Most book publishers may be on the coasts, but the fantasy writing pipeline of the future runs through Utah.
From Brandon Sanderson to Orson Scott Card, the Beehive State has been the home of some of the top fantasy writers for a while now. But they’re not the only ones building up a blossoming fantasy writing and publishing scene in the state.
It isn’t a secret that Utahns love to read fantasy books and watch fantasy movies. In 2023, the Cultural Currents Institute analyzed Google Trends data for the previous year and found that people in Utah searched for Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Twilight more than any other state.
The love for fantasy reading has translated into writing, giving birth to a generation of readers-turned-writers. Jessica Day George, born in Idaho but now living and working as a children’s fantasy writer in Utah, decided in fifth grade that she was going to be an author.
“Because that’s when I found out that ‘author’ was a job that they paid you money for,” she says, drawing inspiration from “The Hero and the Crown” author Robin McKinley. “When I discovered that book in fifth grade, … I kind of realized, ‘Oh my gosh, this was a job. She gets to make up stories about redheaded princesses who go out and slay dragons, and some people pay her money to just daydream, write it down.’”
Jennifer Nielsen, a New York Times bestselling author based in northern Utah, says Utah has a legacy of reading.
“Books teach imagination; Books teach to just envision different worlds,” Nielsen says. “If you speak to fantasy writers in particular, it’s very likely that they grew up reading ‘A Wrinkle in Time,’ reading Tolkien. In many cases of this rising generation, they’re reading authors who have been established here for 10, 15, 20 years and taking inspiration from them.”
We all need a community
The connection between a love for reading and a career as a writer is an easy one to make, but what makes Utah readers love these stories more than the average person? Depends on who you ask. For some, one of the lead explanations is a religious one.
“Growing up, we’re taught about prophecies, and we’re taught about mystical visitations, and we’re taught about people being healed, celestial beings that appear to people and immortality and things like that,” says Day George, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. “That’s what we grew up hearing, so there’s a big attraction for that type of story outside of the scriptures.”Day George doesn’t point to that as the only reason for Utah’s success in literary fantasy. After all, there are millions of members of the Church outside Utah, and millions of Utahns are not members.
Several authors say their connections with fellow Utah authors are a large reason the state keeps churning out writers. Day George says she’s part of an email chain with over 200 children’s book authors and illustrators from Utah that offers networking opportunities. Cameron Dayton, writer of the 2015 book “Etherwalker” and creative director for video games like Call of Duty World War II, mentions connecting with Sanderson and many others while at Brigham Young University.
It’s like the game “six degrees of Kevin Bacon,” Dayton says, referring to the game where people try and find the shortest path to connect an actor with Kevin Bacon based on common actors they’ve each worked with. The title of the game assumes you can connect any actor to Kevin Bacon within six connections.
“Everything in science fiction publishing is probably more like three to four degrees away. … It doesn’t take a lot of time on the phone to get to the source, and that’s what’s great,” Dayton says. “It’s geographically a large state, but the human connections are rich and very, very close at hand.”
A first-class economy paired with inspirational geography
Utah’s physical topography is one of the most tangible explanations for our literary development. “I think it would be very hard for any creative person to be in the mountains or exploring Moab or southern Utah and not feel inspired creatively,” Nielsen says.
Utah’s economy also can’t be ignored. Ranked by the U.S. News & World Report as having the top economy of any state in the United States, the opportunity of Utah helps authors in a couple of ways. One is that it draws business to the state in terms of publishers, which can help grow connections with authors.
Adam Sidwell is an author and the founder of Future House Publishing, an independent publisher of science fiction and fantasy books located in Pleasant Grove. He is a native Californian but went to BYU and started his business in Utah.
“I moved to Utah because this is a fantastic place for entrepreneurship and to start a business,” he says. “I came here as I was writing my own stories and started to have relationships with distributors and stores and retail outlets here in Utah, so it made sense to move.”
There’s also the fact that fantasy readership is on the rise across the country, something Day George thinks is a result of Covid and for which Sidwell points to advancing technology that allows fantasy to be brought to the mainstream on the big screen. Whatever it is, adult fantasy book sales increased 45.3 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to an NPD BookScan report.
Ultimately, it’s not just one thing creating a perfect storm for the success of fantasy writing and publishing in Utah. “This is a lot to unpack here,” Day George says. “There’s no magical thing.”