Mormon Lit Blitz Announcement

I thought I might pass this along:

From February 15th to February 29th, Mormon Artist magazine will begin hosting the Mormon Lit Blitz, an online literary contest for Mormon creative writers. As its organizers, we hope it will be one of the most significant literary happenings in the Mormon arts community this year.

The format of the contest is simple. Beginning on February 15th, the Mormon Artist blog will post one short story, poem, or personal essay a day for the rest of the month (excluding Sundays). At the end of the contest, readers will be encouraged to vote for the piece they like best, and the author of the winning piece will be awarded a Kindle loaded with works of Mormon literature.

The thirteen pieces that will be featured in the contest were selected from almost two hundred entries from four different countries. They were written to appeal broadly to Latter-day Saint audiences, particularly committed members of the Church. As judges, though, we were careful to select artistic works that avoided the cheesiness and preachiness that people often associate with Mormon literature. Among the finalists are Kathryn Lynard Soper, author of the award-winning The Year My Son and I Were Born; Wm Henry Morris, founder of A Motley Vision and co-editor of Monsters & Mormons; and Deja Earley, Marilyn Nielson, and Jonathan Penny, three poets whose work can be found in Fire in the Pasture: Twenty-First Century Mormon Poets.