Discussing the Lit Blitz: William Morris's "A Ward House Stirring"

In Discussing the Lit Blitz, previous finalist Annaliese Lemmon talks with the finalists from our most recent contest about their work.

This transcript was edited for clarity. 

Annaliese Lemmon: Welcome everyone to the Mormon Lit Lab podcast. I'm Annaliese Lemmon, your host for this series where we discuss the 14th Annual Mormon Lit Blitz. Today I'm joined by William Morris, the author of “A Ward House Stirring.” Welcome, William.

William Morris: Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Annaliese Lemmon: Could you introduce yourself and explain what your experience is with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

William Morris: Sure. So yeah, I'm William. I currently live in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. I'm a lifelong member of the church. I spent the first couple of years of my life living in Provo. My parents were students at BYU. I then lived for a while in the small town of Kanab, Utah, where I have family roots. And then ended up living in the Bay Area in California for a while before moving to Minnesota. 

So I've had a fairly typical experience for US based members of the LDS Church including living in Utah for a while, including living in California for a while and now living outside of the Intermountain West and the West.

I served a mission in Bucharest, Romania in the early 90’s, and I have had a whole variety of callings, just a whole bunch of variety of callings in the church and enjoyed big parts of most of them. And certainly my experiences, the various experiences I've had living in various areas as a member of the church, as well as my mission experience, has definitely very much informed my fiction over the years.

And so I also write and sometimes edit and definitely write about Mormon Literature and have been doing so for more than two decades now.

Annaliese Lemmon: Wow. Yeah, I know you've been in the Lit Blitz many times before, and you also write outside of the Lit Blitz as well.

William Morris: I do.

Annaliese Lemmon: Though we are specifically talking about “A Ward House Stirring” and that really does cover a lot of aspects of members in various callings and stages of life, and even covers various aspects that are inanimate, such as the maps and the copier. Which supernatural activity was your favorite to create?

William Morris: So that is a tricky question because it's hard to have a favorite. I'm going to hijack this just a little bit and give a little peek into how this story came about. So I keep a huge long text file with all sorts of story ideas and back in September, 2024, I wrote down “A story, maybe longer, that flits among a chapel and the car is parked outside it. But the conversations and depictions are uncanny-ish.” And that word uncanny maybe doesn't quite fit where the story ended up. In fact, I would say it probably doesn't, but somewhat in that range. 

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, I think I'd say it's surreal.

William Morris: Yeah, surreal. And then it says “Mormon, but heightened in various ways.” And then I list three of the ideas, all of which did find their way in the story. One is about the ghost in the last stall in the bathroom that's near the font. One was just this phrase, “What-“ Just in quotes, I didn't have any of the context. It says, “What I wish for you is that you avail yourselves of the stirrings of the,” and then it just stops there.

And then I have one that says, “The youngest of the young women opens her battered copy of The Pearl of Great Price, presses two fingers into spongy pages and draws.” “And draw.” Yeah. See, I wrote this on a phone probably early in the morning or late at night. So it actually says, “And draw them a tiny fleming sword,” not flaming. Fleming.

And then, oh, there's a fourth one. Someone's crying in the vestibule coats surrounded by coats.

So, that's the seed of the story. And, so whenever a Mormon Lit Blitz comes around, I always look and see, okay, do I have anything that would work in that thousand word format? Which I must admit is sometimes tricky for me. I tend to work in longer works even though I have had the privilege to be a finalist numerous times.

And if I don't have anything, then I don't have anything and I don't submit that year. But as I was going through, I saw this and I was really struck especially by that image of the young woman and the copy of the scriptures and a little tiny flaming sword. And so I guess then to answer the actual question, I probably would have to arrive at that one.

But then there's… I really like the one with the Relief Society president, because I think it really captures best what I'm trying to do with the surrealist imagery. It is somewhat surrealist, but it's not completely nonsensical. I am trying to create a feeling or allude to things or capture parts of the Mormon experience, but in a different way than maybe we normally think about it. And as I wrote this story, I just let my mind free associate and pull from various things.

I read science-fiction/fantasy. I read literary fiction. I read both inside Mormon Literature and outside Mormon Literature. I'm really interested in film and television and so I just kind of… there are modes that I go into oftentimes when I'm writing. Writing can be fairly analytical. Sometimes when I'm writing in this mode, it just very much ends up being free association, but with the idea of not being at all random, but rather arriving at a place where the imagery actually has some meaning baked into it, even if that meaning is not completely, absolutely 100% clear.

Annaliese Lemmon: I know I'm really bad at recognizing symbolism and what things mean. So I did want to dig into a bit for what did these images mean to you when you were creating this?

William Morris: Yeah. So as I went through this and tried to come up with more pieces to make it a full story, that there is two things that were a guiding light. The first was, I don't know if you've seen the, this was really popular on YouTube. I don't know, whenever, however many years ago -- 5, 6, 7 years ago -- when drones became really popular and they would do these videos where a drone would swoop into, let's say like an automotive garage or a school, and it would go through all the various parts of the building and there'd be people waving and saying hi. And so you get this tour of the place. But because they're using a drone to shoot the video the point of view of it is always like switching and being either higher or lower or to the side because you're not actually like filming it like, let's say a cinematographer would.

And so as I was writing this, that's how I structured the story, is the idea is that we start with, I had this camera in my mind of a typical church building, right? And starting with looking at the pulpit because that is like a main thing, a main focus for us on a Sunday. And then just pulling back from there and then dipping down through the chapel and then out and then just all the way through, out and around.

And so that kind of gave me a structure where I would hit these certain places and as we went to certain locations and sometimes the image or the idea came first, and sometimes the location led to the idea.

I purposely tried to stay away from too much symbolism that would be from scripture or from Mormon history or Mormon doctrine. And certainly I have relied heavily in my fiction over the years on more overt symbolism. But for this particular piece, what I thought would be more interesting, and hopefully even a little bit charming, but also intriguing, would be to bring in other things. 

And so I would pull from things like folk tales, but not so that you could actually define and point to what a folk tale really would, or something that you see in urban fantasy stories and stuff like that. But again, not going so that it is actually clearly defined, oh, this person is a vampire, or this is clearly, I don't know, Rapunzel or something like that. But rather try and make it more mundane than that, I guess is what I would say.

Because the whole idea was I didn't want it to be like, I'm not trying to make a puzzle for people to figure out. I'm trying to evoke some thoughts and feelings in the reader that hope that they will relate to their own experience worshiping on the Sabbath at a ward building.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, like the missionary, reaching into the coats, it evokes Narnia. But it’s a very different experience for her because she's speaking another language. 

William Morris: Yeah. But it also evokes the fact that when, if you live in Minnesota and it's winter and the coat closet is full when you reach in to get your coat, it feels like you can get swallowed into it. That was actually probably, I'm not saying that the Narnia thing isn't there because it totally is. That's probably where that originated more than, and then I thought, oh, and that's also like Narnia, so let's go with that. But not too much with that as you point out. 

Annaliese Lemmon: And my favorite one was the sunbeams because yeah, they’re feral and it's hard to keep them contained and keep their attention.

William Morris: Yes, that one is certainly the most overt and I certainly have spent my time teaching Primary for sure.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, I've spent most of my time in Primary and right now I'm in the nursery. And I did find it interesting because a lot of people would assume that nursery is also feral, but you had this very positive image with nursery with the Tree of Life in there. 

William Morris: Yeah. I've also served in the nursery. Oftentimes there's a little bit more of a structure, but also a structure that lends itself to a little bit more of a flow, I think. And obviously it has to do with also the age of the children and as well as who is serving. But I agree that I found nursery a little bit more fun and interesting, although I love teaching the younger kids in Primary as well, that was always fun.

And that's the other thing is I also tried not to do anything that seemed like it was too positive or too negative, more just like this is just kind of what happens. And so for example, with the nursery example, guess what? You get snacks.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yes.

William Morris: And so what could those snacks be? That wouldn't just be goldfish.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, it reminds me of the Relief Society president, who's doing her best for her ward to mix things up, but just doesn't have that hope to really make it, that I want to do more, but I just can't. And their own personal struggle with that. 

William Morris: Yeah, but also she's also still doing it right?

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, I really enjoyed that. Is there anything else you'd like to mention about this story?

William Morris: You had asked as we were talking about getting together about the ending.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, because the beginning and the ending did seem to mirror each other kind of in that you have the symbolism of the spirit and you start with, “You avail yourself of the spirit.” 

William Morris: Yeah. And so I think certainly for this story and oftentimes in my fiction I am looking to try to, and whether I succeed or fail depends on my ability and the story itself, and as well as the reader. I'm trying to always have some ambiguity baked in, but not ambiguity as a term that's oftentimes used in say like literary fiction, where let's say you're reading a bunch of short stories that are very, what we would call traditional American Lit Fic, could have appeared in New Yorker, although I don't want to use New Yorker as a negative example because they also print some pretty awesome stuff.

And so it's not that kind of ambiguity as in terms of a moral ambiguity, or ambiguity just to be ambiguous because you don't want to end the story and come up with an ending. But rather, I'm always trying to gesture at what I believe is a core experience for Mormons, for members of the Church, for all Mormons. But oftentimes, especially for active practicing members of the Church.

Which is that, we're always in a state of victory and not victory. We're always in a state of being comfortable, but also being uncomfortable, in relation to the church, in relation to our own wards, in relation to our families, in relation to the broader culture. And so I'm always trying to gesture at something that captures the bitter-sweetness of Mormon life.

And also that both there are things that we have hope for and should avail ourselves of, to use the term from the story and should maybe improve upon and explore further and be more mindful of as well as things that we should maybe interrogate a bit more. And so I'm not saying what those are specifically. 

Annaliese Lemmon: That would be very personal as well.

William Morris: Yeah. And I am never trying to be prescriptive, but I'm always gesturing towards this, not just duality, but multiplicity of experience that happens and I think is especially acute, and not just for members of the Church who live in the US but across the world, of the peculiarity, but not the peculiar people is something that is okay we're better and we're proud or, oh, this is something to be ashamed of, but this is just what it is and how interesting is that? And how could it be more interesting and more helpful to both us as members, as well as to the broader culture and the broader world.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, I like that.

William Morris: And so that's why you get both the dove and swarm of bees. 

Annaliese Lemmon: And in literature it's really hard to be engaging and preachy at the same time, so it's good to just the reader come to their own conclusions on things and just explore the wide variety we have. I've really enjoyed doing that as I've moved around myself in the church and learning other people's experiences.

William Morris: Definitely.

Annaliese Lemmon: Did you have any other pieces of media, literature, whichever, that you would recommend for our audience to participate in?

William Morris: Definitely go back and read all the archives of the Mormon Lit Blitz. 

Then if you want, not necessarily more challenging, because there's plenty of challenging stuff in the Mormon Lit Blitz. But if you're looking for longer pieces and modes that can't quite be captured in the format of the Mormon Lit Blitz, the Association for Mormon Letters, which I've been affiliated with in different capacities for a long time, publishes a journal called Irreantum. And everything on there is free to read and the issues are often themed. And so just go look through the archives and find an issue that looks interesting to you and check that out.

And then finally, I really dug Andor season two. So this is not Mormon Lit related, but wherever you fall on the political spectrum, whatever your relationship with Star Wars, Andor season one, Andor season two, I think is not only asking interesting questions, which is what you may have heard from publicity. But it also is just really excellent storytelling and amazing writing.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, the presentation of some of the things that they go through is not the clear cut that we often get and I really enjoyed Andor. 

William Morris: But it's also not without hope and there are also clear good guys and bad guys, or at least there are better sides to be on. I'll put it that way. As there usually is in Star Wars.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yes. Did you have any other projects that you'd like to tell our readers about or how can they find you online?

William Morris: So I can be found at motleyvision.org. That is a blog that I've maintained since the early 2000’s. For a while, it was a group blog, and then as blogging dissipated, it went fallow for a bit. I have started to add to it every so often. And also on there you can find a place where you can sign up for a newsletter that I send out every other month that is about Mormon Literature, it's about Mormon culture, and you can also stay up to date with projects that I'm involved in.

And then in addition to that, I also work creatively outside of Mormon culture and so that if you go to frozenseapress.com, I make music under the name Will Esplin. Esplin is a family name. The Esplin's were actually part of the Orderville Experiment in southern Utah. And so that's one of my family lineages. And so I make music, kind of a variety of music, under that name. And then I write science-fiction and fantasy fiction as well as criticism under the name William Henry Morris.

And you can find all of that there on frozenseapress.com. And I am going to be having a bunch of stuff coming out in the next six months. More music. My first ever collection of science-fiction/fantasy stories for the science-fiction/fantasy market. 

And then hopefully within the next six months I'll be publishing a short novel called The Courtship of Elder Cannon. That is very much a William Morris kind of work, but doesn't have any of the weird fiction or science-fiction/fantasy elements. So this is another one of my works that is straight up just about the lived Mormon experience. And it is yes, about a general authority.

Annaliese Lemmon: That's exciting to hear all that stuff coming out. All right. Thank you so much for joining us and hope to see you again in the Lit Blitz and on our Lit Lab.

William Morris: My pleasure. And I just want to put a pitch out to any listeners who have not yet submitted to the Lit Blitz or have submitted and never been a finalist to just to think about writing something or just to keep writing. One of the great things about it is that it has published a lot of writers’ first pieces.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yes, I think it was my second one that had ever been published was in the Lit Blitz

William Morris: Awesome. Yeah. So if you have any sort of, just even a glimmer of thought of I would like to do something creative, whether it’s non-fiction, poetry, theater, fiction, whatever you can get under that thousand words. Do it.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, I agree with that. And I just love hearing the wide variety of voices we get in the Mormon Lit Blitz. So there is definitely room for you whatever you think about and are involved with. Thank you again and we'll see you later.

William Morris: See ya.

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