Support the 2026 Book Mentoring Program
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Over the past 15 years, the Mormon Lit Blitz contest has published more than a hundred unique works of Mormon microliterature—short essays, stories, and poetry that stretch our sense of what literature can accomplish in a community of faith. Using short forms, we wanted writers and readers to get a taste of possibility. But after writers test their wings, we want them to have chances to stretch them. A few years ago, we also started a mentoring program to help past contest finalists who had an idea for a book. So far, three books from the first cohort have been published, another two have finished drafts working toward publication, one is in progress, and two writers realized that their project was not a good fit for the current stage of their life. We are glad we were able to be there through the process for all these writers.
This year, we’re mentoring three prose writers (Ana Claudia De Souza De Oliviera, Chanel Earl, and Theric Jepson) and two poets (Christopher Bissett and Whitney Hemsath) as they develop books. We’ve already brought together a volunteer team of people with expertise in writing, editing, publishing, and advertising to provide monthly classes and personal consultations. We also aim to raise a $1,000 to $2,000 budget in support of each project. Even a small budget can help make someone’s dream project a reality.
To help bring these new titles into the world, make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation to the Mormon Lit Lab today. Whether you are able to contribute $20 or $100, any and every contribution will make a real difference.
If you would like to designate a specific project as the preferred beneficiary of your gift, you may do so. There is also a general fund. If you have additional questions about any project, please reach out to us via email or Facebook message.
The writers and projects are:
PROSE
Ana Claudia DE SOUZA DE OLIVEIRA
I am Ana Claudia de Souza de Oliveira and I am a writer. At 58 years old, without a life project, I felt an emptiness. Then the Mormon Lit Lab came and offered encouragement for me to revive a long-postponed literary project. Tropos is a book of stories based on the women and men in the Biblical universe, but it is set in Brazil. It includes themes of inclusion and integrations, and offers fresh perspectives on well-known religious figures.
Sou Ana Claudia de Souza de Oliveira e sou uma escritora. Aos 58 anos, me sentia vazia sem um projeto de vida. Até q surgiu o Mórmon Lit Lab e me deu ânimo para reavivar um plano Literário há muito adiado. Tropos é um livro de contos baseado nas mulheres e homens do universo biblico, mas ambientado no Brasil. Traz questões como inclusão, integração e perspectivas revisitadas em personagens conhecidos no âmbito religioso.
Ana Claudia's Mormon Lit Blitz piece:
Chanel Earl
Timekeeping for Mortals is a short novel about Abraham Scott—24th-century physicist, atomic clockmaker, bishop, and captain of a pioneer spaceship enroute to a new planet. As Abraham approaches the end of his life, he shares his story and the stories of two other clockmakers from history in a sort of horological hagiography. First, he tells about Richard of Wallingford, a 14th-century Benedictine monk and the inventor of one of the first mechanical clocks. Then, he discusses Corrie Ten Boom, the first licensed female watchmaker in Holland and survivor of two Nazi concentration camps. This literary fiction explores the experience of living in a time-bound reality, chronoception, God's timing, the mortal experience (even with a belief in immortality of the soul), simultaneity, our desire to control the uncontrollable, and the science of time and timekeeping.
Chanel Earl is a Pushcart Prize- and Best of the Net-nominated writer of short fiction and essays. She has an MFA in creative writing from Brigham Young University, where she currently teaches technical and creative writing to undergraduates, not only in the writing department, but also in the physics department. Her stories and essays have appeared in such publications as Smokelong Quarterly, The Account, Irreantum, Exponent II, Soft Union, and Wayfare Magazine.Â
Chanel's Mormon Lit Blitz pieces:
tHERIC JEPSON
On Thursday, April 23, 2026 — Will and Dory will graduate from BYU
Then, on Tuesday April 28, 2026 — Will and Dory will be married
A few hours later, our novel will begin with the happy couple driving up a winding mountain road, eager for their first night as a married couple. Will takes one of the turns a bit too quickly and is pulled over by a local deputy. Annoyed by Dory, the deputy decides to search their car. In the trunk, he finds a human body. Dead. They are arrested. The cops immediately land on Dory as their key suspect; Will, they see as an easily manipulated orphan, just another victim of her budding sociopathy. But Will cannot accept this story. So when they let him out to wander the town, he doesn't know what to do but try and prove her innocence himself. Because she can't be guilty. She can't.
Theric Jepson wrote the novels Byuck and Just Julie's Fine, the plots of which he's never been great at summing up into a clear, commercial pitch. But newlyweds-with-a-surprise-body-in-the-trunk seems to be something readers are actually interested in? He has a nonbinding first-look agreement for this novel and is deep into the first full draft (~70,000 words, including the beginning, most of the middle, and some of the end).
Theric's Mormon Lit Blitz pieces:
A Laurel’s First-Night Fantasies (longlisted, later published by Dialogue)
Duties of a Deacon (later republished in a very different form as "The Deacon and the Dragon" by Irreantum)
Stanl33’s Silver Spaceship (longlisted, later published by The ARCH-HIVE BLOG)
Lucky Wounds (longlisted, later published by Dialogue)
The Baptism of Sister Kim (longlisted, later published by Wayfare)
This Is a Dream I Had (longlisted, later published as "I Dreamed of Oil" by Dialogue)
POETRY
Christopher Bissett
With the heart of a gardener, Christopher Bissett is writing Translated Beans, a collection of poetry that is playful, spiritual, and cultivated in the compost heap of an ongoing restoration. His poems center on tensions between identity and Christian discipleship. Other themes include birth, death, rebellion, submission, parental guilt, tangibility of spirits, resurrection in an oilfield, dinosaurs, Steve Irwin, temple cards, demanding more revelation about Heavenly Mother, and a Savior who gets the flu. The collection is divided into four parts based on the anatomy of a seed’s germination: Plumule, Radicle, Cotyledon, and Root. Comparing the word to a seed, each section parallels a seed’s growth as it reaches upward toward the light while simultaneously rooting downward through the omnipresent muck of mortal experience.
Christopher has an English degree from BYU and a nursing degree from the University
of Lethbridge. He works as a registered nurse in community health in Raymond,
Alberta, where he lives with his family. He has published poetry, essays, and short
stories in several Latter-day Saint affiliated journals and publications. Besides gardening
and writing poems, Christopher is also passionate about mollusks.
Christopher’s Mormon Lit Blitz piece:
Whitney Hemsath
Whitney Hemsath’s Through a Glass, Darkly: Poems in Search of the Divine Within and Without is her debut poetry collection. It explores themes of womanhood, motherhood, Heavenly Mother, the sacredness of grief, the struggle of uncertainty, and the tenacity of hope. She invites readers to sit at the crossroads where the flaws of the natural man intersect the divine potential each child of God has and encourages us to consider who we truly are and who we hope to become.Â
Whitney Hemsath writes in just about every genre and format for both children and adults. She is a regular contributor for LDSLiving.com and her LDS Inspirational nonfiction book, Types, Shadows, and Casseroles: Finding Christ in Your Daily Life took first place in the 2025 LDSPMA Praiseworthy awards. Her poetry has been included in college curriculum, she’s published multiple short stories, and she’s currently in revisions on a speculative romcom novel. When she’s not writing, Whitney enjoys presenting at conferences, working on new designs for her 3D printing business, Fiction & Filament, and doing cardio dance. She lives in Utah with her husband and four sons.
Whitney’s Mormon Lit-Blitz pieces:
Please note that, while we want to help every project reach completion, the Mormon Lit Lab does not guarantee the success of proposed projects. Funds will be disbursed to writers for use on approved book-related expenses. In the event that a book project stops progressing, we reserve the right to shift its budget to support other projects. Donations are not refundable.Â
