The 21st century has seen an explosion of Latter-day Saints writing genre fiction for national and international audiences. Or perhaps a better way to phrase it would be that the seeds planted in the latter part of the 20th century, especially the 1980s and 1990s, have borne spectacular fruit over the past two decades.
With notable exceptions, very few of those works contained any sort of overt Mormon-ness, even if some are ripe for interpretation by Mormon critics (as takes place in the piece of literary criticism included in this issue).
The genre issue brings together a variety of works—from alternate history, science fiction, and fable to urban fantasy, humor, and horror—all of which use the tools and tropes of genre to explore Mormon characters, settings, themes, and symbols in specific, speculative, overt ways.
We also hope that this edition of Irreantum will not be a one-off or high-water mark, and instead will serve as another way station in the continued engagement of both the Association for Mormon Letters and Mormon writers and artists with genre work, especially work that tackles the Mormon experience.
There are many more fascinating depths to plumb and strange and exciting vistas to unfold.
Enjoy!
(And go and do likewise!)
— Liz Busby & William Morris, editors
Liz Busby is a writer of speculative fiction and creative nonfiction, as well as book reviews and literary criticism. She is currently a graduate student in BYU’s English program, studying the intersection between Mormonism and science fiction/fantasy. Liz also co-hosts the podcast Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree which examines movies and tv from a Latter-day Saint perspective. Follow her writing on lizbusby.com.
William Morris writes, edits, and writes about Mormon fiction. He is the author of The Darkest Abyss: Strange Mormon Stories and Dark Watch and other Mormon-American stories. William also edited the anthologies Monsters & Mormons and States of Deseret and has won awards from Dialogue, the Association for Mormon Letters, and the Mormon Lit Blitz. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and daughter. More about William and his work can be found at motleyvision.org.
