Banquet Talk: The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars

Christopher Cokinos will read from his book The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars, which blends folklore, history, science and memoir in an exploration--literal and metaphoric--of the passions that drive meteorite hunters. From Kansas to Greenland, from Utah to Antarctica, Cokinos crossed the globe to follow in the footsteps of such famed meteorite hunters and scientists as Robert Peary, Harvey Nininger and Eugene Shoemaker. Cokinos himself hunted meteorites as part of the NSF-funded Antarctic Search for Meteorites expedition in 2003-2004. Seed Magazine said this of his book: ``When Cokinos isn't chronicling the solar system's origins or recounting obsessive tales of explorers trekking to the ends of the Earth in pursuit of exotic rocks from the sky, he's telling the reader about the dissolution of his first marriage or his struggles with depression. But this unflinching introspection sets the stage for Cokinos' transformation, as he delves deeper into his subject and grasps the profound links between shooting stars and life here on Earth." Cokinos teaches at Utah State University, is the author of Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, also from Tarcher/Penguin, and has had work in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the American Scholar and elsewhere.