The 13th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th August 2026.
It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.
After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.
If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!
Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com
The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.
ok so this is another long shot but a few years ago there was a twitter post (in japanese i think?) that had measurememts for how to make this book stand thing out of cardboard that you could use to double up books and use up more space on shelves
back then i made a bunch of these but by now i lost the pic and dont know how to find the original post anymore
if it comes down to it i can just take one apart and get the measurements from there but i would be very grateful if anyone happens to have the original post or something similar??
don't mind how long it's been since i made this post, anyway i realized that i don't even need to take one apart to get the measurements when i can literally just unfold it and refold it /FACEPALM
so anyway here is the diagram for anyone else who is interested!!
this requires pretty big carboard pieces, if you have a really big box or something you can make it from one piece, but if you don't, you can also just make each of the pieces individually and then tape them together
and then in the end you put it together like this!!
and then when you make a bunch you can put them all next to each other and stack your books like crazy
EVERYONE START GETTING MORE USE OUT OF YOUR SPACE NOW!!!!
LGBTQIA+ Literature Recommendations by WritingWithColor: 2025-26 Releases
Happy Pride!
I decided to do this post for Pride to help fellow creators. Finding an audience for our creations can prove difficult, especially when we are marginalized artists that don’t fit the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) mold. We creators need to look out for each other so we find an audience.
It is hard to find new titles by queer authors of Color. We can attribute this to the attacks on such authors thanks to certain conservative parties in power and legislative threats. It’s all the more reason why we have to protect these titles and make sure they come out into the world. And we are more than happy to hear your recommendations of which titles felt cathartic for the LGBTQ communities and individuals online.
If you are queer and scared of the present, please stay alive. We need you out there, living, feeling, and finding your true self and friends.
2026 Releases
Buy links:
You’ll Never Forget Me by Isha Raya
Shimmering Lake: Summer Camp Collection I by Laika Wallace
Journey to the Heartland (Second Edition) by Xiaolong Huang
On Sundays, She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield
The Forest Bleeds by Rachel Kitch
The Perfect Match by Adiba Jaigirdar
The Obake Code by Makana Yamamoto
The Case of Elmwood Ranch by Deanna Grey
Milk & Mocha Comics Collection: Our Little Moments by Melanie Sie (USA release)
The Covenant We Cut by tzipporah-creates AKA WWC Mod Sci (ongoing webcomic)
Honey Bee and Lemon Balm 1 by Jil Hashikura (USA release)
Perfect Princess By Bambi Nieves, illustrated by Alison Nieves
The Most Magnificent Me by Chitra Soundar, illustrated by Sophie Bass
I Don’t Wish You Well by Jumata Emill
Love, Gods and Sinners by Camille Chong
Lake Life by Tanya Boteju
Good Luck, Babe! by Erin Baldwin
Love Makes Mochi by Stefany Valentine
Adult Books
You’ll Never Forget Me by Isha Raya
I’ve been trying to study noir. It’s a gritty genre where people rarely get their justice, and cruel people escape the consequences of their actions. We see a 2020s take on Hollywood noir when rising star Dimple Kampoor in a fit of rage pushes her Asian-diaspora actress rival down a flight of stairs in her own house during a party. She didn’t mean to kill Irene, but she can’t admit she’s sorry when offered a great acting role that Irene had won. The rival’s family hires private investigators, believing the fall was no accident; disgraced P.I. Saffi returns to the US to help the investigators. Despite the two women engaging in a high-stakes battle of wits, they also demonstrate a mutual attraction. Saffi promises to deliver the proof when she’s a hundred percent certain after a botched investigation five years ago, but getting to that hundred percent is the rub. Dimple will do anything to keep her acting career, no matter how many bodies ensue.
The story establishes itself as LGBTQ noir in a racist Hollywood with double standards against women. No good person wins in this story, and we know that from the outset. It is fun to read though, and delivers on the noir promise. The “dead dove: do not eat” labels are very clear, however, and this time the dead dove has a red carpet.
Shimmering Lake: Summer Camp Collection I by Laika Wallace
Shapeshifters, vampires and werewolves are too absurd for some families, but not for the ones featured here. A bullied child with a narcissistic mother gets bitten by what looks like an injured wolf, and the decision empowers him, while another is determined to photograph what they call a frogcruncher. Pride parades show promises of friends banding together despite a few insensitive remarks, and vampires debating the power of LED versus the sun.
Be prepared that plenty of stories occupy these 530 pages. It’s a long time investment, but fun and going by fast.
Journey to the Heartland by Xiaolong Huang (Second Edition, originally published in 2023)
Content warning: This story covers grooming, parental abuse, and child sexual abuse.
Oy, what a hard story. And yet a necessary one, as a boy named Hanwei endures an abusive father who beats him for crimes like not brushing his teeth. Neighbors gossip about how Gaoming Zhu brings men home and how cute they are, embarrassing Hanwei and his mother Rulan. Rulan never loses her temper, but she also refuses to accept needless blame when Gaoming rails at her. Hanwei starts emulating her as a teenager, protecting his mother from Gaoming’s abuse. Gaoming then leaves when Hanwei is seventeen; a situation that should freak them both out becomes liberation.
A grown-up Hanwei explores his sexuality in California after a grad school program accepts him in Los Angeles. Though Rulan remains reticent, reminding Hanwei how his father hurt them all, she listens when he cites statistics of same-sex behavior and attends Pride with him. Settling in a new country brings its own woes, however; Rulan can’t speak English when she attends Hanwei’s doctoral graduation ceremony while wondering if he’s emulating his father, and immigration law along with systematic homophobia dog Hanwei’s partners. Bankers also screw up the US economy, adding only more woes.
On Sundays, She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield (reprint; first published in 2020)
A sinister and surreal Southern Gothic debut novel, about a woman who escapes into the uncanny woods of southern Georgia and must contend with ghosts, haints, and most dangerous of all, the truth about herself.
When Judith Rice fled her childhood home, she thought she’d severed her abusive mother’s hold on her. She didn’t have a plan or destination, just a desperate need to escape. Drawn to the forests of southern Georgia, Jude finds shelter in a house as haunted by its violent history as she is by her own. Jude embraces the eccentricities of the dilapidated house, soothing its ghosts and haints, honoring its blood-soaked land. And over the next thirteen years, she blossoms from her bitter beginnings into a wisewoman, a healer. But her hard-won peace is threatened when an enigmatic woman shows up on her doorstep. The woman is beautiful but unsettling, captivating but uncanny. Ensnared by her desire for this stranger, Jude is caught off guard by brutal urges suddenly simmering beneath her skin. As the woman stirs up memories of her escape years ago, Jude must confront the calls of violence rooted in her bloodline. Written by a Black lesbian author, with a Black lesbian lead.
The Forest Bleeds by Rachel Kitch (Oct 13)
A dark academia horror novel about a group of PhD scholars held hostage by a billionaire in his remote mansion in the Appalachian mountains, who must use their combined knowledge of bioengineering and occult spellcraft to save themselves. A very eerie, claustrophobic and grotesque horror thriller, great commentary against big-pharma and unethical research in biomedical research–it's just refreshing to see dark academia that is centred around STEM disciplines for once!
The horror fantasy elements are inspired by both Appalachian as well as South-East Asian folklore. It's also quite a visceral study of exploitation of racialized labor, and the marginalization of Asian-American women in academia. Saige Chambers, the protagonist, is a disabled bisexual woman of Thai descent, and her love interest is an Indian-American lesbian!
The Perfect Match by Adiba Jaigirdar
Dina is done. She's burnt out after years in corporate London and now is working in her family's struggling Bangladeshi restaurant. The last thing she expects is to be roped into coaching a football team of disadvantaged amateur players–or to say yes.
Maya is back. She could have had a brilliant career, but it all went wrong. Now she's back home, back in her childhood bedroom. Her only escape is agreeing to coach her old secondary school's team.
It doesn't take long for them to bump into each other again and for as long as anyone can remember, Dina and Maya were rivals. But will the very game that tore them apart bring them back together?
The adult debut of popular Bangladeshi-Irish YA author Adiba Jaigirdar (The Henna Wars, Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating), this is an enemies-to-lovers, angsty queer sports romance set in London, featuring Bengali bisexual and sapphic leads.
The Obake Code by Makana Yamamoto
An all-new, standalone sci-fi heist thriller about a bored hacker named Malia, who is forced by vicious gangsters to take down a crooked politician, only to find herself up against a code she might not be able to crack. This novel is part of a series of generally connected “lesbian heist” stories, each featuring an all-lesbian and trans cast, set in the Kepler space station–basically a futuristic Hawai'i. While I preferred the first novel in the series, Hammajang Luck, I also thought that the cyberpunk thriller plotline in this one was more interesting and impactful, using popular tropes like sentient AI systems and evil clones to criticize gentrification, unethical data surveillance and the many exploitative practices of big-tech companies. Malia is a Black lesbian, and Yamamoto is a Native Hawaiian and multiracial lesbian author.
The Case of Elmwood Ranch by Deanna Grey (Release date: July 15)
A Black bi4bi sapphic indie romance between a legacy paranormal investigator and a loner horse rancher, set on a haunted ranch.
Octavia doesn't believe in ghosts, but she can't deny something's wrong with the land she's sunk her entire savings into.
Rae Jones is in the business of ending nightmares. She comes from a long line of paranormal investigators. One of four, she's set herself apart from the Jones sisters by making their legacy into a commercial success. After years of enjoying said success, she's hit a wall. Whether it's burnout or a full-blown existential crisis, she doesn't know. One guaranteed way to avoid a downward spiral? Take every interesting job she can get. And that includes one from a very stand-offish, non-believing rancher who thinks she's a scam artist.
I read Grey's sapphic romance Outdrawn last year; it was the sweetest story, so I'm definitely excited for this.
Speaking of BIPOC sapphic romances:
Tanya Boteju also has a Christmas romcom coming up: Setting the Stage for Christmas (Oct 13, pretty rare to find a festive lesbian romance with non-white leads), and Zakiya N. Jamal has a Black sapphic sports romance coming up: Two Can Play That Game (Nov. 17).
Graphic Novels and Webcomics
Milk & Mocha Comics Collection: Our Little Moments by Melanie Sie
The title characters aren’t explicitly labeled as queer, given they are mascots for an international messaging service LINE. Milk and Mocha live together, however, ordering food and sharing their sleeping space. They enjoy the little moments together, from playing video games together to vibing. Love doesn’t mean being happy together all the time, but it can mean putting in the work to not let little conflicts become big ones. Also, these two are so CUTE.
The Covenant We Cut by tzipporah-creates
One of our WWC mods (Mod Sci) created this one! Content warning: This story covers mental illness and the parental abuse that results from it.
We see a queer Jewish adaptation of Tanakh (Sh'muel Aleph (Samuel I) 20:1-20:42). Caught between his lover David’s safety and his father King Shaul’s suspicion of David, Yonatan comes up with a plan to assess the danger. However, things quickly go awry at the New Moon banquet when his father finds out. You can tell how much Yonatan and David love each other and what Yonatan will risk to prevent losing him. The coloring adds to the tension while the two meet in secret.
The webcomic comes in two languages: an English translation from Everett Fox (more text) and the original Biblical Hebrew (less text).
Children’s Picture Books
Perfect Princess by Bambi Nieves, illustrated by Alison Nieves
I knew this story would be good when Princess Amina winces when giving knights hi-fives but being too polite to offer constructive feedback. Her childhood friend Keiran opposes how Amina has come out of the closet, expressing it with a spell that sends her far from home. Amina has to find her way back without her cosmetics, sword, or silverware. A blue rabbit agrees, joining her and a tiny dragon on the long walk home. Amina has to accept her lack of perfection when not having silverware for a snack or a sword to handle enchanted townspeople. Likewise, Keiran has to accept that his friend has become her real self and watch what his magic does.
The Most Magnificent Me by Chitra Soundar, illustrated by Sophie Bass
This book is more LGBTQ+ coded than LGBTQ, but it does the job with internal validation and positive affirmations. Plus, if you have a toddler with doting parents, they will love hearing how magnificent they are; I can verify this courtesy of a video call with some younger family members. Babies have big egos, and they need to sustain them as they grow older.
Manga
Honey Bee & Lemon Balm 1 by Jil Hashikura
I was on the fence about this manga because the situation seems contrived at first: a yakuza in a nighttime district gets a job at a flower shop following a stint in prison -- where he took the fall for some superiors -- and getting booted from his old gang. Kaoru Mitsuya tries to be tough but starts falling for the owner,
The manga went from standard romance to great writing when we meet Yuichiro’s siblings -- and one very clearly defies gender roles. You can see a family that cares about each other but doesn’t know how to communicate their concerns, with Yuichiro working 24/7 and refusing to take care of his health and his siblings forcing him to rest.
Young Adult Literature
I Don’t Wish You Well by Jumata Emill
True crime can hit or miss for me; in this case, the hit comes from a fair-play mystery. College student and amateur podcaster Pryce gets a lead on a seemingly closed case. Five football players were murdered, ostensibly by a gay classmate they drugged and assaulted. One witness, however, has stated for years that the ostensible serial killer had an alibi. Pryce thinks he can expand on the story after recording the witness’s story, especially when finding out other witnesses are still alive.
Love, Gods and Sinners by Camille Chong
Harper and Tia are roommates, and interns at the same tech company. They clash, they fight, they flirt. And, under cover of night, the two of them adopt secret identities and head out on missions across the city for their respective magical clans. Tia is the beautiful descendant of the Moon Goddess, and Harper is secretly Raven, the leader-in-waiting of the feared and villainous Foxes. When each is tasked by their clan to kill the other, a deceitful game of cat-and-mouse begins. And Harper and Tia will start to understand that the concepts of right and wrong can be just as complicated–and dangerous–as falling in love.
Set in an alternate futuristic world, where descendants of ancient magical clans don secret identities and battle on the streets of Singapore, this debut novel, the first in a planned duology, is a glittering, action-packed urban fantasy, with an enemies-to-lovers romance at its heart. Singaporean author, Asian lesbian and bisexual leads.
Lake Life by Tanya Boteju
A charming sapphic summer romance with environmental activism themes, about two teens who agree to fake-date when stuck together in a quirky, scenic lake town. Written by a Sri Lankan-Canadian author, and featuring an interracial sapphic romance.
Good Luck, Babe! by Erin Baldwin
Reality TV enthusiasts Noelle and Yumi spent a decade attached at the hip—until one ill-fated night (and one awkward kiss) ended their friendship. After a year of no contact, fate throws the girls back together when they’re offered a last-minute spot on their favorite race-around-the-world reality show.
It’s a chance to put their superfan status to the test, a dream come true. Except for a few snags: it’s an all-couples season, filming starts in two days, and Noelle hasn’t spoken to her “girlfriend” in a year. But she already has plans to use the prize money on her ailing father’s medical expenses, and she would do anything for him—including fake dating her ex-bestie on national television. This sapphic YA romcom is written by a Filipino-American author, and features Filipino sapphic leads.
Love Makes Mochi by Stefany Valentine
A cute sapphic YA romance between a goth fashion designer and a tattoo artist. Written by a Taiwanese-American author, featuring Asian-American and Japanese lesbian leads.
Lilyn Jeong is living her best life—in Tokyo! She gets to learn from the legendary yet notoriously terrifying tailor Mrs. Matsumoto. Getting a glowing recommendation from her could be Lilyn’s ticket into her dream fashion school.
So when the latter is tasked with designing an entire collection, panic sets in. She has only weeks to figure out how to mix her goth aesthetic with traditional Japanese style. Thankfully, Mrs. Matsumoto’s rebellious, tattooed, rainbow-haired daughter Yua offers to help. But going on cozy dates with this cute girl is way easier than sewing yukatas. Can Lilyn find a path forward in fashion and love? Or will she watch as everything falls apart at the seams?
Keep reading to see our recommended 2025 releases!
2025 Releases
Buy links:
Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen
Before You Go Extinct by Takashi Ushiroyato
Good Soil by Jeffrey Chu
Graphic Novels
Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen
Angelica has anxiety. Lots of it. So much that she’s burned out, and her mother allows her to work in a theater to recharge. Her childhood friend is also working at the theater, though neither of them can explain why they stopped being friends. They each blame the other, but the truth is more complicated.
Trung Le Nguyen’s The Magic Fish captures what it feels like to be queer in an immigrant family. Thankfully, Tien’s parents weren’t like mine about children still in the closet. Angelica and the Bear Prince adds burnout and generalized anxiety disorder to the mix. It understands how repairing mental health and ghosted bonds can be super difficult.
Manga
Before You Go Extinct by Takashi Ushiroyato
Another queer-coded story rather than obliquely rainbow, this one-volume manga with six chapters provides a melancholy existential seduction. A penguin couple attempts to deliver a mercy extinction to their flock, only to die and reincarnate into several endangered species runs the risk of Bury Your Gays. Pen and Merle, rather than suffering the typical fate of gender-ambiguous creatures fiddling with life, keep discovering new incarnations and approaches to death’s inevitability.
Entropy is scary. So is knowing when creatures like us are dropping like mosquitoes after an industrial spray. How we react to it, though, can be healing and help with that melancholy.
Nonfiction
Good Soil by Jeffrey Chu
If you had told me I would enjoy a memoir about a gay magazine editor finding solace at a Christian farming seminary, I would have looked at you funny. Jeffrey Chu, editor at Travel+Leisure, might agree; he had sustained a complicated spirituality due to being queer and Hong Kong diaspora. After some crises, however, Chu decides to attend the Farminary to figure out his spiritual side. The experience provides perspective on our relationship with nature and agriculture. For example, he thinks how we disparage worms, but worms revive the soil, and the ways in which we distance ourselves from killing the meat needed to feed a society. Killing chickens actually takes more effort than one may think, and it can bring tears to the people who raised them.
Chu is quite honest that his family has a mixed relationship with queerness and Christianity; missionaries converted his family decades ago, and his mother and father refused to attend his wedding. He also feels that exploring religion through the Farminary has improved his life, even with the ups and downs of co-op farm life.
Honorable Mentions; aka Handful of White Queer Authors Who Published Books 2025-26
Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition by Maia Kobabe (2026)
Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (2025)
Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell (2025)
Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition by Maia Kobabe (2026)
Maia Kobabe didn’t expect a firestorm when publishing a graphic novel about eir gender exploration. This very personal story shows Maia’s journey through an AFAB childhood and latent body dysmorphia. (I relate about the leg hair considering a penguin bit me to grab one of them at a local ecoadventure park.)
The annotated edition has notes from people in Maia’s life, from college professors to dear friends and fellow artists. Maia and Phoebe Kobabe, the latter doing the book’s coloring, also contribute. Each note feels so meaningful. Especially knowing how certain people really hate individuals not fitting into narrow gender molds, the contributions remind us we are not alone.
Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (2025)
Okay to be fair, we don’t know Chuck Tingle’s true identity, but it’s best to err on the side of caution. While I could list Fabulous Bodies, as I’m currently reading it, I still have a ways to go. Lucky Day is about a leading expert on chaos theory surviving the possibly unluckiest day for anyone on the planet shortly after coming out to her mother, and how Vera fares a few years later when asked to do more calculations about the cause. Vera wants nothing to do with a world that took everything but her life, but finding out why the Low-Probability Event happened might give her closure. It is grim and ominous, with biting humor puncturing the tension. Mind the body count and violence.
Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell (2025)
John Wiswell is the queer short fiction writer you need to follow online. With stories like “D.I.Y,” “Welcome to Heroism” and “Bad Doors,” you can’t turn your eyes away. Wearing the Lion is his second novel, the first being Someone You Can Build A Nest In, published in 2025. Hera takes offense when Zeus announces that his next affair baby will be the best hero of Ancient Greece; she’s further insulted when the baby is named for her, Heracles. The irony is that Heracles is a nice guy, calling Hera “auntie” when praying to her, and thanking her for the many monsters that she sends his way. He’s basically Disney’s Hercules, a nice guy whose world abruptly shatters when Hera’s machinations lead to his sons’ deaths. And like that farmer boy Hercules, Heracles finds himself doing the right thing and believing in his namesake, despite the evidence piling up. While not an obliquely queer story, Wearing the Lion focuses on found family and those othered as monsters. Also, it has a lion which acts like a housecat; what is there not to love?
It's 🏳️🌈Pride🏳️🌈 still. Want some quick new reads? Like free stories? Need some more trans guy fiction in your life?
You can get my three trans man led short stories over on Itchio!
Friend of the Damned, a gothic horror tale in a gaslamp fantasy world of eternal night. Written as a letter, Owen recalls the events at the Glint Hall Hotel to the one responsible for them all...
Honoria: A Runner Owen Short Story is set in the same world as Friend of the Damned. It's a murder mystery, with Owen's prince sending him to find the truth behind a housewife's mysterious death...
Lock the Last Door is Cthulhu Mythos noir. Lazarus Core, a 1930s PI, enters an abandoned house in search of a runaway. Instead he finds his crime lord rival, who demands he find the truth within the building's infected walls...
Each story has a different take on being trans, with Owen, having transitioned magically, being mostly accepted by his society, and Lazarus, who hasn't and can't transition, facing period typical struggles. Owen is gay. Lazarus is bi. They have romantic and sexual Tension with other men on page.
As of today (6/23/2026), USA-based bookshop.org is running their anti-Prime-Day sales until June 26th to compete with Bezos and Amazon while the latter runs the Amazon Prime Day sales (to fund that stupid ballroom.)
If you live in America and wish to buy books online the next few days, I recommend bookshop.org because they will be offering free shipping on all orders during their anti-Prime-Day sale and because their mission always is to donate portions of their proceeds to support local independent bookstores across the USA. You can even look up on their website to see if you can select specific bookstores for your proceeds to support! Also, check and see if that indie author you wanted to purchase a book from has their books listed on bookshop.org. You'd be surprised how many of them are on there!
So once again, if you were planning to buy books online sometime in the next few days and you want free shipping and you like to make sustainable purchases that give back to independent bookstores all over America (and you definitely don't want to give money to Amazon,) I recommend bookshop.org!
Reading comprehension questions I cannot believe I have to add...
1: did OP mention borrowing books from libraries in this post? Why do you think that is? Do you think it is appropriate to co-opt a post [about a sustainable option to buy books while supporting indie bookstores] by saying people should be using the library instead?
2: is there a reason why OP did not mention Thriftbooks.com in their post about Bookshop.org? Why do you think they did not bring up Thriftbooks as an equally sustainable purchasing option in this post about Bookshop.org's specific and intentional sale?
3: if you are not living in America, does this post indicate in some way that this website is USA-based and supports bookstores in the USA? Do you think OP is choosing to be exclusionary, or is this post meant to be informative?
seems like most books about aromanticism presume asexuality as well, so if anyone has any readings about aromanticism that either like... include aroallo stuff or are fully about aroallo stuff, i'd like to know about it!
i was gonna put this in the comments but heres probably nicer for visibility incase anyone wants to check it out/add on to stuff. after an incredibly breif google search ive found these
https://www.aromanticism.org
their reasources tab has a Lot of links to places talking about aromanticism, although not a lot book specific recommendations from what I could find, so if thats an issue maybe somewhere else would be a better start
Reddit - Dive into anything
reddit thread specifically asking for aromantic nonfiction, a lot of fiction recs in there as well but it looks like it has some good ones
I noticed there wasn't a thread detailing nonfic books about aromanticism so decided to make one. I finished re-reading Samantha Rendle's Ho
a few more here, it seems a decent amount of aro nonfiction is in ace-centric books, while I haven't read any myself, "The Invisible Orientation specifically has come up at least twice while ive been looking so likely it has some references at least
Finding good queer representation is hard, but more queer books are published every year, including some fabulous books about aromanticism.
another one. you may notice at this point. a lot of the same books are coming up over and over again. unfortunately this seems to be a trend with explicitly aromantic nonfiction
that's most of what I found, although if anyone knows of anything i missed/finds anything new Please add on with whatever you can I'd love to learn aboht any more that people can find!!
I found a canon (word used!) grayromantic aroallo character!
The book is called "Loving Lee" by Cozy Dubois.
The book is about Lee, an audio technician at a gay bar, falling in love with the new drag queen Carlita/Antonio. It also tells the stories of his found family members, struggling with love, work and other things. All main characters are in their 20s and 30s, and all of them are queer in some way. There's lots of bi/pan characters, as well as trans and intersex representation. It also features an alloace side character.
It's a very characters-driven story with multiple POVs. I especially enjoyed how the communication was done, and all of the characters felt very authentic to me.
The greyromantic character actually falls in love for the first time, and while the greyromanticism isn't a focal point of the story, I think it was nicely done. We get to see the character trying to handle all these new feelings and being a little overwhelmed by them.
I think it's the first in a series, but I haven't read the others yet.
Be warned, though, this book features a lot of romance and several graphic sex scenes. But if that doesn't bother you, I'd totally recommend this book! I've enjoyed it a lot. It feels a little like checking in with your friend group, and I absolutely love that.
Other than that, the novel deals with various mental health issues, past trauma, becoming sober from a drug addiction, and (extreme) homophobia/transphobia.
Goodreads page with more info
Below, I'll take more about the aromantic representation. I also have screenshots of the scene that is about the character's greyromantic identity. Spoilers ahead!
So, the greyromantic character is actually Antonio, one of the main characters and the love interest of the protagonist. He has a reputation as a fuckboy. When Lee falls in love with him, all of his friends warn Lee about Antonio. Little does anybody know that Antonio is falling for Lee just as hard.
He had already worked for the gay bar once a few years ago, and then moved to New York to chase his big dreams of becoming as successful drag queen. That didn't work out, though, and all he got was an addiction. At the beginning of the novel, he had just moved back to be closer to his family again, so he had a support system to help him stay sober. He also starts doing drag there again, and this is where he meets Lee.
In the following scene, he's talking to Jackie, his alloace coworker, who he has known for years. I found this scene very relatable. Not knowing what I crush feels like, and thinking the description sounds like anxiety, are common aro experiences, I'd say. And weirdly enough, I Jackie's answer makes me feel really aromantic, as I've definitely never experienced that.
And then, a little later, it is talked about why he uses the grayromantic label and how he feels about it (descriptions of his past drug addiction ahead):
I never had an addiction before, but I can understand Antonio's insecurities very well. It's just so hard to prove a negative, and trying to rule out other possible explanations for your feelings (or lack thereof) isn't any easier.
Overall, I think the representation was very nicely done. I think it might be the best arospec-who-feels-romantic-attraction representation I've ever seen.
The following previously featured books are still free and have aromantic characters:
@aroworlds has written many, many stories with aromantic protagonists. Most of hir characters are allo-aro, with a wide variety of sexual orientations. Hir website is here: https://aroworlds.com/fiction/
Unbury the Bones by Coyote J.M. Edwards - aromantic protagonist, sexuality not specified
Elite Hunter by Alexandra Gardener - aroace protagonist
Demon King's Gardener series by Rori Thornton - two aroace protagonists in an eventual romantic and sexual relationship
I'll be posting some free books with aromantic characters today to celebrate. However, since it's also Pride month and there's still a lot of limited-time free books, I'll also be posting some non-aromantic books that will no longer be free soon.
I'll tag today's aromantic books with #aromantic books, like usual. That's also a great tag to look through to find other books with aro characters!
We are beyond thrilled to share the cover art that artist Jinx Inks has done for our next anthology, Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales.
This all-new collection, fourth in our Queer Fanworks Inspired By… series, features 23 stories, 23 art pieces, and a 10-page comic, all inspired by folklore, fairy tales, myths, and legends with personal significance to the creator. Teasers, excerpts, and trims of the art pieces will be shared throughout our Kickstarter campaign. Check out the contributor list and read their biographies!
We’re also offering some awesome merchandise, all featuring art by the anthology contributors. We’ll be sharing reveals for these pieces over the next couple weeks as we lead up to our upcoming campaign launch.
Follow our pre-launch page on Kickstarter to be among the first to hear when our campaign goes live on July 8th 2026!
if you'd like to share, what is your favorite piece of queer literature of all time? no matter what genre, fiction or non fiction, whatever, just your subjective personal all time favorite. or a top three if you can't pick one? i love this blog so much, and you do such a wonderful job of giving a platform to such diverse queer perspectives. i've come to trust your taste and would love to hear what you personally really love. ♥️
Thank you so much for saying that! It means a lot to me to hear that. I was also able to immediately figure out my list as soon as I saw this question today, so I am excited to share! In no particular order:
The Bone People
Keri Hulme
This book really moved me in it's depictions of restorative justice, queer chosen family, asexual identity, and spirals are now a part of my own spiritual practice because of this book.
Beyond the Pale
Elana Dykewomon
The best queer historical fiction that I have ever read. It has an earthy and intense understanding of queer history that most books can't comprehend.
Dear Senthuran
Akwaeke Emezi
This book understood something about me that I still have yet to comprehend. Cannot sing its' praises enough.
Also I know no one asked, but as a bonus, my favourite non-queer book that I have ever read:
Right Story, Wrong Story
Tyson Yunkaporta
This book challenged my understandings of truth and storytelling. I would recommend it to anyone who prioritizes stories and storytelling in their own lives.
(I generally put any webcomic that's passed 250-300 pages into my usual comics reading wrapup, but these are in early days)
The Shepherd's Sword
butchxbutch werewolf comic! A retired swordswoman's rival stumbles back into her life, and convinces her to join her on her mission to the witches' guild. It's just getting into things, and I'm enjoying it a lot
The Nameless Prisoner
a deserter knight and mysterious prisoner get thrown together and have to survive in an underground gothic megastructure full of ghosts and curses (we haven't really gotten to that part yet tho).
Love this artists' previous comics, this is also only a few chapters in but so intriguing. I love their simple but expressive style and well-considered palette. I can't wait to see in which flavour of weird and unhinged and gay these guys are.
Fairydoll
mysterious magical goings on in the faery courts, with a knight-to-be and a malicious princess. annalise Gets fey, and has such beautiful expressive art and interesting and unique designs and is so prolific literally don't understand how you can make this much detailed art so often. This looks like it's gonna be fun and unhinged and self indulgent af (compliment). i love lesbians and women with body hair and Creatures. (I do desire typeset dialogue but i do respect the commitment)
Stories Emphasising Minorities @diversestories - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
