We are reposting a blog post by Kaki Olsen, who was one of the finalists in the recent Mormon Lit Blitz.
Five years ago, the Association of Mormon Letters held its first Mormon Lit Blitz. I entered an essay on my complicated relationship with my parents and never got to the next round. I wrote a zombie apocalypse told from the perspective of a Mormon missionary later and had the same results. When I surprised myself and wrote free-verse poetry about my jerk of an ex wanting to be friends again, I made the semi-finals and was ecstatic.
This year, I wrote 900 words about a little girl who aspires to go to Hogwarts until she realizes they don’t have Primary there. I found “Branch 9 3/4” on the semi-final and finalist lists. It was premiered on Memorial Day and complimented as wonderful personal essay (This amused me.). It didn’t win or place, but I was okay with that. My favorite did win and that was great. Last night, we did readings at a Mormon literary discussion group and laughed at great stories and cried at others.
Why do I come back year after year? The answer is that this contest feels like Barcelona. When I traveled to Spain, I spent days in a country where I was a stranger in a strange land, but everyone spoke my second language and appreciated that I spoke theirs. I felt at home there the way that the ghettos of the Valley felt familiar after 18 months as a missionary.
In this blitz, I can teach lessons and make people laugh by talking about the Holy Ghost and home teachers. I can talk about Christ’s definition of forgiveness. I can even speculate about whether Professor McGonagall is the relief society president.
I come back every year because it’s a country where I can be loved for speaking the language before returning to books where I have one sentence in 300 pages about missionaries stopping by.
Kaki Olsen is a former Cougar, a Red Sox fan, a third-generation sister missionary and world traveler. When not writing personal nonfiction, she writes anything from academic papers on geek philosophy to novels. Her debut, Swan and Shadow, was published in March of this year.
I love this contest for those reasons and also, it unfailingly produces beautifully written, unconventional, poignant, provocative, memorable pieces. Something about short and contest and MoLit just works. Also Jan e and his wife have really discriminating taste (a good thing.) Congrats on being among the finalists.
James and his wife, meant to say.
I’ve been hearing about the Lit Blitz for years, but this was the first time I actually read the finalists. (I had tried at least once before but wasn’t on Facebook and couldn’t figure out how to read the items.)
I like your point about how it isn’t just a publication venue but a chance to build community. Not everything can be done in a short format, but there are some great advantages to a collection of things that can all be read in a single evening.
I never could navigate the Facebook thingie, either. Luckily there’s a standard blog site for the contest, too.
You can read the MoLit Blitz contest entries at http://lit.mormonartist.net/ — and not just for the just-concluded 2016 contest but for previous years as well. Scroll down the sidebar to the “Categories” section which has links to the various contest years.