Which genre of LDS literature is most important? Use this question as a way of demonstrating your exposure to and understanding of many different genres for LDS literature. Be sure that you refer to specific genres, texts, and authors in doing so.
Considering everything we've read, I believe the personal essay, something more along the lines of Hoiland's One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly, is the most important LDS literature genre. The autobiographical nature helps realize the LDS environment without losing the soul of the questions being asked. Personal Essays stretch what the Church community could see as aesthetic while sincerely expanding the LDS communal sphere. Without the personal essay, we couldn't have Terry Tempest William's Refuge, or Eugene England's remarks in "Why the Church is as True as the Gospel."
I'd say the second most important genre would be fictional writing, along the lines of Martine Leavitt's My Book of Life by Angel. Leavitt weaves in some LDS concepts in the lives of other people, it creates a stronger doctrinal sympathy. LDS and non-LDS readers alike can discover their ideas bumping against each other in a more honest way, but fiction still displaces the reader. Science Fiction, like Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son, greatly explore LDS beliefs and culture, but it also feels like the only place the plot allows the LDS conversation to go is a string of hypothetical question, rather than the concrete nature of the conflicts and dialogue in personal essays. Kenny Kemp's The Welcoming Door is a similar fictional piece which is meant for Christians in general, but doesn't tease at the issues that lie in between the LDS community and general Christianity. Definitely important, but perhaps not pressing enough.
Another important genre to LDS literature is poetry, but I think that poetry has faded in its ability to enter into a widespread conversation. This doesn't detract from Darlene Young's beautiful, simple Homespun and Angel Feathers, which raises a lot of questions, oftentimes from within conservative Mormonism. But the aesthetic nature of poetic device detracts from the realities that the LDS community can cope with through literature. I think Eugene England ability to connect with the reader while connecting a web of non-traditional events, as he does in "Healing and Making Peace, in the Church and in the World" have a stronger effect. It will last longer for the reader.
Personal Essays also draw in the storytelling nature of Spencer W. Kimball's and Neal L. Maxwell's sermons, without the didactic touch. Sermons have their own literary style, but tend to be confined by common beliefs, stretching what we already have faith in, or clarifying those points. For instance, Joseph Smith needs to use logos to build upon the saints' common belief in the King Follett sermon. It cannot be given the immediate validation life experiences offer, where the reader is forced to approach from the author's perspective.
LDS Literature in visual media, such as the set of plays in Out of the Mount and the personal favorite Jer3miah mini-series, definitely has its place. Granted, more people will watch a short video than read a book or watch a play. As good and riveting as "Happy Little Secrets" and Homespun are, they don't as easily appeal to modern day reception. I know different Christian sects use the Church's Life of Christ bible videos, and the Book of Momon video production level is large enough to receive notoriety from the New York Times. The platform for LDS visual media is expanding, but I don't think it has cracked through the same intimacy that personal essays do. There also isn't a whole lot of "important" LDS films out there. I think that this genre will eventually become the most important aspect of LDS literature, but needs more time to develop.
When I think about Added Upon and the 19th century poetry (such as Snow's "A Morning View of the Prairie, Coolbrith's "Millenium), I see just how much LDS culture has expanded globally. Nephi Anderson's Added Upon stretched Orson F. Whitney's call for the Church's own "Miltons and Shakespeares," which I think we are still looking for. But the personal essay approaches literary discussion from a level which allows the writer to grow just as much as the reader. This growing experience which usually fortifies the faith without testifying, and humanizes the religion just enough to preserve its sacredness.
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