PROVO, Utah (October 5, 2018)—Author and professor Steven Peck of the BYU Biology department was the main event at this week’s BYU English Reading Series lecture. Peck brought an uncommon background to the Humanities event, as his degrees are in statistics and biology, with an emphasis on ecology and evolution. But despite his scientific education, Peck has become a prolific writer in his own right. The professor has written dozens of scientific articles, poems, short stories, and novels, but for this lecture he read from some of his most famous works: Gilda Trillim: Shepherdess of Rats, and Tales From Pleasant Grove.
Having written such a robust and diverse body of work, Peck told the audience, “At this point, in some ways I feel more at home here in the Humanities Department.” Due to the marginal representation for scientists in the field of creative writing, Peck offered insight into balancing his day job as a scientist and his night job as a writer. He said, “As a scientist I ask questions that lend themselves to writing. Where does novelty come from? How do new things come into the universe?” He then went on to implore listeners to take chances in their writing and have faith that things will work out in the end: “Do what your heart is telling you to do in your writing.”
As a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Peck maintains a particularly unique position between the worlds of science and literature, where each can often become quite secular. After the readings, audience members were invited to ask questions, and students were eager to hear the nuanced positions that Peck takes on God, science, and creative writing. Many of the questions revolved around how to integrate faith with imagination, while not crossing the boundary into false doctrine. Peck responded with a smile and assured the audience, “God is creative. Our heavenly parents love creativity. They’re not afraid of you exploring the very edges of that!”
One of the final questions from the audience was in regard to the dichotomy of humor and horror found in Peck’s cult classic novel, A Short Stay in Hell—a novel for which movie rights have just been optioned. Once again employing his humor, Peck concluded, “Humor is my escape valve. And humor and horror are sides of the same coin, I think, so that makes it easy.”
Zander Smith (Chemistry and English ’20)