Loving Arrangements: Stories about Modern Living and Loving

Love songs and Hollywood romances make it all sound so simple: You find your soul mate, move in together, get married, never stray from the path of monogamy, and live happily ever after. But real life tends to be more complicated. Many couples pursue alternative living arrangements, and some even pursue alternative loving arrangements.

The twenty-nine personal essays in this collection offer a variety of perspectives and experiences with nontraditional relationships and forms of cohabitation. The contributors include married couples who live in separate cities and single people who find companionship through communes and cohousing. These essays also present varied outlooks on the practice and ethics of having multiple partners, with some embracing large polycules while others opt for "monogamish" relationships. Everyone has a different story to tell, from close friends living together to form a chosen family to couples navigating the shifting boundaries of their relationship as one partner begins a gender transition. With contributors across generations and representing the full ethnic and cultural diversity of the United States, Loving Arrangements demonstrates the myriad ways that we live and love today.

NAN BAUER-MAGLIN is professor emerita at the City University of New York. She has published nine collections (seven with coeditors) on topics such as stepfamilies, retirement, feminism, death, dying and choice, and older parenting. Her latest book is Gray Love: Stories About Dating and New Relationships After 60 (Rutgers University Press, 2023).

DANIEL E. HOOD is a retired professor of sociology. He taught at several New York metro-area schools for four decades. His latest books are Gray Love: Stories About Dating and New Relationships After 60 (Rutgers University Press, 2023) and Redemption and Recovery: Parallels of Religion and Science in Addiction Treatment (2012)