Darren M. Edwards

Darren M. Edwards is a writer a photographer based out of Southern Utah. His essays, poems, and photos have appeared everywhere from University literary journals and popular trade magazines to broadsides stapled to telephone poles.

His first book of essays and photographs “Utah Sport Climbing: Stories and Reflections on the Bolting of the Beehive State” was published by The History Press in 2017. His next book, “Supernatural Lore of Southern Utah” is forthcoming from the same press in September of 2022. He is also the author of “The Official Apostate Hymn Book”, Cult Publishing, 2019 and “Dancing with Heretics: Essays on Orthodoxy, Questioning and Faith”, USU, 2009.

Upcoming projects for Darren include a photo series where he reimagines the major arcana of Tarot, and an expansion of the Apostate Hymn Book. He’s also working on books about the human obsession with skulls, philosophy in stand-up comedy, monsters in American folklore, and exploring what happens when skeptics slip into the thought patterns of true believers.

As a performer, Edwards has been a member of two national poetry slam teams and given hundreds of feature performances of his poetry and essays.

As an educator, Edwards spent seven years teaching at the university level (three at Utah State University and four at Utah Technical University where he helped build their creative writing program). He also taught in the secondary education setting for six years. This is where he developed his Academic Approaches to the Supernatural class.

He holds a Masters degree in Literature and Writing with an emphasis on research based creative nonfiction from Utah State University.