What does love look like in adulthood? Sometimes many splendored, often mucho complicated.

“These essays sizzle with urgency, honesty, lust, and release. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a collection where all the essayists bare themselves with such profound vulnerability. Here we are reminded of our first crushes, our first mistakes, and our repeated attempts to navigate toward the best versions of ourselves. Jennifer Niesslein has created a far-ranging anthology that showcases talented essayists doing what we all do: grapple with the leaps we’ve made and the lengths we’ll go to outrun the falls.”

—Jill Talbot, the author of The Way We Weren’t: A Memoir

"Everyone has a story to tell, and when those individual stories are told well they transcend the particular. In Soul Mate 101, each story of love lost and love found, of sexual desire and spiritual connection, becomes universal. Here, desire evolves—or doesn’t—sometimes years after it begins as puppy love. These 21 outstanding writers explore love and sex in language whose rhythm ranges from sensuous to urgent. Soul Mate 101 is an advanced class in the longings of the human heart."

—Sue William Silverman, author, Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction