Patheos Featured Writers

Joanna Brooks
Columnist

Welcome to "Ask Mormon Girl"! Are you a Mormon with a real-life question burning in your bosom? Are you a non-Mormon with a question about Mormonism? This column is for you.  My name is Joanna Brooks.  I'm a Mormon, an award-winning religion scholar, and a frequent commentator on contemporary Mormon experience.  (Find my books and articles here.)  The "Ask Mormon Girl" column offers unorthodox and imperfect answers to real-life questions from Mormon and non-Mormon readers around the world.  What makes AMG truly special is the shared wisdom of our online readers and commenters.  I hope you'll join us here every week.  Send your query to askmormongirl@gmail.com. Follow askmormongirl on Twitter, or visit the Ask Mormon Girl Facebook fanpage.

Joanna Brooks teaches American literature (including African-American literature, Native American literature, and women's studies) at San Diego State University. Her book American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African-American and Native American Literatures (Oxford, 2003) was the winner of the Modern Language Association William Sanders Scarborough Award for outstanding book in African-American literature. She is also the editor of The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan: Literature and Leadership in Eighteenth-Century America (Oxford, 2006) and Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions (Oxford, 2011). She currently serves on the editorial board of American Literature and, in addition to her Ask Mormon Girl column at Patheos, writes about religion and American culture for Religion Dispatches. She is a frequent news commentator on contemporary Mormonism.

Works by Joanna Brooks
Santa Claus Free? Maybe Not
Joanna Brooks | December 23, 2010
Despite the holiday non-aggression pact carefully negotiated by the Mormon and Jewish......
Religion? Ethnicity?
Joanna Brooks | December 14, 2010
We are a family of religious movements. A culture? Yes. At least three or four......
Family First?
Joanna Brooks | December 07, 2010
Is it okay to skip stake conference because you'd like to avoid fielding negativity from......
Sister-Friend?
Joanna Brooks | November 30, 2010
Raised Mormon, moving Quaker -- is it possible to be an interfaith person?...
Mormon Happiness?
Joanna Brooks | November 23, 2010
Mormonism is a religious culture that assigns tremendous social, cultural, and religious......
I Just Can't Help Questioning
Joanna Brooks | November 16, 2010
Every morning, I wake up and say, hello world, hello blue skies, and I bet my life on......
Is My Marriage Doomed?
Joanna Brooks | November 10, 2010
I have this nagging feeling that my marriage is all wrong. Help?...
Praying Around: A Mormon-Jewish-Lutheran Mix
Joanna Brooks | April 27, 2010
Why does the daughter of a Mormon mother and a Jewish father pray like a Lutheran?...
There Is No Such Thing as Half
Joanna Brooks | November 10, 2009
What comes out when a Mormon and a Jew raise a kid...