Samantha Paige Rosen

LIVING, TOGETHER

My debut anthology, Living, Together: Reimagining Community in the Age of Disconnection, will be published in July 2026.

“A town hall of real luminaries on a seriously under pondered subject, Living, Together is the book I did know I needed but haven’t yet seen anywhere. These essays are rigorous, funny, authentic, and informative; I came away feeling 10 percent more hopeful about how we will possibly live now and 10 percent less dead inside.”
— Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of Housemates

 

"It's time to rethink how we live. Tired of sending half your paycheck to a landlord? Juggling work & life while caring for an aging parent...or scared of aging alone yourself? Dreaming of living with your besties? We can do better. And this book sho
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Living, Together:
Reimagining Community in the Age of Disconnection

INDIE PRESS BESTSELLER!
“Best/Notable Book” by ELLE, Book Riot, Daily Kos, and Debutiful
“Most Anticipated” by Electric Literature, Debutiful, The Millions, and Autostraddle

21 writers and organizers on chosen family, hacking adulthood, and other lessons communal living can teach us about the future of housing in America.
Featuring Kristen Arnett, Rhaina Cohen, Kim Stanley Robinson, and more. Published by Beacon Press and available everywhere now.

At age 29, when Samantha Paige Rosen made an unexpected move back home, she was surprised to find how much she loved living with her parents again. Inspired and curious, she began searching for others who had redefined home and community.

The essays and Q&As in Living, Together are about carving out spaces of communal connection and joy in our 3-bed, 2-bath starter home culture. Although they recount life at different stages and in different regions, these stories showcase the delights and tradeoffs of more dynamic shapes of “home.” Across sections on family, intentional community, and what lies beyond housing, readers will hear from voices like:

  • Kristen Arnett, whose chosen family kept her afloat, from weddings to hurricane season and everything in between

  • Kim Stanley Robinson, who describes the magic of communities that are led by everyone

  • Sarah Thankam Mathews, who founded a pandemic mutual aid group and discovered, like so many of us, how essential connection and care are in times of crisis

  • Rodney M. Bordeaux, who explores how strength and unity are inextricably tied to life on First Nations reservations

Communal living isn’t just for cults or millennials with a pipe dream. Amidst the climate crisis, a hostile housing market, and the loneliness epidemic, Living, Together opens a window into how people in the US are thriving through collective care. This book invites us to imagine what new opportunities for connection exist when we push through the walls society has built for us.

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Additional Praise

"Taken together, these kaleidoscopic dispatches offer a hopeful vision for a more connected and socially supportive society.”
—Publishers Weekly 

"In a single word, Living, Together by Samantha Paige Rosen is hopeful. Each writer’s contribution—though sometimes harrowing, other times beckoning, and often joyous—asks readers to lead with empathy, yes, but also idealism. We can exist and love in any way we can dream up—we just have to expand the walls that confine us.”
—Chicago Review of Books

“Rosen’s anthology successfully demonstrates that communal life is not a fringe experiment but an essential social and emotional infrastructure that many people are already building in response to the shortcomings of contemporary housing, labor, and care systems."
—Los Angeles Review of Books 

“[An] inti­mate and gen­tle essay col­lec­tion about where, how, and with whom peo­ple choose to live. As much as it explores some of the prac­ti­cal­i­ties of hous­ing, it is, above all, a book about iden­ti­ty and aging. Who are we, who do we want to become, and how are our aspi­ra­tions con­nect­ed to the peo­ple who and places that ground us?”
—Jewish Book Council 

“Throughout the pages, acts of tenderness and generosity spring up like wildflowers—people caring for aging parents, others helping to raise children that aren’t their own. The resulting book is a rare read: one that’s unflinchingly honest about our current world (including the financial inequities and hardships that often drive people to live communally), but that will also leave you feeling hopeful for the future.” 
—Electric Literature

“Living, Together reminds us that we can reimagine and reshape the world and make it into something new… In our current world, where even town halls are sites of polarized conflict, this choir of voices harmonizing about building community deserves a warm welcome from readers.”
—High Country News 

“Thoughtful, funny, and full of life. Reading this gives me hope that we can all still connect in this crazy, fucked up world we’re living in.”
—Debutiful

“In an era when what we mean by home is constantly shifting—thanks to Covid, ongoing economic crises that make house ownership untenable, private catastrophes—Living, Together celebrates every queer expression of cohabitation.”
—D/Annie Liontas, author of Sex with a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery

"Living, Together sought out to disprove the notion that communal living is something only hippies and religious folks do and it succeeded wildly. This granular look at people's lives together helps us have a grand new vision of what's possible for society as a whole."
—Courtney E. Martin, author of The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream and the Substack newsletter Examined Family 

“A powerful, generous reframing of what it means to build a life—a reminder that connection, interdependence, and shared responsibility are not fringe experiments but ancient inherently human qualities that have the power to heal the world.”
—Sophie Lucido Johnson, author of Kin: The Future of Family

“If you desire a life that breaks from the well-worn path of marriage and kids and a big house in the burbs, that is less a reflection of society’s defaults and more of a work of art—one that reflects your creativity, desires, and grandest vision of what makes a good life—then you must read this book.”
—Dr. Marisa G. Franco, NYT bestselling author of Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends

“How perfect that this celebration of collaborative, collective life should be such a joint effort—a chorus of voices coming together to offer a generous, expansive vision of what modern life can look like for those willing to think outside the box.”
—Lilly Dancyger, author of First Love: Essays on Friendship

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“No need for a total commune vision; this book lifts up the joys of cohabiting with friends, family, and chosen family even if only for a short while. And, crucially, the stories teach us how to envision living together, navigate the reality, and depart with gratitude and grace.”
— Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual