Books on Our Radar: Being Aro edited by Madeline Dyer and Rosiee Thor

It’s Aromantic Awareness Week so let’s talk about a book that deserves space on your shelf.

Being Aro is a YA anthology featuring twelve stories about aromantic characters across genres. Contemporary. Sci-fi. Fantasy. Apocalypse survival. One story includes banned romance novels turning into dragons, which why did it take us this long to get such a story?

What stands out here is the range. An aromantic spaceship pilot pushing back against a culture built on compulsory coupling. A teen who is immune to both romance and a zombie virus. A high school matchmaker learning that love does not look the same for everyone. These stories are not centered on waiting to fall in love, as has been so common in YA over the years. They are about autonomy. Community. Survival. Choice.

Aromantic characters so often get framed as cold, confused, unfinished, or secretly destined for romance anyway (if they just find that ONE person…sound familiar, queer community?). An anthology like this pushes back on that narrative by simply showing people living full lives without romance as the organizing principle. None of that spinster rhetoric.

The contributor list includes established and emerging YA voices, including Madeline Dyer and Rosiee Thor, alongside writers like Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Kalyn Josephson (hi, Bay Area friend), and Laura Pohl. This signals that aro stories are not niche, and they belong in the center of the genre conversation.

If you are aromantic, we hope this feels like recognition. If you are not, this is a good opportunity to widen your reading habits in a time when romance is being centered everywhere.

Aromantic stories are part of the ecosystem of queer literature…and this one is going to be a powerful addition. Preorder it now. Ask your library to order it. Add it to school lists. It’s out May 26th and you can read its companion, Being Ace, while you wait!

Being Aro: A Collection of Aromantic Fiction about Love, Connection, and Empowerment

by Madeline Dyer, Rosiee Thor, Ann Zhao
on May 26, 2026
Bookshop
Goodreads

Being Aro is a collection of short stories in genres like science fiction, fantasy, historical, and contemporary that shines a light on aromantic relationships and experiences, as well as the many other sub-identities under the aromantic umbrella.
From high-school matchmaking mishaps to battling book banning with dragons, this anthology is rich in imagination and diverse in its perspectives, showcasing aro characters that go on adventures, form friendships, and rise against the status quo.
Contributors include a mixture of established and emerging YA writers, such as Lammy Award-finalist Madeline Dyer, Lammy Award-nominated Rosiee Thor, USA Today bestselling Kemi Ashing-Giwa, and NYT bestselling authors Kalyn Josephson and Laura Pohl.