Linsey Miller

Madeline Dyer

Emily Victoria

Akemi Dawn Bowman

S. E. Anderson

RoAnna Sylver

Kat Yuen

Rosie Thor

K. Hart

Anju Imura

Monica Hossain

Lara Ameen

Jas Brown

S. J. Taylor

A disabled vigilante trying to save her kidnapped girlfriend, a little mermaid who loves her sisters more than suitors, a slayer whose virgin blood keeps attracting monsters and more, the works in Being Ace are anything but conventional. Whether in psychiatric hospitals, space ships, haunted cemeteries, or under the sea, no two aces are the same in 15 unique works that highlight asexual romance, aromantic love, and the many other sub-identities of the asexual spectrum umbrella. From a mixture of established and emerging YA writers, contributors include Rosiee Thor, Akemi Dawn Bowman, Linsey Miller, and Moniza Hossain.

Being Ace: An Anthology of Queer, Trans, Femme, and Disabled Stories of Asexual Love and Connection

Jasper

Seeing ourselves depicted in stories—be they films, television shows, or books like these—is one of the most powerful ways we come to understand ourselves. Depiction shows us we have a place in the world. It proves someone like us, someone with our experiences and thoughts and feelings, can live, dream, act, and occupy space. And it proves we can do those things as ourselves, without hiding, without denying our truths.

So asexuality is not just hard for men to imagine; it’s an identity in contradiction to how society conceives of “being a man.”

'Would it be okay if I never bring someone home to you?'

'Don’t speak of never, ah. That is too much time to ever be sure of anything.'

'What if there is no right person?' she protested. 'What if there is never a right person?'

"Asexual [and Aromantic] people can't feel love."

Then, filling a duffel of clothes, declared she’d rather sleep on someone else’s couch than stay under a roof with a woman who couldn’t love her back, and left their apartment to fill with her tears.

'It is the least I could do on your special day,' Sora replies. 

'I remember looking out the window and realizing how big the universe was. It made me feel so scared. But then I turned around and saw the plants growing, and I realized that life doesn’t have to be big to matter. It’s okay to find a small part of it that just makes you feel safe.'

When she smiles back and the recognition fills her eyes, I know there’s only one way to describe this.

'Yes, who will you choose?' the others echo.

Brindle stares into her champagne glass, wishing she were as small and light as one of the bubbles dancing about inside it.

'Fig is a perfectly respectable name for a magister, I’ll have you know.' I chose it because of you, they don’t say. Because fig is your favorite fruit, and I want to be your favorite person.

Being Ace: An Anthology of Queer, Trans, Femme, and Disabled Stories of Asexual Love and Connection quotes

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