Issue 2.1 of El Pregonero de Deseret is out. If you read Spanish, you can download it here. Among other items, it includes poetry, a short story, and some original illustrations. The editorial included in this issue looks back at all of 2018 in terms of Mormon Literature in Spanish. I wrote it, so of course I think they are interesting insights. I am self-translating part of it below:
The year 2018 saw the birth of not one but two similar literary associations. The first was […] the Cofradía de Letras Mormonas, a small, international group of individuals who are enthusiastic about literature and about Latter-day Saint culture. That year also saw the creation of the Association of Latter-day Saint Writers of Peru (AdeSUD Perú), an organization founded by Luis Zegarra with the purpose of spreading the restored Gospel’s message through art.
As if that were not enough, in 2018 the Mormon Lit Lab, under the direction of James Goldberg in the United States, organized a literary contest titled “Around the World in Mormon Lit.” This is probably the first intercontinental contest of this nature. As such, it accepted submissions in several languages, including Spanish. We are somewhat eager to find out who the finalists and winners are.
These things happened the same year that our humble publication, El Pregonero de Deseret, was launched. Despite our limitations, we have worked on this publication with great effort for the better part of a year and a half. We have now published five issues, counting this one. We are aware that once Church magazines stopped publishing literature written originally in Spanish, there was no outlet for Latter-day Saint authors to make their Spanish-language work known. By publishing our newsletter we have attempted to create a space for old and new talent alike, a space where topics of interest to our readers may be explored.
Whichever way you look at it, last year seems to have been a turning point when it comes to Spanish-language Mormon literature. […] If 2018 left anything behind, it was the impression that Mormon literature has a bright future in the language of Cervantes. Guided by such hopes, we push ahead.
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