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Q: Mormon fiction, in a broad sense, has often been concerned with promoting faith. For the faithful, do you feel that these stories promote faith? If so, how?
Andrew: Not in the conventional way that the phrase “promoting faith” is usually used, that is, as a kind of PR exercise for the church or gospel values. I do think some of the authors see their acts of creation, reflecting and exploring the world and the lives that God has given us, as honoring and magnifying God’s creations.That doesn’t necessarily mean that the stories provide warm fuzzy feelings. God set up a system where we live in a deeply flawed, fallen world. We aren’t doing God or ourselves any favors if we try to sugarcoat it.
Plus, these authors are too clever for simple platitudes. Perhaps the most “faith promoting” story of the collection features a Relief Society teacher who tries to goad two sisters into a knife fight as part of an object lesson. And it really is a great lesson!
Q: How does this collection fit into the whole oeuvre of Mormon fiction? In what ways does it extend the tradition? In what ways does it depart?
Andrew: It continues in the tradition of short fiction anthologies collecting the work of Mormon and post-Mormon authors who have been publishing in Dialogue and other such outlets since the late-1960s. The main ones are Twenty-two Young Mormon Writers (1975), Greening Wheat (1983), Bright Angels & Familiars (1992), In Our Lovely Deseret (1998, edited by Robert Raleigh), and Dispensation (2010). Three of these were published by Signature Books. I would say we considered and accepted a larger percentage of speculative fiction than was found in the earlier anthologies. This is probably reflective of the way in which literary authors have become more interested in using the tropes of speculative fiction and other kinds of “genre fiction.”
Q: Robert, could you compare your experience editing this book with your 1998 anthology with Signature Books, In Our Lovely Deseret? Did you notice a change in the themes or style of writing of authors writing about Mormons between 1998 and 2023?
Robert: There are a couple of interesting differences. First, while a few of the authors in the first collection were pretty well known and had been published (such as Levi Peterson), a much larger percentage of the authors either hadn’t been published or had been published far less, often in university literary magazines. Since that time, I think the opportunity for Mormon fiction that’s outside the mainstream has increased, and nearly all of the authors in this new collection have had books published, and many multiple books out. As for writing style, I think it reflects the times to a certain degree. Back in the 1990s, fiction was narrower, I think because of the gatekeeping function of literary editors. Since then, I think publishing has splintered more. Print on demand allows the possibility of publishing without thinking about the size of the print run, and ebooks extend that idea even further. In practice, with fewer gatekeepers, people choose to pursue a broader range of styles, approaches, and even to cross the boundaries of genre more freely. This collection reflects those changes, I think.
Q: What was the impetus for you to decide to initiate that collection in 1998? Was that the same for your decision to initiate this 2023 collection?
Robert: My main impetus back in 1998 was just that people who were writers were telling me that Mormon-themed fiction that was complex and not obviously didactic was hard to get published. Mormon publishers found it too edgy, while mainstream publishers (even literary publishers) found it too topical. So there was no home for it. I wanted to make room for Mormon fiction that broke the conventions of Mormon fiction, at least the way people thought of it at the time. The impetus now is really essentially the same.
Q: Which of these stories surprised you the most? Perhaps something that you never expected to read in a collection about Mormons.
Robert: Probably the most surprising story is the first one in the collection: “The Investigator.” I never imagined the possibility of apocalyptic fiction, something kind of like The Road, being turned into a missionary story (albeit with missionaries who are long dead, but have left behind their Mormon libraries).
Q: What is the attraction for post-Mormons to read (and presumably write) about Mormons and Mormon experiences?
Robert: To adapt the famous saying a little, you can take the boy out of Mormon culture, but you can’t take Mormon culture out of the boy. I grew up Mormon. I attended Primary and went to Seminary (early morning in my case). I went on a mission and got married in the temple prior to leaving the church. My most formative experiences all happened in the context of being Mormon, and so I still consider it my culture. Almost all of my closest friends are still either Mormon or ex-Mormon, because those are the people who get me. So it’s not surprising that I also get something out of the experience of reading good fiction that’s grounded in Mormon culture.
Q: How would you compare the experience of Mormons reading across the faith divide with Jews or Catholics reading across their faith divides, like believers reading Phillip Roth or Graham Greene?
Robert: I think it’s very similar. When I was a teen, one of the most influential books I read was Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev. That book’s protagonist didn’t lose his faith, but he definitely changes his relationship to his faith traditions. That was very revelatory. I think that religious cultures that have been around for a while always move in this direction, simply because in a large group of people, over a long period of time, there will be dispersion. Sometimes this is due to loss or dilution of faith. It can also be because religions, which often start out more tight and cloistered, necessarily change and adapt as they merge with the larger cultures around them. It has certainly happened to Jewish culture, which has been around a very long time, and also to Catholic culture, which has been around less time but still for many centuries. And this same process is happening with Mormon culture as well. The religion persists, as a faith experience, but there is a culture that grows up in support of that faith, and there is a growing body of people who move closer to the edges of the culture, where Mormon culture blends with other cultures (academic cultures, political cultures, creative cultures, hedonistic cultures, etc.) which, for those people, has the potential to both dilute and enrich the Mormonism of their upbringing. Some people try to make a clean break, but I think many more embrace the idea that Mormonism is a valuable part of how they became who they are.
Q: In what ways has Mormon fiction been changing over the last few years? How does this collection show some of those changes?
Andrew: As Robert said, there are more opportunities for publishing books now, and the internet has given authors the freedom to try to find their own audiences. So, I think that more authors feel encouraged to keep going with their careers, writing the kinds of stories they want to write, despite not being able to depend on creative writing as a livelihood. Looking back on the earlier generations, it seems like lots of promising young voices did not produce much after their thirties, perhaps because their first works did not reach the kinds of audiences they were hoping for.
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