“Parenting in the Negative,” an essay by Will Stockton.

Deficits in the adoption of an older child.

“Passing Through,” an essay by Lise Funderburg.

Identity among the thrift-store racks.

“The Art of Living with the Unacceptable,” an essay by Miranda Perrone.

The ballast of civil…

“Film School Follies,” a memoir by Michael Hess.

Portrait of the author as a young auteur.

“Elegy for My Mother,” a poem by Ann Quinn.

Life, death, transfiguration.

“Kuan Yin,” a memoir by Judy Anne Wilson.

On coming out as a lesbian in the first years of the AIDS crisis.

”I imagined his losses as paving stones, each appearing one after the other…

“At Death’s Door,” an essay by Margie Patlak.

Looking back and clinging to life.

“I Got Grown,” a memoir by Joe Milan, Jr.

A young man starts his working life where others’ lives end.

“Panthera leo leo; or, a Civics Lesson.” An essay by Alison Powell.

On Aristotle’s animals and the…

“Assisted Hatching,” an essay by Christine Caulfield.

The complicated quest to conceive.

“To be barren was like having leprosy …”