The reason you love independent Mormon magazines
Sometimes when I tell people what I do, they give me a funny look. “We already have the Ensign and the New Era,” they say, “why do we need an independent Mormon magazine?”
The easiest way to understand the function of independent Mormon publications is to consider the state of Mormon fiction.
The Church probably made an editorially sound decision when it pulled fiction completely out of its magazines. Church magazines are meant to preach right living in as straightforward a manner as possible; thus, they have little room for irony, metaphor, conflict, or many of the other tools fiction writers use.
However, the Church’s decision also reduced the number of places where Mormon fiction writers could publish, which is a shame because every up-and-coming fiction writer needs to get some practice, interact with good editors, and garner some publishing credits.
Since the Church is no longer supporting fiction, someone has to step in and give these writers a place to publish their work. Right now, national magazines and journals aren’t very interested in Mormon fiction, probably because so few Mormon writers have had the opportunity to learn to write about the unique challenges of Mormon life with nuance and creativity.
That’s where independent Mormon magazines come in.
We’re here to find Mormonism’s future Miltons and Shakespeares (the ones Orson Whitney and Spencer W. Kimball talked about) early in their careers and nurture them so that they can get enough practice and publication credits to eventually launch into the national market.
The more writers we export, the more robust and nuanced the world’s image of Mormonism becomes. And I would even argue, the more robust and nuanced Mormonism itself becomes. We’ll no longer be perceived just as the nice young men in ties that knock on your door; we’ll become fully rounded characters inhabiting a fully-rounded culture.
Of course, this all goes for other writing endeavors as well: poetry, personal essay, non-fiction, comics, etc.
So, when you see an independent Mormon publication, pick it up, read it, subscribe to it – write for it. Help us grow a bumper crop of excellent Mormon writers for export.
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June 2nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
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Well said. I subscribe to one, my wife subscribes to one, and we have issues from two others ins some quantity, even without a subscription. Everyone should have at least one.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:18 am
Independent Mormon magazines are part of the reason short fiction is becoming such a mature genre in Mormon letters. There’s some incredible stuff in the anthology I’m working on–stories that were originally published in Irreantum or Dialogue or Sunstone–and these stories probably would not exist in the public arena without these journals. These magazines allowed writers of well-crafted, literary fiction to have a place to consider submitting their work, and I would venture to say are an impetus allowing for some of these stories to even be written in the first place, because why bother writing a certain kind of story for a certain kind of audience if there’s very little chance your audience will get to read it?
Irreantum has received almost 70 entries for our current fiction contest, evidence in my mind that fiction writing is alive and flourishing among Mormons. Great news!
June 9th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I’m late to post here, I know, but I wanted to say that these independents came into my life at a time when I was considering just giving up on writing. Angry feminism was the popular approach and I could mimick it, but couldn’t really produce it because I didn’t buy into the worldview behind it. The existence of these independents–Irreantum, Dialogue, and Sunstone–encouraged me, and allowed me, to develop my ability by delving into topics that were relevant to me. I owe a big thank you to all three and their editorial staffs, who have been wonderful to work with. I hope other writers take advantage of these independents by submitting and entering contests. Don’t give up.