Jonathan Langford: Mormon Author

Jonathan D. Langford was an author and editor. He penned No Going Back, coordinated the blog for the Association for Mormon Letters, and was a leader with the Life, the Universe, and Everything conference. He wrote numerous essays, short stories, poems, reviews, and articles. He coedited The Latter-Day Saint Family Encyclopedia, Mormon Wisdom: Inspirational Sayings from Latter-Day Saints, and Let Your Hearts and Minds Expand: Reflections on Faith, Reason, Charity, and Beauty.

As an eight year old, he published a poem in The Children’s Friend magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which he was a member. He served a mission to Italy and earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brigham Young University. While at BYU, he was a leader with The Leading Edge fiction magazine and the Xenobia writing group.

Langford was in a doctoral program for medieval literature at the University of California at Riverside, completing coursework and exams, but returned to working in the educational publishing industry instead of completing a dissertation, which would move him into research and teaching. He continued his connection with the Association for Mormon Letters and became a critic of Mormon literature and wrote reviews and essays on literature. He was on the editorial board for Irreantum, AML’s literary magazine. He taught freshman composition part-time at several colleges and universities.

He passed away on March 31, 2017. He and his wife, Laurel, had three children.