Canonical Short Stories. Answered. Sorta.

In a previous post, which I mischievously titled “Canonical Short Stories?,” I inquired as to whether there might be a set of short stories we could consider somehow essential to Mormon letters. I was purposely vague in my formulation of the question. I only posited that they should be short stories instead of collections and left further criteria to the readers. Of course, the answer to such a subjective question depends on the criteria that are applied when answering. For that reason, I did not want to restrict the possibilities by saying things like: the author must be dead or only fiction about LDS themes can be considered. Some readers picked up on this vagueness, with Chris McClelland posing questions such as “Does YA count? Does genre fiction?” I would answer that because this thing we call Mormon literature exists in just about every genre imaginable, and is arguably more abundant in genre, one would expect the essential short stories to include some science fiction, fantasy, mystery, etc.

Once suggestions began to be put forward, they exhibited a slight slant toward older, established works, what Kent Larsen called a “recency bias.” One is to expect such a bias because canonical works tend to be, like the classics, animal-pawed furniture. Even so, except for Josephine Spencer, nothing from the 19th century was suggested. Part of that is, of course, that Mormon Literature came of age during the 20th century. Nonetheless, I was surprised no one suggested, say, Parley P. Pratt’s “The Angel of the Priaries” or Nephi Anderson’s “Lester Amsden’s Love.” These works can be considered essential, if nothing else, due to their status as representative works of previous eras. But, again, it depends on the criteria applied.

At any rate, I’m going to list the authors and stories that were suggested, as best as I could follow the conversation. (Some of it took place on this blog but some of it was on Twitter, where one is liable to miss threads or responses, so apologies to those who made suggestions I missed.) A lot of the authors one would expect to show up are accounted for. It seems like Josephine Spencer, Virginia Sorensen, Levi Peterson, Neal Chandler, Orson Scott Card, William Morris, and Steven Peck have written several stories that resonate with readers. I was surprised to see that no specific works from either Margaret Blair Young or from James Goldberg were suggested. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought for sure their stuff would be on there. For my money, Young’s “Dirge for Rosaidalva Aju” and Goldberg’s “The Maulana Azad Memorial Lamppost of Panipatnam” are both enriching stories that ought to be considered.

Anyway, here’s what readers suggested we might include in a canonical list of Mormon short stories, in no particular order:

9 thoughts

  1. .

    I can’t believe I forgot “Clothing Esther.” I’m glad someone else mentioned it.

    I did think about Margaret Blair Young but I passed on mentioning a title because . . . how do you choose? But “Zoo Sounds”, “God on Donahue” and “Outsiders” all are tempting.

    Question: Isn’t The Senator from Utah a novel? Did it start life as a short story?

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  2. Thanks for refering to my comments about YA and genre fiction; I would think that since so much of Mormon fiction fits the rubric of YA, it would only be natural that it would be included, as would genre fiction. But I propose, for our purposes, broadening our definitions, not narrowing them. First, short stories, even novellas, are fine, but next comes the question of organization. I have as a recent convert yet read very little LDS short fiction, besides that of John Bennion, and have gotten my appetite sharpened by the list above. My question, can we agree on 15 or 20 short pieces of contemporary fiction to include in an anthology, then approach an LDS publisher(s) with this idea? This idea is at least partly for the selfish reason of wanting all the best LDS short fiction in one volume. Then, for future anthologies, include other stories from different time periods since 1830?

    In the broadening category mentioned above, both YA LDS and genre LDS fiction do not have much overlap with short fiction. Most of these works: ENDER’S GAME, the Riordian series, Jennifer Hale, etc., are book length and usually novels. What are the most outstanding novels with LDS themes? A list like this would be helpful too.

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    1. Chris, a lot of these stories have been anthologized before, and many are available online. I’ve added links to all the ones I could find, but I’m sure other readers can provide other links too.

      I have had the idea of translating a number of these stories (I have my own list, which overlaps somewhat) into Spanish in one volume, but it’s a bit of a tricky endeavor. Some day, perhaps, when I can get the stars to align. 😉

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      1. Although my Spanish is intermediate at best, I wouldn’t mind lending a hand provided I don’t have to do the heavy lifting, if it fits in with my schedule. What stories would you include in this Spanish language anthology?

      2. Chris, in my estimation, if you have the skill set to translate literature, the biggest hurdle to a Spanish collection is finding the time. First the translator has to secure the rights of translation, and that can be time consuming, especially for something with many different copyright holders. Then there’s the actual translating. For example, it depends a bit on the complexity of the text and the translator’s familiarity with the subject matter, but a professional translator could be expected to produce 350 words in an hour. Take a story like “The Senator from Utah,” which apparently has 7,500 words. It’s reasonable to expect the translation to take about 20 hours of work. Then there’s the editing of the translation, which can also be time consuming. (Experienced translators translate fast and edit slowly.) So, of course, if there’s no hurry and this is a weekend project, it would probably take several years to complete. The other option, of course, is to pay a professional to do it. The rate for literary translation in the Spanish/English pairing seems to run around 10-12 cents per word in the source text. A story like “The Senator from Utah” might cost 800-900 USD to translate. Thus, translating a collection would run a few thousand dollars. So, for me at least, the problem is I don’t have the time. (If I was paid to do it, I could take a couple of months in the Summer to do it, for example, but that’s unlikely to happen.)

  4. Gabriel, thanks for clearing up what is involved in translating. I have had a little Spanish to English experience when I translated a Guests’ Guide to Services for a Mexican hotel outside of Merida, but that was basically a pamphlet. I’ve enjoyed doing translating work as an amateur in Spanish, Italian, and German. So I could lend a hand, but unless we could find a way to get you paid for a professional job, I am not up to the task on my own. I could assist, not take the lead. I like the idea, though, and there certainly is a large LDS Spanish language readership out there.

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