Arospec Poetry Network

(Seriously: thank you so very much for such a lovely comment!)

Actually, I don’t have (yet) a single list that’s accessible to folks, so let me compile a few links in the one easily-rebloggable post. Please note that I’m focusing here more on indie creators who have free content available, just so that financial situation need not interfere with one’s ability to find representation.

First up are the tags on this blog: original fiction, fanfiction and poetry. I’ve got a growing collection of aromantic-specific narrative pieces in all those tags, so if you’re wanting aro-spec writing, I’d jump in there. Lengths vary from “short Tumblr post” to “ongoing serial hosted on Wattpad” with various stops between. This is by no means all aro-spec narrative media, but I think it’s a good starting point!

Second is the aro-spec artist profiles: most of these are by aro-spec writers of original fiction and fanfiction, including links to their blogs and works. Plus you get to read about creative aro-specs talking aromantic identity and creativity, and who isn’t here for that?

Third are folks I’ll mention by name, aro-specs who I know are producing wonderful works that should be celebrated and signal-boosted, so please check out their blogs and works!

Original content creators include @afroenby​, @tallyrunning​, @fluffyllamacorn​ / @llamacorn-productions​, @crimsonsquare​, @aro-soulmate-project​, @luthyx​ / @sanctiontheskies​, @candypeel, @aro-ollie​ / @arotryinghisbest​, @lvbytes​, @arospecpoetrynet​ and @aroacelibrary​.

Fan content creators include @arotaro​ / @mutant-jojos​, @22degreehalo​, @crimsonsquare​, @aroacehogwarts​, @astriiformes​, @punxbarton​, @arofili​, @lvbytes​ and @willowenigma.

(Better-known aro-spec original fiction writers include Claudie Arseneault and Penny Stirling.)

Lastly, I’ve got both my fiction page and my list of last year’s fiction post. Not everything on the former page has aromantic protagonists (there’s stories from the dark days when I didn’t know I was aro!) but everything on the latter post does. For this reason, I do specify which works have aro-spec characters in the blurbs and/or descriptions.

I’ll finish by mentioning that there’s no such thing as “best”; it’s an arbitrary, subjective definition that doesn’t serve us. Every act of creativity has value; every piece will have a reader for which that work absolutely shakes their world. Every single piece. In a community as small as the aro-spec one, where we all know exactly what it means to grow up without exposure to works that specifically and intentionally include positive and explicit depictions of our identities, every scrap of representation is even more important and vital, and we’re here to celebrate all of it. Because it matters; it can’t not. And never have I seen anyone in this community disregard another aro-spec’s work as “not good enough”, and I think that this is something, as a community, that we can hold onto and cherish while supporting and encouraging the creatives that give us hope of even greater representation.

Now that the fourth issue of our zine is live, we need your help to pick a theme for the next one!

I want to feel alive and not scared.

I want to breathe.

I want to feel like my body isn’t a betrayal, like I can actually hold on to things.

I want to be selfish and survive it.

I want to stop checking whether I left the stove on.

I want to dance to the electro coming from my neighbours’ window.

I want not to be writing this poem.

I want the weight settled on my chest to disappear.

I want my relationships to be fixed, to be whole, I want to love my friends without condition or warning, to be inexhaustable.

I want to figure this shit out.

I want to leave.

I want to find a reason.

I want to give up.

I want to get better.

I want to know what better is.

I want to have something else to say.

And I want to survive this night, the drowning panic paranoia open window the insomnia the smell of gas the silence the sentiment of failure and my own expectations.

Wash away the blood,

Wash away the dark,

I want to have a voice of willow,

to rush through trees and parks

to go where the river flows

through thunder and sunlight,

from mountain to sea.

Please, Rain,

when the concept was tainted from the start

a man with charm who would hold himself high

but could lie to my mother while looking her in the eye

who took her, used her, and broke her heart

Before I begin I feel I should apologize

First For stripping you naked like this For leaving only blood of you Your most awful and beautiful Sticky & gross For showing you off in public Like acttle on a marketplace So tender & red

Second For all the times I took it out on you Made you sing with the pain of it It might make it worse but really It was never about you Or about how much pressure It takes for the skin to break (Not much, but more than you’d expect) You were a means to an end Never less important Than when I was touching you Oh so carefully Let us break bread It is time now And let’s pretend the ritual Isn’t tear-worthy “Have all of me until you are full I will not need it anyway”

It’s not true that I don’t love you Definitely true I need you But we aren’t good at saving each other We pick at scabs because they feel weird

A guy in a room says That to embody is better Than identity I reply Me & my body don’t talk I can’t keep my eyes open when I masturbate & when my nose bleeds I just wipe it off I can’t forgive you For trying to make me a god As if this body too small Was ever meant to be shared What’s the use of the ache When I come back to you As if leaving wasn’t What we both wanted? Dear body I am sorry But also