Meet the author
Glen Nelson is the author of 33 books, as well as essays, articles, short fiction, and poetry. As a ghostwriter, three of his books have become nonfiction New York Times bestsellers. He co-curated the museum exhibition Joseph Paul Vorst: A Retrospective at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. Glen also curated gallery exhibitions, Hildebrando de Melo: Nzambi (God), Casey Jex Smith: Wars and Rumors of Wars, Annie Poon: The Split House, and Joseph Paul Vorst: Lithographs, each with accompanying exhibition catalogs, and a forthcoming exhibition for the Center Gallery in New York City, Photographs of Utah (1935-1944): Ansel Adams, Andreas Feininger, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, and John Vachon. His most recent book is Joseph Paul Vorst, the first book-length biography of the artist.
In 1999, he founded Mormon Artists Group, and he published 31 projects and collaborations with 82 artists. After 30 years of collecting art works by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Church History Museum acquired his and his wife Marcia’s collection of 167 works (paintings, sculptures, works on paper, objects and ephemera) for the Museum’s permanent collection, in 2018.
He has written the librettos for three operas by the composer Murray Boren: The Book of Gold, The Dead, and The Singer’s Romance. A new opera, The Captivity of Hannah Duston, with Nelson’s libretto and music by Lansing McLoskey, is scheduled to premiere in 2021. His texts for operas, oratorios, cantatas, and art songs have been composed by Boren, McLoskey, Ethan Wickman, Daniel McDavitt, Royce Twitchell, Kim Croft, and David Fletcher.
He is currently the co-executive director of the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts. His creative works for the Center include hosting a monthly podcast, The Center’s Studio Podcast and co-authoring a weekly gospel study lesson with an emphasis on art, Come, Follow Me (Art Companion), among other projects.
He is a graduate of Southern Utah State College and New York University, and he lives in New York City.