The Backslider’s Revenge: An Interview with Levi Peterson Levi Peterson, one of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures in Mormon letters, has recently left Utah after retiring from Weber State University, where he taught English. Peterson, the man behind the scraggly mustache, who is often clad in–yes–Levi’s, fastened with one of those gaudy Western buckles, looks as if he may have stepped out of one of his own fictions, preferably, The Backslider. And when he opens his mouth to a soft, Snowflake, Arizona, drawl, you’re sure of it. Over two decades, the novel has moved generations of Mormons and far- flung cultural fellow travelers to mordant laughter and scalding tears. Now, Peterson is laying bare his life in a biography that will scandalize some and reassure others because of its searing honesty. Sunstone scrutinizes the personal Peterson in a playful but probing interview.

Paul Swenson, Phyllis Barber, Levi Peterson