Young's published work includes the novels
House Without Walls (1991),
Salvador (1992), and
Heresies of Nature (2002) and the short story collections
Elegies and Love Songs (1992) (which won an Association of Mormon Letters award) and
Love Chains (1997). Focusing on the novel
Salvador, literary and cultural critic
Terryl Givens calls Young "one of the most mature and lyrical voices in Mormon writing." She also co-authored a trilogy of historical novels about Black
Mormon pioneers titled
Standing on the Promises with
Darius Gray. The trilogy, published between 2000 and 2003, was republished in revised and expanded form in 2012 and 2013. Young scripted and helped direct a 2005 television documentary based on the life of
Jane Elizabeth Manning James, "Jane Manning James: Your Sister in the Gospel." The 20-minute documentary has been shown at
This Is The Place Heritage Park in
Salt Lake City, Utah, the 2005 annual conference of the
Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR), and on public television (
PBS). Documentary filmmaker Scott Freebairn produced and directed the film. Later, Young served as the project director for the Utah chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society's film
The Wisdom of our Years. In 2008, Young and Gray completed a long documentary titled
Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons, which has been shown on PBS stations, in film festivals, and on the Documentary Channel. Her award-winning play,
I Am Jane, also about Black Mormon pioneer Jane Manning James, has been produced throughout the country. Young has also authored encyclopedia articles on Blacks in the western United States, and has served as president of the
Association for Mormon Letters. In 2014 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Whitney Awards and the Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters. Beginning in 2014, Young began work in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo with the aim of launching the film industry, which disappeared amidst the chaos of war and corruption in the 1990s. She has teamed up with Tshoper Kabambi, Deborah Basa, and Ephraim Faith on film initiatives. Their work has resulted in two feature films, co-written by Young and Kabambi and directed by Kabambi:
Heart of Africa (2020) and
Heart of Africa 2: Companions (2021), the first feature films produced in the DR-Congo by a Congolese film team to be released in theaters in the United States. In 2017, Young founded a 501c3 humanitarian organization, Congo Rising , to support film initiatives as well as health and educational projects. In Lodja, DR-Congo, she works with Professor Abbé On'Okundji Okavu Ekanga, author of
Les Entrailles du Porc-épic: Une nouvelle éthique pour l’Afrique. Mr. Okundji returned to his home village in the Congo to help it recover from the
Congo War of 1998-2004. Young is married to English professor Bruce Wilson Young (born 1950). Bruce is a BYU, Columbia, and Harvard graduate who has written multiple essays and the book
Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare. Along with Margaret, he helps direct Congo Rising and helped produce
Heart of Africa and
Heart of Africa 2. Margaret and Bruce are the parents of four children, including vocal performer and music instructor Kaila Lifferth and writer Robbie Blair. == See also ==