Full Description
An urgent exploration of caring and mothering on a planet in crisis
In a swell of sea-linked essays, Christina Rivera explores the kinship between marine animals, humans, and Earth' s blue womb. Rivera's investigative questions begin with the toxic burden of her body and spiral out - to a grieving orca, a hunted manta ray, a pregnant sea turtle, a spawning salmon, an 'endling' porpoise, and the 'mother culture' of sperm whales - as she redefines what it means to mother and defend a collective future.
Braiding memoir with embodied climate science, Rivera challenges that it's not anthropomorphism to feel deep connection to nonhuman species and proposes that gathering in collective grief is essential amid the sixth mass extinction. For ecofeminists, fans of Rachel Carson and Terry Tempest Williams - and for anyone who feels themself disintegrate in the presence of the sea - My Oceans offers a timely and wondrous descent into the deep waters of interconnection in which we swim.
Contents
Author's Note
Act I: Submersion
Blood Moon
Two Breaths
Oncoming
The Smooth Sides of Darkness
Red Talisman
The Seventeenth Day
The Endling
Act II: Migrations
Four Circles
The Silence of Thunder
Anatomy of a Seagull
Phantom Braking
Hidden Geographies
Screening Form
Empty the Tanks
My Oceans
Obituary
Act III: Fathoms
Quieseeds
Baby Jesus the Girl
Resuscitation
How to Host a Pod of Women in Water
The Shift
Good Grief
Fog Rescue
Book Club Questions
Thank You
Works Consulted and For Further Reading
Notes and Bibliography
