Steven L. Peck, author

Posted onAuthorCheryl Sampson

An evolutionary ecologist who teaches History and Philosophy of Science and Bioethics at Brigham Young University, Steven L. Peck is an accomplished author and a Mormon.  

According to Wikipedia, he received a bachelor’s degree from BYU in statistics and computer science with a minor in zoology.  His master’s degree was from UNC Chapel Hill in environmental biostatistics and his PhD was from North Carolina State University in biomathematics and entomology.  In 2008, he worked with the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria making models of tsetze fly ecology and population genetics.

His published works include “Evolving Faith:  Wanderings of a Mormon Biologist”, “A Short Stay in Hell”, and “The Scholar of Moab”.  The movie rights for “A Short Stay in Hell” have been acquired by independent film maker David Spaltro.  “The Scholar of Moab” won the 2011 Best Novel by the Association for Mormon letters and was a 2011 finalist for the Montaigne Medal Eric Hoffer Award.

 

When:  Friday, October 14th at 7:00 pm

Where:  Canyon Community Center, 126 Lion Blvd, Springdale

Admission:  FREE!

 

Evolving Faith

Believers and scientists have long wrestled over the relationship between science and faith. Steven L. Peck, an acclaimed Latter-day Saint author and scientist, demonstrates in this new book that both science and faith are indispensable tools we can use to navigate God’s strange and beautiful creation. Evolving Faith is a collection of technical, personal, sometimes whimsical essays about Mormon theology, evolution, human consciousness, the environment, sacred spaces, and more.

Scholar of Moab

“The Scholar of Moab is a hilarious, otherworldly, beautifully strange, and strangely familiar novel, like nothing I have ever read before.  In my fruitless search for an adequate comparison, I could only say it’s philosophy meets satire meets poetry meets cosmology meets absurdity.  For all of its indirectness and fantastical wit, it conveys a seriousness of tone about life in a small western town and about the strangeness of human existence with more humanity, humor, and wonder than most anything else in print.  It had no right to survive its outside ambition, but it does, wonderfully.  Read it and maybe you will know what I mean.”

George Handley – Author of Home Waters:  A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River

A Short Stay in Hell

An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he’ll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life.

In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.

Wandering Realities

“Wandering Realities is perfectly satisfying, a treat from beginning to end,” says Steven Evans. “It is alternatively touching and funny and poignant, with horrors and wonders. Steven Peck is a gift to Mormon literature, and any opportunity to read his stories is not to be missed.”

“This collection is one of the freshest, most engaging, and most entertaining contributions to Mormon literature that I’ve seen in a long while,” says Jonathan Langford. “Steve Peck is an alien. . . . That’s the only explanation I can come up with for how, in this set of 16 stories, he so consistently manages to provide such startlingly different, yet at the same time deeply insightful, perspectives on the culture and religion he has adopted for his own.”

 

Z-Arts is grateful to the Cliffrose Lodge for hosting Steven Peck’s accommodations.

 

Thank you to the Town of Springdale and the Canyon Community Center for supporting this event.

 

Literary arts in Zion Canyon is supported in part by Utah Arts and Museums, with funding from the State of Utah and the National Endowment for the Arts.