Learning to write a good book review is a skill that will benefit your career in several ways. Writing helps you improve your critical thinking and to put into words what you find valuable or less valuable about pieces of scholarship. Reviews are great (and relatively low-key ways) to build your CV and contribute to the intellectual discourse within a field. Writing helpful reviews establishes you as a person with expertise on the topic that can lead to further opportunities. Perhaps most importantly, writing helpful reviews builds communication skills, especially the ability to summarize, synthesize, and explain complex ideas in short form.

On August 8, 2023, at 2 PM MST, the Journal of Mormon History editorial team will host a Zoom workshop for graduate students on writing helpful book reviews. You can register for the Zoom event by clicking on the button at the bottom of this post. Panelists include Matthew Bowman, Ardis Parshall, and Cristina Rosetti, whose expertise, approaches to reviews, and review uses will allow them to speak to writing reviews according to the needs of many types of emerging scholars.

The event will also help the Journal’s book review editor identify potential reviewers, for students to pitch books for review, and other networking opportunities. We hope to see you there!