Marilyn Bushman-Carlton: Mormon Poet
Marilyn Bushman-Carlton is an award-winning poet. She was born in 1945 in Lehi, Utah, where she was raised. She married soon after graduating from high school. After her fifth child entered kindergarten, she enrolled at the University of Utah and earned a bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing. While in college, she took a poetry workshop class and wrote her first poem.
She is the author of three poetry anthologies: on keeping things small (1995), Cheat Grass (1999), and Her Side of It (2010). Her poems have appeared in several anthologies, including Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her poems have also appeared in several journals, including BYU Studies, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Comstock Review, and Exponent II.
The Utah State Poetry Society named her Poet of the Year in 1999 and she won the Pearle M. Olsen Award from the Utah State Poetry Society for Cheat Grass. She also won the 2010 Poetry Award from the Association for Mormon Letters. Carlton teaches poetry through the Utah Arts Council Artist-in-Residence program and received both a prize and a grant from the Council.
