A Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Brigham Young University, George B. Handley's creative writing, literary criticism, and civic engagement focus on the intersection between religion, literature, and the environment. A literary scholar and ecocritic whose work is characterized by its comparative reach across the cultures and landscapes of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States, he is also known for creative writing that uniquely blends nature writing, theology, and family history. He is a leading advocate for and scholar of environmental stewardship within the Latter-day Saint tradition and a passionate believer in the public humanities. Handley's initial scholarly interests in literature of the Americas led to the publication of Postslavery Literatures of the Americas: Family … Read More about About George
Learning To Like Life: A Tribute to Lowell Bennion
Learning to Like Life renews the importance of the timeless values lived and taught by Doc Bennion. They continue to guide and shape the direction of the Birch Creek Service Ranch here in Spring City, where young men and women are taught the same values and lessons George learned from Lowell decades ago. This book is a tribute to Lowell, to George, and to the importance of the things that matter most.
—Steve and Kathy Peterson
American Fork
This is a riveting story, beautifully written and skillfully told. It engages the reader in a fresh exploration of enduring themes of family and culture, nature and religion. It will change your perspective as it did mine.
–Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River
In this fortunate pairing of place and poet, we learn about Utah’s Provo River—a paradox of wildness and extinction, pioneering and restoration. We learn that the river is embedded in community—Mormon community—a fact inseparable from the place. And we learn about the poet who attends to this river, a man who turns out to be an insightful scholar, an exuberant fly fisherman, a devout pilgrim, and an expansive guide as these home waters descend from the High Uintas through defining stories of family and identity, to pour down the Jordan River to the Great Salt Lake.
—Stephen Trimble, author of Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America
New World Poetics: Nature and the Adamic Imagination of Whitman, Neruda, and Walcott
“New World Poetics will be viewed as a foundational work because of its many, and remarkably perceptive, links among poetry, natural history, and political history. Handley’s scholarship is impressive throughout, as he explores both North American and Latin American conceptions of the New World and illuminates the origins, potential, and limitations of American Studies as a discipline. This exciting book left me especially eager to voyage further into the literature of South America for myself.
—John Elder, author of Reading the Mountains of Home
Postslavery Literatures in the Americas: Family Portraits in Black and White
George B. Handley’s book is a timely and a necessary addition to our tools for teaching American literatures in the new millennium. Each chapter of this fine study pairs books across language traditions and through related preoccupations, obsessions. One can hardly imagine reading them apart from one another now.
—Doris Sommer, author of The Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency and Public Humanities
Caribbean Literature and the Environment: Between Nature and Culture
Presenting a considerable range of island and mainland perspectives, … the topic of this new collection is urgent, absolutely necessary–and the execution of the project is first-rate, from the articulate, synthesizing introduction to the precise demonstrations offered in the collected articles.
—Scott Slovic, author of Going Away to Think: Engagement, Retreat, and Ecocritical Responsibility
Postcolonial Ecologies: Literatures of the Environment
Postcolonial Ecologies, with its outstanding roster of contributors, is a crucial intervention in the internationalisation of ecocriticism and the greening of postcolonialism. Framed by DeLoughrey and Handley’s well-informed and lucid introduction, this diverse and formidable collection clarifies the inseparability of environmental issues from neo-colonial relations.
—Greg Garrard, author of Ecocriticism
Stewardship and the Creation: LDS Perspectives on the Environment
The essays in this book inspire Latter-day Saints to consider carefully their stewardship in caring for God’s creations. It also encourages finding common ground with those of other persuasions. The book demonstrates that our religion offers a vital perspective on environmental stewardship that encompasses the best impulses of liberal generosity and conservative restraint. You can […]
Civic Engagement
Serving on non-profit boards and being politically engaged in my local community has been one of the most rewarding and stimulating experiences of my life. It has taught me a great deal more about the value of the humanities in the public sphere and … Read More about Civic Engagement
Recent Home Waters Posts
Literature and the Art of Friendship
I didn’t ever expect that in 2016 we would be struggling as a nation with the very idea of the universal brotherhood of God’s family. Of course, I expected that we would still have difficulty rising up to the standards such an idea implies, but we are seeing such naked and bald assertions of hatred of late and many of us understandably are recoiling in a state of shock. Let us not recoil. If we wish to stand for something, let us stand for kindness, decency, and the courage to model civil disagreement. Let us remember how good we have been and still can be. Let us celebrate those moments of light when the idea of the familial nature of all human relationships shines brightly. Read More about Literature and the Art of Friendship
The Sabbath Day and Earth Stewardship
The LDS Church has recently rolled out new training for members about the central importance of the importance of observance of the Sabbath Day and of the sacrament. My thoughts here are inspired by this training, which I find to be wonderfully focused on the fundamental covenant we make at baptism and which we renew each Sunday to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and to keep his commandments.
We are to keep the Sabbath Day holy, but it is also clear that setting this day apart is not an end but a means to an end. And what is that end? If we are living with integrity and Christian purpose throughout the week, the end result is that the entire week becomes holy. We become sanctified by our willingness to bear Christ’s name every day and this enables us to live in his light. But it is a good question to ask: what does it mean to make a day holy? Read More about The Sabbath Day and Earth Stewardship
Review: First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple by Samuel Brown
Sam Brown has written an important and beautiful book. Every Mormon serious about deepening their understanding of their most fundamental commitments should read it, and any Mormon who feels adrift in the institutional church will find resources sufficient to stoke the fires of faith anew. It is also a fantastic introduction to the fundamentals of the Mormon faith for anyone new to Mormonism. Read More about Review: First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple by Samuel Brown
Mormonism, Cosmology, and Environmental Stewardship
I just returned from a marvelous gathering at the Yale Divinity School where scholars and theologians met to discuss the story of the origins of the universe and of life on earth, as told by contemporary science, and its impact on and relevance to Christian belief. More specifically, it was a series of responses to the project called Journey of the Universe that includes a book, a documentary film, a DVD series of interviews, and a website. You can read more about the conference here. I have used both the book and the film in my “Humanities and the Environment” class and intend to continue to use it because it is remarkably accessible and because it tells the story of the origins of the universe and of life on earth in a way that is friendly to religious belief. I was asked to provide a Mormon response to the project, and I am summarizing my thoughts in this post. Read More about Mormonism, Cosmology, and Environmental Stewardship
Religion, Conservation, and Community
I have had a rare and unusual opportunity this week to spend a few days with leaders from The Nature Conservancy and from environmentally active religious communities representing many different faith traditions. The Nature Conservancy is an organization for which I have a great deal of respect and to which I am in debt since they helped support a faculty effort to enhance environmental education at BYU several years ago. I have written earlier about my experiences with them. Read More about Religion, Conservation, and Community