The Stars That Fell infuses poetry with a new meaning for modern Nevada and the American West. Using autobiographical details and testimony mixed with Nevada history and folklore, this poetry collection focuses on and includes the scars left by the mining industry, the military complex, and the treatment of Indigenous peoples to tell the story of the complex relationship between the people and the land.

Through his poems, Gary Short illuminates the humanity of the people of Nevada and the American West, specifically the rural communities that often get left out of the narrative. Focusing on family and the relationships between characters, he extends feelings of hope, solace, forgiveness, and even wisdom throughout this collection.

Gary Short is the author of three volumes of poetry and three chapbooks. His second book, Flying Over Sonny Liston, received the Western States Book Award. He has taught at a number of universities, including Old Dominion University, University of California, Davis, and the University of Mississippi, where he served as director of the MFA program. Among his honors are a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, a Pushcart Prize, a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and several residencies at MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Arts. He lives in Panajachel, Guatemala.