2025 winnerS

Thank you to everyone who read the finalists in this year’s contest. We love sharing these pieces with you! This year, our youngest daughter--born a few years into the contest--stayed up late listening to the pieces and agonizing over which ones to choose. Our sympathies to anyone else who really struggled to choose their favorites. We hope it was at least worth it to be able to support your favorite writers and discover new voices.

Well, the agonizing is over. The votes are in. Our guest judge has spoken. We're now ready to announce the Audience Choice winner and our Judges' Choice award.

Audience Choice Award

In audience voting, the top four pieces are:

4th place:

“Fairies” by Ilse Eskelsen

3rd place:

"Lifecycle of Strawberries" by Michelle Graabek Wallace

2nd place:

“El Fugitivo”  ("The Fugitive")  by Mario Montani

 and

1st place:

“Escondida”  ("Hidden") by Jesús Baldemar Liévano

Congratulations!

Judges' Choice

In addition to the audience choice award, we ask a guest judge to honor another piece for its quality of writing. This year's guest judge is D. J. Butler, a man who wears many hats. D. J. is a co-author of the Cunning Man Series, and the author of the Witchy War series and City of Saints, all of which use Latter-day Saint ideas in historically-rich speculative fiction settings. He is also a senior editor at Ark Press, which specializes in genre fiction, and Plain and Precious Publishing, which specializes in reflections on Latter-day Saint scripture and temple. This year's judge's choice award goes to: "Rebecca, La Misionera" ("Rececca, The Missionary") by Arisael Rivera

Judge's Statement:

"Rebecca, La Misionera" is a delightful short story that succeeds simultaneously on several levels. It inserts a classic superhero dynamic—that of the hero or heroine and the ordinary person who is in on the secret, e.g., Batman and Alfred—into a missionary companionship, to surprise and delight us. That juxtaposition also ask the question, "how would one missionary's secret identity change the companionship dynamic?"

The story's answer is that the companionship might not change, because, after all, there is something superheroic in what the sisters are doing in the first place. And indeed, isn't the most superheroic deed of the story the moment when Hermana Herrera, having knocked senseless the criminal who tried to run her over with a truck, stops to tend to the wounds of the unconscious man?

Congratulations!

Next Event

We are proud advocates of microliterature. Short form work can be powerful, and it allows writers to try out new things in voice and approach. Over the years, the Mormon Lit Blitz has successfully expanded people's sense of what is possible in Mormon literature. At the same time, we recognize that some ideas need more space. To support writers who want to experiment with longer works, we launched a book mentoring program. In our first cohort, five of eight participants have now completed manuscripts. You must be a past Mormon Lit Blitz finalist to apply for the program, which will begin in January 2026. If you qualify, we invite you to submit a proposal by November 15, 2025 to join the next mentoring program group. To help people decide whether the program is right for them and develop their proposal, we'll hold an online proposal workshop on September 13. Stay tuned for updates and further information.