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Rebecca Coffey is an established, multi-award-winning science journalist and author whose illustrated book, Pelicans and the Science of Souls, will be published January 12.

Pelicans and the Science of Souls is an illustrated memoir that combines recollections, philosophy, science writing, humor, and visual storytelling into a tale of mysteries that followed the death of the author’s beloved partner. Science journalist and illustrator Rebecca Coffey began writing it after Plato scholar Gerald A. Press died unexpectedly. As weeks went by, she experienced a series of disconcerting events that made her feel that Press was actively communicating with her. Determined to understand what was happening, she examined the Platonic concepts of soul and afterlife that Press had devoted his career to exploring. Drawing on reporting from her years as a science journalist, she asked whether quantum theory and its puzzles about entanglement might offer fresh ways of thinking about why Press seemed to outlast his life. She wove these threads together with memories and illustrated the story with whimsical pelican drawings, many of which she had originally created as a gift for Press. In Pelicans and the Science of Souls, philosophy and science meet art and memory in a story that embraces wonder. More info.

Rebecca has written widely on science and culture for national publications and is the author of several books. Her work has appeared in outlets including Scientific American, Discover, Forbes, Salon, Psychology Today, The New York Daily News, Treehugger, Dame, JSTOR, and The Chicago Tribune. Because she often uses levity to simplify complicated topics, Kirkus Reviews once likened her to science journalist and humorist Mary Roach, author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. Rebecca is an experienced national radio guest and an engaging storyteller. As a journalist working in radio, video, and print, she has received multiple American Film & Video Festival Red Ribbon Awards, a CINE Golden Eagle, a Columbus International Film Festival Silver Plaque, a Choice Outstanding Academic Book recognition, and the American Library Association’s Over the Rainbow Book Award. She has presented at universities and professional conferences throughout the United States and abroad, including in Buenos Aires at the 50th Congress of Sigmund Freud’s own International Psychoanalytical Association, where the final line of her presentation about intimacy across species brought down the house. More info on Books, Science Magazines and Radio, Humor.