In the Lit Blitz Hall of Fame, we celebrate authors published in previous Mormon Lit Lab contests by asking their thoughts on Mormon Lit, writing, and life. Check back twice a month for new Hall of Fame interviews.
Previous Lit Blitz pieces by Marianne Hales (who is also published as Marianne Hales Harding):
"Sacrament in Solitude" (10th Annual Mormon Lit Blitz)
"Walking Among the Legend People" (6th Annual Mormon Lit Blitz)
"Platinum Tears" (3rd Annual Mormon Lit Blitz)
"Natural Coloring" (2nd Annual Mormon Lit Blitz)
"Red Rock" (1st Annual Mormon Lit Blitz)
An Interview with Marianne Hales
What are your favorite Lit Blitz pieces written by someone else?
It’s hard to choose because they all delight in different ways. I loved Darlene Young’s “Tower of Babel” (2022) because of how wonderful it was to attempt to grasp meaning as it descended into chaos. I wish I had written that! And her sublime “Echo of a Boy” (2015). Two that I loved for their clever shifts were “Valley 176th Ward” by Eliza Porter (2017) and “Three Mormon Microstories” by Mario Montani (2024). I was very moved by Merrijane Rice’s “On the Death of a Child” (2017). That last stanza! Four lines that encompassed the vastness of grief.
Explain the background of one of your Lit Blitz pieces.
“Sacrament in Solitude” (2021) is a piece that everyone tells me is weird, which makes me strangely happy because it contains some of my favorite absurdities and funny turns-of-phrase. I wrote it because I wanted to capture the feeling of our Covid lockdown sacrament meetings and how hard it was to return to regular church. Sundays in my parents’ living room my dad would push his walker from couch to piano bench to rocking chair to couch, delivering substantial chunks of bread and somewhat full water glasses (I told the kids if they didn’t finish then it didn’t count). Hearing my father, age 83, speak the prayers for this tiny group made the sacrament feel intimate and individual. I didn’t want to go back to regular sacrament meetings with young men reciting words that my father spoke with authority, rich with testimony forged over decades. Sacrament was too tender for public spaces. This story tumbled out once I thought of the scenario. It’s one of those pieces that you write to understand your own mind and when it was done I felt immensely comforted. My parents died in 2023 so this piece is even more of a comfort to me now, as it evokes memories of some of our last sacred experiences together.
How did you get into writing?
I think I was just born this way, with a pen and a lined notebook in my hand.
What is the best advice you have received as a writer?
There are two things I remind myself of all the time. The first is from my playwriting professor in grad school, Vince Cardinal, who said “Only writing is writing” (he may be aghast that this was the phrase that stuck after three years of mentoring. I promise there are others!). I’m the type that can get distracted by writing-adjacent activities that make you feel like you’ve been writing when you haven’t been. The second is from Shannon Hale’s blog, where she advocated for a writing goal of 15 minutes a day. As a single mom with young kids (at the time), this saved me. It was a goal I could actually do (and exceed on some days). A doable goal and a history of meeting that goal got me to the writing table regularly, which is the hardest part when you have so many other squeaky wheels.
What draws you to writing Mormon Lit?
The MoLitBlitz!!! I didn’t really think about writing specifically for a Mormon audience prior to this contest. When I wrote about religious questions or thoughts, I would write out the Mormon, thinking that it made my work more universal and more “producible.” I had left BYU and gone to a graduate program in Ohio where I was the only Mormon, and I felt my oddity very distinctly. Once when I was telling a serious story that mentioned going to the temple, the department chair, who had Jewish heritage, laughed riotously because she “hadn’t ever heard of a religion that goes to church and temple.” As I matured as a writer, I found that there was a way to write my Mormonism that was understandable and engaging in its specificity, but I didn’t really write for a Mormon audience in particular. The MoLitBlitz, like Shannon Hale’s 15 minute writing goal, made it easy to try. 1000 words isn’t too big of a commitment. And then there was the experience of reading everyone else’s stuff! Talk about sparking creativity! Now it is genuinely delicious to write pieces that you wouldn’t fully enjoy if you didn’t have a little Mormon in you.
What else have you been doing?
Currently I’m adapting a YA novel for the stage while also submitting and submitting and submitting my poetry collection Halfway to Heaven: Poems Crafted in Utah’s Wild Spaces. The novel I’m adapting is Thoughts & Prayers by Bryan Bliss, which follows the stories of three teenagers a year after they have survived a school shooting incident and explores the impact of trauma responses. I’m also submitting that one to development programs far and wide while slogging away at the next draft.
I’m also attempting to bring order to the chaos of my sewing room so that I can start on the long list of textile projects I’ve been accumulating since we packed up and moved (not far). I’m kind of tickled with the idea of doing a round quilt with a tablecloth and embroidered placemats that have matching napkins that need to be folded a certain way—with one setting hilariously askew. I’ve also got a big basket of clothes that remind us of my parents that I’m going to make into quilt tops for my kids and other family members (I’m thinking log cabin squares, but it will be a challenge with the variety of fabrics). I hate having idle hands so I bought a book of 100 granny square patterns with the idea of always having a square in progress in a ziploc in my purse. I just need to gather myself and pick the yarn. I figure if I stockpile squares then I can periodically make them into crocheted blankets for a group I’m in that sends handmade blankets to moms in distress (Wrapped in Hugs).
Thank you, Marianne Hales, for sharing your insights with us for the Lit Blitz Hall of Fame!
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