Ships of Hagoth – Page 35 – For Twenty-First Century Saints

welcome aboard

Ships of Hagoth is a digital-first literary magazine featuring creative nonfiction and theoretical essays by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Where other LDS-centric publications often look inward at the LDS tradition, we seek literary works that look outward through the curious, charitable lens of faith.

OUR BOOK IN A BOTTLE

Ships of Hagoth is pleased to announce its first book-length message in a bottle, AND ALL ETERNITY SHOOK, by
Jacob Bender, released April 2022.

About the Author

Jacob L. Bender is also the author of Modern Death in Irish and Latin American Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), a work similarly rooted in his Puerto Rican mission service and his mother's passing. In LDS studies, he has previously written for Dialogue, Sunstone, Peculiar Pages, Ships of Hagoth, the Eugene England Foundation, and The Association of Mormon Letters.

A young missionary comes home after two years in Puerto Rico only to find his mother on her deathbed.

Enraged, he wrestles with his God in passionate prayer as he pleads for her life; images and memories of his mission and his Mom jump, cut, and splice together in a cinematic crescendo, flashing furiously before his eyes as though he were the one dying and not her; all as he feels after some miracle, some impossibility, and the peace which surpasses understanding.

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A CALL FOR

SUB
MISS
IONS

We are hoping—for “one must needs hope”—for creative nonfiction, theoretical essays, and craft essays that seek radical new ways to explore and express theological ideas; that are, like Hagoth, “exceedingly curious.”

We favor creative nonfiction that can trace its lineage back to Michel de Montaigne. Whether narrative, analytical, or devotional, these essays lean ruminative, conversational, meandering, impressionistic, and are reluctant to wax didactic.

As for theoretical essays: we welcome work that playfully and charitably explores the wide world of arts & letters—especially works created from differing religious, non-religious, and even irreligious perspectives—through the peculiar lens of a Latter-day Saint.

We read and publish submissions as quickly as possible, and accept simultaneous submissions.

Star Trek, Zion, and the United Order

Rod N. Berry November 2, 2021

It is a fact universally acknowledged that Mormons love Star Wars; it is also a fact universally acknowledged that not nearly as many Mormons love

Music for a Sunday Morning, Part 7: Leonard Cohen’s “You Want It Darker” and Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” for Your Halloween

Jacob Bender October 31, 2021

Halloween falls on a Sunday this year, and hence it feels apropos to examine a pair of religious songs that fit in with the holiday’s

Halloween, by Robert Burns (Annotated Reading)

Hagoth October 26, 2021

Upon that night, when fairies[1] light On Cassilis Downans[2] dance[3] Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze[4], On sprightly coursers prance; Or for Colean the

On Missionaries Appropriating Films: Ghost

Eric Goulden Kimball October 26, 2021

I had a mission companion who was convinced that the Patrick Swayze film Ghost was written by members of the Church. His reasoning? Because when

Music for a Sunday Morning, Part 6: Taking Back Sunday’s “This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)” and Cat Stevens’ “Morning Has Broken”

Jacob Bender October 24, 2021

I was never a particularly big fan of ye olde Screamo-Emo during its mid-2000s hey-day (I was already in college at the time, so was

Excerpt: The Mexican Day of the Dead and Celtic Halloween on the Borderlands

Jacob Bender October 19, 2021

[Apropos of the October season, here is another selection from Modern Death in Irish and Latin American Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), available for order here

Music for a Sunday Morning, Part 5: Beck’s “Sunday Sun” and Nirvana’s “Lithium”

Jacob Bender October 17, 2021

Continuing our discussion from last week concerning the role of romance (or lack thereof) in those Sunday Morning moods, we now flip genders to consider

Orphans, by Beck (Annotated)

Jake Clayson October 12, 2021

Note: this is the first in a series of Annotated Readings, in which we reimagine and annotate diverse texts as if they were written from

Excerpt From Intro to Modern Death

Jacob Bender October 12, 2021

[The following is excerpted from the Introduction to Modern Death in Irish and Latin American Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). If you are a college librarian,

On Missionaries Appropriating Pop Songs

Eric Goulden Kimball October 12, 2021

It appears that every missionary gets the pop-song they deserve. When my Dad was serving in England in the early-’70s, every trunky elder he told

hagoth in a bottle

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