Light left Indiana in 1991, moving to Seattle just as the grunge scene was taking hold. He fell upon hard times and soon found himself homeless. Slowly, he reestablished himself.

In 1995, he moved to New York City into a six-flight walk-up building in the East Village.

While attending the City College of New York for his MA in Creative Writing, he studied under Frederic Tuten and was award the Goodman Loan Fund Grant Award, the Danielle and Larry Nyman Family Project Award, and the Irwin and Alice Stark Short Fiction Prize for his writing.

He was a finalist for the 2002 James Jones First Novel Fellowship.

His first published short story, "Three Days. A Month. More." received a 2003 O. Henry Award and was selected for inclusion in the 2003 Best American Nonrequired Reading anthology, which was edited by Dave Eggers and Zadie Smith.

Light published his first novel, East Fifth Bliss, in the spring of 2007.