The pages of Brandon Mull’s bestselling children’s fantasy series “Fablehaven” are bursting with imagery from the Beehive State, even though he’s never set a book here.
The charming trees and quaint neighborhood streets of Sugar House were the backdrop to Mull’s imagination as he dreamed up the series, first released 18 years ago. It follows Kendra and her brother, Seth, as they dive into Fablehaven, a refuge for magical creatures where they can avoid extinction.
One character, a huge milk cow named Viola, was inspired by a trip Mull took with his young children to Murray’s Wheeler Farm, where he saw a gigantic barn.
“Everything I’ve ever written,” Mull said, “has Utah influence.”
Utah has become something of a hub for fantasy authors. Mull is only one of many names in the genre to have called this place home. Others include the likes of Brandon Sanderson, Shannon Hale and Jessica Day George.
So, how did Utah become such a hot spot for the genre? Turns out, the state’s predominant faith and culture have played major roles.
University and faith-filled roots
Mull theorizes there are a few reasons Utah has become a cornucopia of fantasy writers, starting with a supportive community formed by the first wave of authors such as Orson Scott Card and Tracy Hickman.
Another factor, according to Mull, is the culture here, fueled largely by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members.
“Those people,” he said, “if they’re living their religion, they have to get kind of creative for fun.”
Mull, who is an active Latter-day Saint, said there are “certain things they don’t do that a lot of the people [do] that are kind of national pastimes for a lot of college kids … stuff like drinking, sex. ... If you’re having to get creative, maybe a certain chunk of those creatives go like, ‘Yeah, let’s just go to fantasy land.’”
Chris Crowe, an author and professor of creative writing at Brigham Young University, agrees with Mull about the influence of Latter-day Saints on the genre’s popularity.
“Fantasy is an opportunity,” he said. “There’s usually a clear right and wrong in epic fantasy, a villain and a good guy. ... That sense of morality can play out in a fantastic setting, where in a realistic fiction, maybe it would seem too trite or redeemed.”
(Kim Raff | The New York Times) Chris Crowe, who teaches a young adult literature class at Brigham Young University, at his office in Provo on July 20, 2023.
Fantasy writing roots at the church-owned university date back decades, Crowe said, when a professor named Marion “Doc” Smith came along. Since then, aspiring authors have flocked to the Provo school for its creative writing program.
Smith, who pushed back on assertions that fantasy had no place in academia, would end up teaching classes that focused on such writing, and launched an online journal that eventually would lead to a symposium on fantasy and science fiction writing.
Other BYU professors also had a sizable impact on many famous authors, Crowe said, like the late Rick Walton, who published dozens of children’s books and started a group in which aspiring writers and recently published authors could meet once a month.
Crowe said David Wolverton, more commonly known by his pen name David Farland, who taught a creative writing class at the school, was an influential mentor, too. Wolverton died in 2022 and the class was taken over by his mentee and popular fantasy author, Sanderson.
“He teaches a class, just one class a year,” Crowe said. “It’s winter semester, and it’s by application. It’s an unbelievably popular option. The class has a standing room only option where people can watch if they aren’t accepted.”
Sanderson also uploads his lectures to his YouTube account.
Crowe said BYU’s creative writing program is the fastest growing part of the English department’s major options.
Tricia Levenseller, author of the popular young adult romantasy series, “Daughter of the Pirate King,” took classes from Walton and Sanderson between 2010 and 2012.
“I love the way [the class] was structured,” she said, adding that after a lecture lasting up to 90 minutes, small groups would break off to critique one another’s writing. Sanderson, she said, would sit with a different group each week.
Levenseller was influenced by Sanderson’s thoughts on magic systems and said she was drawn to Utah because of the community. “I came here to be in the publishing world,” she said, “and then I stayed because I fell in love with the community here.”
Mull, Sanderson and Levenseller are taking part in this year’s FanX Salt Lake Pop Culture & Comic Convention, which begins Thursday.
The lore and origins of fantasy in Utah
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A first edition Book of Mormon at Moon's Rare Books in Provo on Tuesday, July 16, 2024.
Kyle Bishop, chair of the English department at Southern Utah University, specializes in studying pop culture and teaches fantasy-related classes.
“I’ve noticed,” Bishop said, “that fantasy fans, Utah creative writers and LDS kids are obsessed with world-building.”
It’s something he can attest to, as someone who grew up in Utah and describes himself as “really thickly immersed in fantasy.”
“When I was younger,” Bishop said, “it was ‘Lord of the Rings,’ Tolkien, some Dungeons and Dragons — stuff that was the consternation of parents everywhere.” These examples, among others, are the same types of narratives that area authors read growing up, and are producing now, Bishop explains.
There are similarities, he added, to the structure and narratives between the Book of Mormon, Latter-day Saints’ signature scripture, and some fantasy books.
“Faith and miracles operate in much the same way magic would in a more traditional fantasy narrative,” Bishop said. “It’s more prominent in the Book of Mormon than it is in the Bible.”
It all goes back, Bishop said, to the hero’s journey arc.
“How many fantasy narratives are based on a mysterious wizard-like prophetic figure, be it Moses, be it Lehi, be it Brigham Young, who rallies a group and sets them off on a perilous journey to achieve this kind of divine goal?” he said. “...These narratives are all “about persecuted people who are forced out of their land” and have to find a new homeland.
“Don’t those three narratives sound a lot like the ‘Lord of the Rings?’” he asked.
For Utah Latter-day Saints, Bishop said fantasy does provide patent escapism, but “it’s escapism that’s familiar” because the narratives of fantasy novels “already speak their language.”
‘It’s baked into us’
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Temple Square on Friday, May 10, 2024.
Jodi Milner, who spent 10 years writing the first book of her young adult fantasy series, “Shadow Barrier,” has had a “lifelong love of reading and fantasy” and said one of the experiences that shaped her childhood was the ability to “step into another set of shoes” through books.
“Anytime I wanted to kind of escape the normal world, because I was a really awkward kid, I could step into the shoes of these heroes and have this amazing experience and conquer evil,” she said. “… You go into a fantasy world and all of a sudden the problems that you’re having in your normal life just don’t seem as big anymore.”
Milner, who was raised in the Utah-based faith but left as an adult, also notes the similarities between Latter-day Saint scriptures and fantasy writing.
“When you’re raised in the church, you grow up with this magical worldview,” she said. “If you think about early church history, mid-1800s back, this idea was rampant.”
She lists such examples as seances, using divining rods to find water, treasure hunting and using magical items to locate lost treasure.
“A lot of this magical worldview still exists within LDS culture,” Milner said, “like all the stories that were told, were told with such fervor and reverence, but the stories themselves have so many magical elements to them.”
Milner said having a plethora of fantasy writers come out of Utah is a “natural genesis of this magical worldview that shaped the creation of the state itself.” And Latter-day Saint culture, she said, places an emphasis on sharing stories.
“People were like, ‘Huh? I wonder why Utah makes so many fantasy authors,” she said. “I’m like, ‘it’s baked into us.’”
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