In 1888, speaking about the possibility of Mormon literature, the church leader Orson F. Whitney made an audacious promise to his fellow Mormons: \u201cWe will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own.\u201d\u009d Yet 125 years later, there is no Mormon Milton. There is no Mormon Milosz, no Mormon Munro.<\/p>\n
Mormons are, on average, better educated than most Americans, and they have written popular fiction. But Mormon authors tend to cluster in genre fiction, like fantasy, science fiction, and children\u2019s and young adult literature. Orson Scott Card, who wrote \u201cEnder\u2019s Game,\u201d\u009d the sci-fi novel on which the country\u2019s current top-grossing movie is based, is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So is Stephenie Meyer, author of the \u201cTwilight\u201d\u009d series.<\/p>\n
In the United States, Jews, blacks and South Asians, while they have produced no Milton or Shakespeare \u201d\u201d who has, lately? \u201d\u201d have all had literary renaissances. Mormons are more likely to produce work that gets shelved in niche sections of the bookstore. And as it turns out, Mormon authors themselves wonder if their culture militates against more highbrow writing….<\/p>\n