Our Vision

Though we live scattered across the world in many different cultures, Mormons have a distinct shared identity. We have our own way of organizing communities, our own sacred stories and religious language, our own ideals and values.

At the Mormon Lit Lab, we also believe we deserve our own literature. We believe there's a power to shared imaginative spaces: that we as a community can benefit from thinking things through together in poems and stories and essays. We realize great literature doesn't appear out of thin air--that it takes a long term effort by writers, readers, and critics, to build a tradition--and that it's an uphill battle to do so in a minority community. But we are convinced that small and simple efforts can help great things happen--and are committed to doing all we can to develop Mormon literature. If you feel strongly about the vision, we hope you'll consider joining us by signing up to make a monthly contribution of $1 to $10 to support Mormon writing contests, workshops, and publications.

Our History

For seven years, Nicole and James Goldberg have run the Mormon Lit Blitz, a contest for pieces of writing under 1,000 words that are uniquely resonant with Mormon audiences in some way. We've also run specialty contest featuring additional Mormon historical and speculative fiction.

The contests have yielded a massive creative return on our modest investment. With expenditures of roughly $1,500 so far, plus a little labor of love, we've helped inspire the writing of a few thousand Mormon creative works from established and emerging voices alike--and published about 100 of our very favorites online

We've given a wide range of writers a rare opportunity to explore distinctly Mormon ideas in their work--and made memories with a devoted community of readers.

Our Hopes

It's not nearly enough. As our Q&A posts with this year's Mormon Lit Blitz finalists made clear, there's a lot more people would like to see in Mormon Literature. More stories that play in interesting ways with scripture. More stories for children and youth that "tackle tough questions squarely." More stories that can honor the sweetness in life without feeling saccharine. More satire that "skewers the larger world as much as it does Mormon life and culture." More voices from other countries and cultures. More voices in translation from other languages. More writers "who trust the value of what their diversity brings to our connection as Mormons."

There's a huge talent pool of people eager to write these types of work--but still a great need for organization to help develop writers (and translators) and connect them with audiences. Mormon Lit needs more contests, more special projects, more publications, more writing workshops. With help from patrons like you, who pledge a monthly support amount toward a central literary war chest, we can expand our offerings and help fund and mentor other people as they pursue Mormon Lit passion projects.

Out of all the possibilities we could pursue, patrons help to choose which projects are most urgent and to make them a reality. Currently, our main project is the Around the World in Mormon Lit Contest, which will feature Mormon short stories set in different places around the world.

So if you're interested in what Mormon Literature could become: come join our movement. Become a Mad Scientist in the Mormon Lit Lab.