BYU professor gains international recognition for 'A Short Stay in Hell' novella

Author, researcher and Brigham Young University professor; Steven Peck is a man of many interests.

Peck has taught at BYU for more than two decades, working with tsetse flies in Africa, teaching in the BYU honors department and researching as a biology professor.

Peck also happens to be one of the most important Latter-day Saint authors of his time.

He has written over a dozen literary works, dabbling in poetry, nonfiction, and books of various lengths and subjects.

His works range from serious scientific papers grappling with evolution and theology to stories featuring two-headed cowboys and Zoroastrian demons.

One story, however, stands out from the rest.

Pecks novella A Short Stay in Hell has exploded in popularity, garnering international attention.

The book details the afterlife of Soren, a Latter-day Saint who discovers that Zoroastrianism was the correct religion all along.

After a meeting with a demon, Soren is thrust into hell.

His punishment: Finding a book that tells his life story in a library. Sounds easy enough, right?

However, there's a catch: The library is filled with a near-infinite quantity of books, with the overwhelming majority being filled with gibberish.

To escape hell, he must find his book.

Pecks exploration of the human perception of infinity in A Short Stay in Hell takes a page out of Jorge Luis Borges short story The Library of Babel.

Peck says the story is more than a homage it is a direct influence.

It is an exploration of what infinity means, because it becomes very apparent that it's a lot longer than we figure, Peck said.

The novella was recently published by Vintage Classics at Penguin Random House, UK.

According to Penguin Random House, Vintage Classics is home to some of the greatest writers and thinkers from around the world and across the ages.

The Vintage Classics collection represents Penguin Random Houses canon, or what they believe may be relevant for decades to come.

To his knowledge, Peck is the only Latter-day Saint to join the canon.

I'm the first Latter-day Saint to ever be asked to be in the vintage collection, Peck said. A Short Stay in Hell will be, in their eyes, something that people will be reading for the next 100 years.

The existential novella has cemented his place among contemporaries and critics alike.

Though A Short Stay in Hell was first published more than a decade ago, the surge in popularity can be largely attributed to word of mouth and the internet, garnering attention from TikTok, Reddit and Goodreads.

The novella has 33,000 5-star reviews on Goodreads, placing it among the most popular books of its kind.

As it blew up, I was just really surprised, to be honest, Peck said.

Dainan Skeem is the special collections department chair at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU.

Skeem also oversees 21st-century manuscripts and helped the library acquire various journals and materials straight from Peck.

The materials, Skeem said, offer important insight into the mind of a writer.

Journals and diaries are a gold mine in understanding the creative process of authors, Skeem said. The impact hes had in Latter-day Saint circles is undeniable.

Despite his now-decorated writing career, Peck was not always critically acclaimed by his peers.

Once in seventh grade, Peck was being ruthlessly bullied by a classmate. When the class was given a creative writing assignment, Peck jumped at the opportunity.

After writing a poem about a weasel for the assignment, Peck was confronted by his bully.

He grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall. He said, Peck, that's the greatest thing you've ever done, Peck said. And so I had this feeling that writing was something that I loved. It came natural to me.

After middle school, Peck continued writing, taking creative writing classes and joining writing groups in college and graduate school.

I've always paid the dues. I've worked really hard to be a good writer, Peck said.

Pecks hard work has won him awards, too.

Peck has won the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) Lifetime Achievement Award, the AML Novel Award twice and was a semi-finalist for the Big Moose Prize.

Michael Austin specializes in Latter-day Saint literature. Having received the AML Lifetime Achievement Award himself, he is a key figure in Latter-day Saint literary circles.

I think he's one of our most important Mormon writers right now, and I'm really happy that his work is getting this international recognition, Austin said. It definitely deserves it.

Peck is still writing and researching, currently on fellowship with BYUs Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.

Right now, hes working on research reconciling science with religion, a topic of interest for Peck.

I'm especially trying to unify evolution and our faith, he said.

More information about Pecks books, including A Short Stay in Hell, can be accessed here.