Homer Hickam

Homer Hickam grew up in West Virginia. When he was in high school, he and a large group of friends—dubbed the “Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA)—collaborated to design a series of amateur rockets. In 1960, their designs won the gold and silver medals from the National Science Fair. (These events form the plot of his memoir, Rocket Boys). Hickam then studied at Virginia Tech, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering. Following his time in college, Hickam served as a First Lieutenant in the Vietnam War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery. He then worked for NASA as an engineer, designing spacecraft for the Hubble Space Telescope. In 1989, he published his first book, Torpedo Junction, about the history of the American navy. The book was a best-seller, and enabled Hickam to write full-time. His most successful book was his second, Rocket Boys (1998), a memoir about his high school years with the BCMA. The memoir was an international bestseller, and within a year of its release it had been adapted as a film, October Sky, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. In the last 15 years, Hickam has been an energetic author and public speaker, authoring science fiction thrillers about outer space, additional memoirs about his adolescence in West Virginia, and adventure novels set during World War II. He resides in West Virginia.