Why Are Fish So Gay?

In this Orion feature, Joseph Osmundson—author of the new book Spawning Season—rounds up writers Lars Horn, Sabrina Imbler, and Lulu Miller to chat about fish, queer life, and their books. Their conversation covers a range of subjects, from their collective kinship with deep-sea creatures to the porousness and fluidity of fish.

SI: When I started the book, I don’t think I realized that I found it far easier to find empathy and tenderness for animals like fish than I did with former versions of myself. It was only when I juxtaposed our stories that I saw how harshly I had judged myself, when I was just another organism trying to survive. In this light, I found it helpful to write about myself the way I would a fish, such as thinking about times when I’ve had to adapt, evolve, or escape, and to write about a fish the way I would write about another person, which meant treating them as an individual whose life story matters, not just as a member of a school or a swarm. Flipping these lenses helped me locate the scared animal in me and the grand life story of a creature like an octopus or a butterflyfish. I suppose fish helped me care for my past self in ways that had never felt possible before.