Marilyn Brown Novel Award

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The Marilyn Brown Novel Award was an occasional award given to the best unpublished novel focusing on realistic cultural experiences of the Utah region submitted for consideration. The award includes a $1,000 honorarium.^[1]

The award was founded by Marilyn Brown and her husband to encourage quality fiction focused on regional Mormon experience. Beginning in 2000, the award was presented every other year by the Association for Mormon Letters. Beginning with the 2009 award, the Utah Valley University's English Department accepted stewardship over the award. Jen Wahlquist was the professor in charge, and she broadened the award's scope to all fiction about the Utah region with the intent to make it an annual award. The award has a $30,000 endowment.^[2]

Upon Walquist's retirement and given a low number of novel submissions, the endowment was repurposed into a scholarship fund for UVU students, and renamed the Marilyn & Bill Brown Endowed Writing Scholarship. The scholarship is managed by the UVU library.