We have loved sharing the work of all thirteen finalists.

But we only have one Grand Prize.

The winner of the Mormon Lit Blitz will be selected by audience vote. Voters must first read (or hear, in the case of voters who are not yet literate) at least five of the Mormon Lit Blitz finalists and then rank their top five. These five ranked votes should then be emailed to mormonlitblitz@gmail.com with VOTE in the subject line. (One vote per person please, even if you have multiple email accounts.)

First place votes will be counted as five points, second as fourth, and so on. The piece with the most points by the end of March 15th will win.

Again, in order to be valid, votes must:

1) Be sent to mormonlitblitz@gmail.com with VOTE in the subject line.

2) Include five pieces ranked from 1st favorite through 5th favorite. Listing votes either by title or by author is acceptable.

Feel free to include any other feedback you have on the Mormon Lit Blitz in the body of the email below your vote list.

As a reminder, the finalists are
Marilyn Nielson’s “In Bulk,”
Wm Morris’s “The Elder Who Wouldn’t Stop,”
Jeanna Mason Stay’s “No Substitute for Chocolate,”
Emily Harris Adams’  “Second Coming,”
Sandra Tayler’s “The Road Not Taken,”
Merrijane Rice’s “Stillborn,”
Kathryn Soper’s “Oil of Gladness,”
Emily Debenham’s “The Shoe App,”
Deja Earley’s “Cada Regalo Perfecto,”
Kerry Spencer’s “The Gloaming,”
Jonathon Penny’s “Babel,”
Jeanine Bee’s “The Hearts of the Fathers,”
and Marianne Hales Harding’s “Red Rock.”

In our previous announcements of semi-finalists, we included only titles to preserve blind judging. Now that our finalists have been selected, we’d like to congratulate our semi-finalists by name.

So thank you to Emily Harris Adams, Jake Balser, Jeanine Bee, Brandon Caudle, Judith Curtis, Emily Debenham, MacEvoy DeMarest, Deja Earley, Marianne Hales Harding, Wm Morris, Marilyn Nielson, Jonathon Penny, Merrijane Rice, Brittany Rytting, Kathryn Lynard Soper, Kerry Spencer, Doug Staker, Jeanna Mason Stay, Sandra Taylor, Bradford Tuckfield, Cassidy Wadsworth, Amelia Wallace, Terresa Wellborn, and Emily Younker for sharing their fine work.

After testing the semi-finalists with a sample set of likely readers, crunching numbers, rereading piece after piece, and debating back and forth like people with a great dessert menu but a strict calorie limit, we selected thirteen finalists (yes, we said we’d pick only twelve finalists, but were saved from a tough final cut when we remembered it’s Leap Year). They are:

“In Bulk” by Marilyn Nielson

“The Elder Who Wouldn’t Stop” by Wm Morris

“No Substitute for Chocolate” by Jeanna Mason Stay

“Second Coming” by Emily Harris Adams

“The Road Not Taken” by Sandra Tayler

“Stillborn” by Merrijane Rice

“Oil of Gladness” by Kathyrn Lynard Soper

“The Shoe App” by Emily Debenham

“Cada Regalo Perfecto” by Deja Earley

“The Gloaming” by Kerry Spencer

“Babel” by Jonathon Penny

“The Hearts of the Fathers” by Jeanine Bee

“Red Rock” by Marianne Hales Harding

The finalists will be published from Feburary 15th-29th and voting for the Grand Prize (and Kindle) will be open March 1st-15th.

Out of 200 submissions, a panel of judges has selected 32 semi-finalists. Out of these 32, twelve will be selected to compete in the final round for audience votes and the prize Kindle.

Today, we announced the last eight semi-finalists on Facebook and Twitter. As a recap, here they are:

Essay:

“The Hearts of the Fathers”
“My dad thinks he only taught me one thing growing up. Every chance he got he would remind us, ‘Kids, never fight a monkey.’”

Poetry:

“Holding My Grandchild, Come to Land this Morning”
Of gravity, air, earth, and the startling newness of life outside the womb.

“Jars”
Tribute to a vanishing tradition and the women who sustained it for so long.

“Gyroscope”
Thoughts on the quiet dance between freedom and faith.

Fiction:

“The Shattered Backboard”
How an elder in the Bucharest district got drafted to play one game for Club Dinamo.

“Frank’s Leap”
A leap of faith has landed Frank in an impossible decision.

“Flowers from Alan”
“Miracles. Maria thought they’d be cool, until one happened to her.”

“The Road Not Taken”
What regrets would you have if you could see the path you didn’t take?

Out of 200 submissions, a panel of judges has selected 32 semi-finalists. Out of these 32, twelve will be selected to compete in the final round for audience votes and the prize Kindle.

Today, we announced eight more semi-finalists on Facebook and Twitter. As a recap, here they are:

Fiction:

“Ascetic”
Giving up social cola drinking to symbolically support an alcoholic brother is only the beginning of Jared’s legendary powers of self-restraint.

“After”
Giovanni doesn’t see a light just after he dies; he has a hard time seeing anything at all until he learns to focus.

“The Shoe App”
Because she’s 5’10 and loves high heels, Catherine is excited to meet two tall, handsome men in nice suits—and black nametags.

Poetry:

“London Portraits”
“He gazes at the dust-charged sunbeams/ as though they are angels.”

“In Bulk”
An ode to giant jars of Costco mayonnaise, endless desert skies, and other manifestations of Wordsworthian abundance.

“I Teach Six-Year-Olds about Jesus in Sunday School”
You’ve been showered in spit and had your skirt soaked with a little girl’s tears. But you know that this is the world God so loved.

“Red Rock”
“What is it about this place that unwinds the soul, one chink at a time?”

Essay:

“A Lesson in Conversational Slovene”
Two new missionaries struggling to master the language find reliable, if reticent, teachers in a retirement center.

Out of 200 submissions, a panel of judges has selected 32 semi-finalists. Out of these 32, twelve will be selected to compete in the final round for audience votes and the prize Kindle.

Today, we announced eight more semi-finalists on Facebook and Twitter. As a recap, here they are:

Poetry

“Circles”
She’d love to read about the “Mother and Baby” sculpture, but she’s got to stumble over her children just to get to the placard.

“Cada Regalo Perfecto”
Though unprepared, this poet seeks to give the best gifts.

“Second Coming”
Some simple advice for William Butler Yeats.

“Afterlife”
“She looked old, and he was old…”

Essay

“Oil of Gladness”
What it meant to one sister to carry a vial of consecrated oil in her purse.

Fiction

“Babel”
A scholar in Babel wrestles with the loss of the old language.

“Count the Tear Stains on the Page”
Who do you talk to when you hate yourself?

“The Elder Who Wouldn’t Stop”
“He had seen too many companionships ruined over petty things. Had ruined a few of them himself. And this was not a mistake he was going to make again.”