How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures, Sabrina Imbler

A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor, inviting us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live.

A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor, inviting us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live.

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature, including:

• the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs,
  the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams,

• the bizarre, predatory Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena),

• the common goldfish that flourishes in the wild,

• and more.

Imbler discovers that some of the most radical models of family, community, and care can be found in the sea, from gelatinous chains that are both individual organisms and colonies of clones to deep-sea crabs that have no need for the sun, nourished instead by the chemicals and heat throbbing from the core of the Earth. Exploring themes of adaptation, survival, sexuality, and care, and weaving the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family, relationships, and coming of age, How Far the Light Reaches is a shimmering, otherworldly debut that attunes us to new visions of our world and its miracles.

Order the book here.

About the author

Sabrina Imbler is a writer and science journalist. Queer, mixed-race, and working in a largely white and male-dominated field, Sabrina has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Currently, Sabrina is a staff writer at Defector, an employee-owned sports and culture website, where they write about creatures. 

Previously, Sabrina worked as a reporting fellow on the science and health desk of The New York Times. They have received fellowships or scholarships from Tin House, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and Jack Jones Literary Arts. Their work has been supported by the Café Royal Cultural Foundation, and their essays and reportage have appeared in various publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Catapult, and Sierra.

You can follow Sabrina Imbler’s work here: 

Twitter: @aznfusion
GitHub: simbler.github.io/ 

With thanks to Synergy for their support.