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If I keep forgetting about the new Mormon Lit Blitz contest, then I have to believe a lot of people are having the same issue.
Here’s the pitch as taken from the Mormon Artist website (written by James Goldberg):
There are a lot of things Mormon literature can do, of course, but one that seems particularly important to us is its potential to speak to the multicultural experience all modern Mormons have. Every one of us is part of a strong shared spiritual culture, but also part of a pop culture, a national culture, an educational and professional culture, and so on. We see ourselves in light of our superheroes as well as of our scriptures, are inspired by revolutions as well as by revelations, and learn from professors as well as from prophets. If we define “myths” as the stories we use to make meaning of our lives and of the world around us, today’s Mormons have a vast selection to draw from. On any given Sunday, there’s probably a primary kid somewhere comparing at the same time that a Sunday school teacher is talking about miracles during the 1989 coup attempt in the Philippines. For the most part, we seem happy to look for God in all our stories.
And writers can help us. They can open up our imaginations ever wider, and in doing so can help us weigh or bring together the diverse insights we get from our many cultures. I love the way Eric Samuelsen weaves together the war in heaven with the early stages of evolution in the first scene of his great play The Plan. I find myself strangely moved by the way Steven Peck brings out our pioneer legacy with the help of a zombie apocalypse in his short story “The Runners.” I was moved by the way Heather Marx brought together Sikh and Mormon heritage in her short story “Brother Singh” and enjoyed playing with Indian poetry and Mormon aspirations in my own short fiction “Singer and Saint: An Interview with Jeevan Sidhu.”
Our challenge for writers this fall is to draw on their many cultures’ myths to make a Mormon story.
Follow t*h*i*s l*i*n*k for other useful information such as where to send your submissions, how many you can submit, word-count requirements, deadline (HALLOWEEN!), etc.
This has the potential to be a lot of fun, if we find writers who will make it so.
So: come and play!
