The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
My Life in Sea Creatures

My Life in Sea Creatures

A young queer science writer’s reflections on identity and the ocean

Summary

Join science journalist Sabrina Imbler on an astonishing journey which will completely redefine the way you think about nature and the ocean

'An astonishing debut' GUARDIAN
'
Reveals just as much about our fascinating, mysterious world as it does about our fascinating, mysterious selves' NEW YORK TIMES

In My Life in Sea Creatures we encounter: the mother octopus, starving herself while watching over her eggs; the yeti crab, thriving in crushing pressure and oppressive darkness; the cuttlefish, able to change its appearance in a fraction of a second; and many other creatures lurking in the depths of the ocean.

Imbler's work weaves the wonders of marine biology with their own identity as a queer, non-binary mixed-race writer. They implicitly connect endangered sea life to marginalised human communities and shatter our preconceptions about the sea and what it means to survive.

'A miraculous, transcendental book' ED YONG
'
Profound, surprising and thrillingly strange. I love it' SY MONTGOMERY
'Astounding' PHILIP HOARE
'A revelation' ISABELLA TREE

***LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER***

Reviews

  • I loved this. A double helix of queer memoir and marine biology that twists together beautifully
    MARK HADDON

About the author

Sabrina Imbler

Sabrina Imbler is a writer and science journalist living in Brooklyn. Their chapbook Dyke (geology), was published by Black Lawrence Press, and was selected for the National Book Foundation Science + Literature Program. They are a staff writer for Defector, a worker-owned site, where they cover creatures and the natural world. Their essays and reporting have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Catapult and Sierra, among other publications.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more