions and questions about the Savior, his mission and power. It is not a perfect book, but an attempt has been made to keep the wording and capitalization consistent with scripture and to include relevant scriptures as study helps. Our Savior—Jesus Christ—is perfect, and through him, we may become so. The intention of this book is to bring us closer to him.

Mormon Lit Blitz Anthology

This second volume gathers over eighty stories, poems, and essays including pieces first written in Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Japanese, and Estonian. At turns raw and refined, miraculous and mundane, witty and wise, these pieces are the perfect sampler plate for anyone interested in Mormon literature.

By Chanel Earl—”Three Generations of Sonder” tells a story of how women feel enlightenment in each successive generation. 

Angelic Visitations

Published in Wayfare, this short piece imagines a well-known angel visiting several Book of Mormon prophets. You could call this Book of Mormon fan fiction, Midrash, or maybe just a meditation, but in any case, it was fun to write. 

At Final Glance

So much can change between the first glance and the final glance. BYU’s Inscape selected this piece for their 2024 alumni issue.  

Holiness to the Lord

This short story scared me as I was writing it. Longer and more adult than my usual work, it is a story of midlife ennui. It was published in Exponent II in the Winter of 2024. 

Summer Storm

This short story, published by Soft Union, follows a boy through the afterlife as he watches over his loved ones. It is only available in print, so order soon! 

This Time and This Season

The 2023 Mormon Lit Blitz Second Place winner, this piece looks through the lens of Ecclesiastes to explore how a woman experiences a season of grief. An audio version of this piece is also available on the Mormon Lit Lab Podcast. 

Nine Sunsets

This short reflection about sunsets, muses, and nine horses who follow a woman through life won third place in the Mormon Lit Blitz, 2023. In addition to the printed version, you can hear a lovely audio version on the Mormon LitLab podcast. 

You are Beautiful, Dead, Whole

This brief retelling of “Snow White” was published in Irreantum’s Genre Issue, 2023.

No Two People Are Not on Fire

A brief exploration of the ways that people hurt every day, by a narrator who feels everything. This piece was published in Wayfare with wonderful art by Keri Dockter

Frankenbuzz: A Modern Prombeetheus

This piece was brought to you by the letters B and Z. It was published in the winter 2022 issue of Granfalloon.

Genesis 2

A woman ponders scripture as she thinks about her own life. Published at the ARCH-Hive.  

An Opera

This piece features a pet store owner who searches for a word during a very stressful moment. Published at The Pensieve.

Death

This paragraph might be a story or a prose poem, but it is certainly an image that spoke to me. Published in BYU’s Inscape. 

Jonah and a Whale

This Pushcart Prize nominated story, published in Granfalloon, follows a boy and his family as they witness and investigate a fantastic phenomenon. 

Things Will Get Better, I Promise

This story within a story is about a mother and a child, a midnight writing session and a hamster, a desire for hope. Published at The Pensieve. 

Affirmations

A confessional monologue featuring a young woman who taps into the power of positive thinking.   Published in BYU’s Inscape. 

Three Generations of Sonder

A finalist in the Mormon Lit Blitz 2020, this short-short story cycle tracks three generations of women through moments of loneliness and enlightenment. 

Behold

This flash fiction piece is narrated from the perspective of Jesus Christ, who has some things to say about the scars on his resurrected body. Published at Arch-Hive.net.

I Dreamed that We Were Sister Wives

 A friend confesses to another friend about both the content of a dream she had and her feelings about it. Published in BYU’s Inscape. 

High Rise Love

 A chair on a balcony thinks about its one true love. Published at storyshack.com.

Duet for Unaccompanied Cello

Practicing in the observatory, a cellist makes a startling musical discovery, and spends her life trying to solve its mysteries. Published at Metaphorosis. 

River Child

Written in the style of a classic fairy tale, this story follows a couple who long for a child, and find a magical means to acquire one. Published at Enchanted Conversations.  

100 Breaths

A playground is built on an old mine field, and one boy returns there again and again, looking for something. Published at Revolution House Magazine.   

Tinder

Book burning, but maybe not as upsetting as it could be. Published at Smokelong Quarterly.  

When Teaching Writing Gets Tough

This book approaches writing as a wicked problem that takes place in complicated contexts. Through both scholarly research and teacher reflection, it examines ELA classrooms and the experiences of writing teachers to identify approaches that have proven effective with adolescents.

From Chanel Earl, Amber Jensen, Amy Williams, and Joseph Wiederhold comes Chapter 10, titled, “The Wicked Problem of the High-School-to-College Writing Transition: Interrogating the Metaphors That Guide Our Practice.”

The Chapel

This short haibun series, written during the summer we spent at scout camp, was published at the Pensieve.  

Word Doodle Disintegration

 Published at Life in 10 Minutes.