Welcome to Maxwell Institute Conversations, special video cast episodes of the Maxwell Institute podcast,

hosted by Terrell Givens and created in collaboration with Faith Matters Foundation.

You can watch this episode in your podcast app, or if you're on the run, listen to the audio version.

In the beginning, God said let there be light, and there was light. God created this

extraordinary world the scriptures tell us through the power of His Word. It makes all the more

sense then that a professor of comparative arts and letters like George Handley would spend

so much time thinking about and enjoying creation George Handley would spend so much time thinking

about and enjoying creation. Handley is the associate dean in Brigham Young University's College

of Humanities, and he's also the author of several books, including Home Waters and the brand

new novel, American Fork. In this conversation, George Handley speaks with Terrell Givens about

connecting with the divine through nature,

about being a good steward of the earth, about the tragic death of his brother in the history of a

river. He's consecrated his life and talents to discovering and sharing what is good and beautiful.

We do actually have a mandate in our scriptures that tells us to care for life. These are ideas

that can get mocked and turned into cartoons,

but they're deeply, deeply sacred and important principles in Mormonism.

It's Terrell Givens speaking with George Handley on this episode

of Maxwell Institute Conversations, literary studies. And happy to have you with us today, George.

Oh, thanks, Terrell. I'm honored.

Okay, so today we're going to talk a little bit about your life as a disciple.

I want to talk a little bit about your fiction, your newest book, which hasn't quite been released yet,

which is American Fork, which is a work of real beauty in power.

...