Sifting Light from the Darkness

Sarah D. Oktay

Noble Fir Press, Sep 20, 2020 - Poetry - 32 pages

Sarah Oktay is the co-founder of Spoken Word Nantucket, a poetry venue that operated for 12 years on the island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts. She is a chemical oceanographer specializing in climate change research. The majority of her career has been based at field stations and marine labs where land and sea is preserved for science, education, and outreach. Her first book of poetry examines the interfaces between science and the sublime.

About the author

Sarah Oktay works for the John Muir Institute of the Environment's Natural Reserve System at the University of California Davis as a Reserve Director for Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve and as the Director of Strategic Engagement. She received her B.S. in Marine Science and a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from Texas A&M University - Galveston. From 2003-2016 she was the Executive Director of the University of Massachusetts-Boston Nantucket Field Station, a biological field station on Nantucket Island. Her research focuses on climate change, carbon transport, and harbor processes. After 9-11, she mapped the chemical signature of the World Trade Center ash and tracked it in the Hudson River. She currently is the President of the Society of Women Geographers. Her nine years of service on the Nantucket Conservation Commission has been featured in Vanity Fair, Yankee Magazine, Cape Cod Times, ABC.com, CNN, the movie "Rising Tides", and many other news outlets. She also was a science adviser for actor Mark Ruffalo, advising on topics such as climate change, fracking, and water quality monitoring for the non-profits he founded. Along with her husband, the poet Len Germinara, she co-founded Spoken Word Nantucket, a performance poetry venue that operated for twelve years.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Sifting Light from the Darkness
• Author: Sarah D. Oktay
• Publisher: Noble Fir Press, 2020
• ISBN: 1734137819, 9781734137811
• Length: 32 pages
• Subjects: Poetry / Women Authors