We’re pleased to announce the Mormon Artist podcast, launching today. Our first episode is an interview with Melissa Leilani Larson:

In this interview, Mormon Artist podcast host Katherine Morris interviews Melissa Leilani Larson on her screenplay for Freetown, a film about Liberian Mormon missionaries escaping the country during civil war; her upcoming play Pilot Program, a hypothetical about a contemporary Mormon couple who are asked to participate in polygamy; and advice she has for aspiring Mormon playwrights and screenwriters.

You can subscribe to the podcast via RSS and soon via iTunes (waiting for review). We’ll have more details soon.

Lit Blitz Winner

After counting and recounting votes in a tight race for literary impact, we are pleased to announce this year’s top finalists:

Fourth Place: “The Primary Temple Trip” by Laura Hilton Craner

Third Place: “Yahweh: Prologue to the Temple” by Jonathon Penny

Second Place: “Living Scriptures” by Scott Hales

and our Grand Prize winner:

First Place: “Slippery” by Stephen Carter

Thank you again to all who submitted to the contest, who read and shared the finalists, and who emailed in votes. It’s been a lovely time.

Because of the strong submission pool this year, we have decided to compile an eBook anthology of all twenty-four semi-finalists. Watch our Facebook page for details, or email everydaymormonwriter@gmail.com and tell us you want anthology updates.

Next Contest

Can’t wait for the next Lit Blitz? From now through September 30th, we’ll accept entries for a fall Mix-and-Mash Mythos contest. The rules are simple:

-Entries must be under 2,000 words
-Entries must draw on or sample from Mormon mythos (scriptures, history, hymns, traditions, etc.) AND another mythos (modern pop culture, a scientific model, another culture or religion, etc.)
-All genres are welcome (and bending genres is encouraged). Previously published work is acceptable if the author retains republication rights.
-Works should speak to an audience of religious Latter-day Saints

Send entries to everydaymormonwriter@gmail.com, preferably attached as Word documents or pdfs. Please include author’s contact information in the body of the email, but not in the attachment with the story.

Finalists will be selected in October and published in October or November. A cash prize will be awarded to the winner of an audience vote.

After a very strong response to our call for submissions, we have narrowed the field to a longlist of twenty-four pieces. By the end of this week, we will narrow this list to a shortlist of twelve finalists, to be published June 16-June 28 on this blog.

Congratulations to our semi-finalists:

“20/20” by Lindsay Denton
“70 times 7: a Therapy Session in Free Verse” by Kathryn Olsen
“The Book of Laman” by Mark Penny
“The Darkest Abyss in America” by Wm Morris
“The Choice Was Mine” by Eugenie C. Stoll
“Curelom Riders” by Annaliese Lemmon
“Every Member” by Terrance V. Mc Arthur
“Forgotten Zero” by Steven Peck
“Four Visitors” by Niklas Hietala
“In a Nutshell” by Doug Staker
“In Remembrance” by Merrijane Rice
“A Joy and a Chore” by Megan Goates
“A Laurel’s First-Night Fantasies” by Theric Jepson
“Living Scriptures” by Scott Hales
“Ministry” by Jeanine Bee
“Platinum Tears” by Marianne Hales Harding
“The Primary Temple Trip” by Laura Hilton Craner
“Riffs on Korihor’s Testimony” by Michael Andrew Ellis
“Slippery” by Stephen Carter
“Sugar Free” by Emily Debenham
“Thick and Thin” by Vilo Westwood
“Three Wishes” by Katherine Cowley
“And Through the Woods” by Jen Eichelberger
“Yahweh: Prologue to the Temple” by Jonathon Penny

I’m pleased to announce that after a two-year hiatus, Mormon Artist is back. To start us off, we have two excellent interviews with J. Kirk Richards and James Goldberg, and we have several more interviews and articles in the works. We’ll also be doing more special projects (more details to come).

For information about subscribing (via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS feeds), see the about page.

We’ve made a few changes to the magazine to streamline production:

• The magazine is now web-only. No more PDF/print editions.
• No issues or set publishing schedule. Instead, we’ll release interviews and articles individually.

And here’s our current staff:

• Publisher and editor-in-chief: Ben Crowder
• Managing editor: Katherine Morris
• Literature editor: Meagan Brady
• Visual & applied arts editor: Katherine Morris
• Music & dance editor: Annie Mangelson
• Film & theatre editor: Liesl Hansen

We’re excited to be back.

Thanks first to our thirteen wonderful finalists–and for you readers, who contributed to the more than 10,000 views of their pieces. Tonight we are pleased to announce voters’ top five selections. They are

5) “Second Coming” by Emily Harris Adams

4) “Red Rock” by Marianne Hales Harding

3) “No Substitute for Chocolate” by Jeanna Mason Stay

2) “In Bulk” by Marilyn Nielsen

and our Grand Prize Winner…

1) “Stillborn” by Merrijane Rice

Congratulations! When we started the Lit Blitz, we knew there was an audience for LDS literary works, but we’ve been impressed and encouraged by how strong and supportive that audience has been. Since we were also impressed by the quality of submissions the contest received, we’ve decided to launch a new online literary venue called Everyday Mormon Writer. This week we’re featuring a poem by Lit Blitz Semi-Finalist Jake Balser and art by Nick Stephens. We will feature one work per week for the next few months as we build up a body of quality work until we are able to publish every weekday. Any works that were submitted to the Lit Blitz will be considered for publication on Everyday Mormon Writer. We also encourage you to submit other short works; details can be found on our Submissions page.

Thanks once again for your interest and support.

Scott Hales
James Goldberg
Nicole Wilkes Goldberg

We have loved sharing the work of all thirteen finalists.

But we only have one Grand Prize.

The winner of the Mormon Lit Blitz will be selected by audience vote. Voters must first read (or hear, in the case of voters who are not yet literate) at least five of the Mormon Lit Blitz finalists and then rank their top five. These five ranked votes should then be emailed to mormonlitblitz@gmail.com with VOTE in the subject line. (One vote per person please, even if you have multiple email accounts.)

First place votes will be counted as five points, second as fourth, and so on. The piece with the most points by the end of March 15th will win.

Again, in order to be valid, votes must:

1) Be sent to mormonlitblitz@gmail.com with VOTE in the subject line.

2) Include five pieces ranked from 1st favorite through 5th favorite. Listing votes either by title or by author is acceptable.

Feel free to include any other feedback you have on the Mormon Lit Blitz in the body of the email below your vote list.

As a reminder, the finalists are
Marilyn Nielson’s “In Bulk,”
Wm Morris’s “The Elder Who Wouldn’t Stop,”
Jeanna Mason Stay’s “No Substitute for Chocolate,”
Emily Harris Adams’  “Second Coming,”
Sandra Tayler’s “The Road Not Taken,”
Merrijane Rice’s “Stillborn,”
Kathryn Soper’s “Oil of Gladness,”
Emily Debenham’s “The Shoe App,”
Deja Earley’s “Cada Regalo Perfecto,”
Kerry Spencer’s “The Gloaming,”
Jonathon Penny’s “Babel,”
Jeanine Bee’s “The Hearts of the Fathers,”
and Marianne Hales Harding’s “Red Rock.”

Red Rock

You can’t take a picture of this.
No matter the angle, the pictures are just rocks, sky, water.
Nothing stirs in me when I look at them.
I am still caught in the swell of forgettable catastrophes, tight and hurried.
I delete every one of them. And then I take a few more. Read the rest of this entry »

The Hearts of the Fathers

My dad thinks he only taught me one thing growing up. Every chance he got he would remind us, “Kids, never fight a monkey.” Read the rest of this entry »

Babel

At the moment the languages were confounded, I was bent over a parchment, trying to ignore the sounds of construction that by then filled the city. I had no interest in the project myself. Indeed, I was apprehensive about its appalling hubris and the mind-boggling safety issues it presented. This was philosophical and personal. My brother oversaw construction of the balustrades that wound their way up the tower—a feat of engineering science I could never grasp, but that gripped him like a childhood fever: numbers were his, letters mine. Daring was also his: he always took on the most perilous duties himself.

I kept my misgivings to myself, however, even from him. The prophets who had spoken warnings of judgment and destruction were dead or in the quarries, Read the rest of this entry »

The Gloaming

I’ve been spending a lot of time in hospitals lately. And the thing about hospitals is that they make you think a lot about cycles of life and death. For one thing, you can’t avoid it. Death, that is. In normal life you can meet the thought of your own mortality with a healthy dose of denial. And even when you go into the hospital, you can cling to that denial. Death is what’s happening to the other people. You, on the other hand, well, you’re just there to have something taken care of.

You can hold on to that delusion until night.

Because at night, in the hospital, everything changes.

Read the rest of this entry »