This image is the cover for the book Water and Light, Southwestern Writers Collection Series, Wittliff Collections at Texas State University

Water and Light, Southwestern Writers Collection Series, Wittliff Collections at Texas State University

The New York Times–bestselling author’s memoir of diving in the Caribbean offers “in precise, lucid, prose, the marvels of the sea bottom” (New Yorker).

Author Stephen Harrigan spent months diving on the coral reefs of Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean. In this evocative account, he describes his many explorations, both personal and natural. Though he is there to learn about the history of the coral reef, Harrigan freely admits that his true motivation is to become, at least for a time, his “underwater self.”

“Moving, intelligent and, in the best sense, literary. . . . Stephen Harrigan is anchored in reality; he knows that the environment he's describing is in serious jeopardy. At the same time, he has made this book sparkle with his remarkable ability to discuss the metaphysical and spiritual aspects of underwater exploration without ever sounding saccharine or murky.” —New York Times Book Review

Stephen Harrigan

Harrigan is a former senior editor of Texas Monthly magazine who now writes full-time from his home in Austin, Texas.

The University of Texas Press