Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood

Biophysicist Osmundson (Virology) blends memoir and science writing in this moving meditation on queer family, the climate crisis, and 21st-century child-rearing. Balancing the scientific with the poetic, Osmundson documents the mating patterns of salmon, dives into age-old questions of nature vs. nurture, and quotes a range of literary sources from Carl Jung to Virginia Woolf to supplement the core narrative about his brush with parenthood. Osmundson remembers wanting children—wanting to be pregnant, in fact—since he was a young boy. As an adult in New York City, he was approached by a lesbian couple, both friends of his, who asked him to be a sperm donor and coparent to their child. The process sent Osmundson spiraling through standard contemporary parenting anxieties (the planet is dying; the cost of living is high) and nudged him toward more profound questions about passing one’s grief and anxiety onto their offspring and determining what makes a functional family when building one beyond the boundaries of a two-parent household. Though Osmundson’s story takes some heartbreaking turns, the mood is more inquisitive than melancholy: his reflections teem with the restless curiosity of someone who’s devoted their professional life to asking questions. The result is at once edifying and affecting. (May)