Johnny Townsend: 33 books

Ex-Mormon writer Johnny Townsend can’t leave the Church behind. But it turns out that’s a good thing. With almost five decades in the Mormon and ex-Mormon communities, Townsend knows its people well. In this collection of short stories, we see a missionary cope with the startling discovery that...

On Gay Pride Day in 1973, someone set the entrance to a French Quarter gay bar on fire. In the terrible inferno that followed, thirty-two people lost their lives, including a third of the local congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church, their pastor burning to death halfway out a second-story...

This eclectic mixture of poignant memoir, bristling Op-ed, and literary criticism focuses on three of the most serious issues facing society today--gay rights, the environment, and universal healthcare. With both sarcasm and insight, Johnny Townsend analyzes the arguments against human progress and shows us a way out of the repressive policies that confound reasonable people everywhere.

In these stories, we discover how the Three Nephites from the Book of Mormon cope with their frustrated sexuality, when their wives aren't immortal as they are. A deceased sinner plots to break out of Spirit Prison. An obsessive-compulsive missionary covers himself with sacred protective garments....

How do you ask a girl on a date when everyone in town knows your father was convicted for the serial murders of a dozen prostitutes? What's the best way to get your boyfriend to propose--fake a pregnancy or threaten to go on a mission for the Church? Will the torture of electroshock therapy turn a...

A teenage Mormon girl finds that her house is haunted by Joseph Smith's wife. A woman copes with her sexual relationship after learning her husband is gay. A college instructor confronts his own racism. A plastic surgeon accidentally discovers a new life form. A timid gay man unleashes his inner beast...

The battle to direct legislation and policy often seems to be a fight between greed and compassion. Emotions run so high that family members stop speaking to one another and long-time friendships fall by the wayside. But the problems being debated—climate change, universal healthcare, LGBTQ rights,...

Jacob and Esau Cohen are the closest of brothers. In fact, they're lovers. A Talmudic scholar dates an escort. A doctor tries to combine canine genes with those of Jews, to improve their chances of surviving a hostile world. A convert to Judaism asks his Mormon relatives to make a pact to hide him...

An Artificial Intelligence tries to lead Mormons astray. The Church addresses the perils of inappropriate hair styles for men. A bereaved widow listens to the radio hoping to hear love songs from her departed husband. A high school teacher is stalked by one of her students. An obese man struggles...

A moat can work to keep bad guys out of one’s sanctuary, but it can also act like a prison, trapping good people inside, and the stench from its fetid waters can often prove unbearable. In these tales of the trapped faithful, a woman is shunned when a hacker fakes her apostasy from the Mormon Church....

During the Apocalypse, a group of Mormon survivors in Hurricane, Utah gather in the home of the Relief Society president, telling stories to pass the time as they ration their food storage and await the Second Coming. But this is no ordinary group of Mormons—or perhaps it is. They are the faithful,...

In this collection of Mormon short stories, a missionary in Italy makes a break for freedom on Christmas. A youth outing for priests at a shooting range doesn't go as planned. Family members fight over whether or not to bury a relative in temple clothes. An unhappy sister missionary in New Orleans...

A gay quilting club in Salt Lake tries to win a contest using pornographic designs. A man tries to rebuild his life after being shot in the face by the wife of a man with whom he's having an affair. A college student becomes a false prophet to save his friends from disaster. A gay couple rejected by their biological families painstakingly creates a new "chosen" family.

In this collection of Mormon short stories, we see a supporter of Prop 8 forced to attend his boss's gay wedding. A devout Latter-day Saint struggling to pay his bills wonders if he should keep paying tithing, even after being excommunicated. A reporter seeks the identity of Salt Lake's new superhero--a...