Announcing My Ace Anthology!
I am beyond excited to announce my new book deal for Being Ace, an anthology that explores and celebrates identities within the asexual spectrum.
Image reads: “Tamara Grasty at Page Street has bought Being Ace, a YA anthology edited by Madeline Dyer, including short stories and poetry in multiple genres from contemporary to fantasy to science fiction that celebrate and explore the sub-identities of the asexual spectrum from a mixture of established and emerging YA writers. Contributors include Akemi Dawn Bowman, Lara Ameen, Rosiee Thor, Moniza Hossain, Linsey Miller, Ayida Shonibar, and Kat Yuen, among others. Publication is set for fall 2023; Erin Clyburn did the deal for world rights while at the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency.”
The full Publishers Weekly announcement can be found here.
This anthology is very much a project of my heart. I’ve wanted to put together something like this for a long, long time. When I was studying for the first year of my MA in Creative Writing at Kingston University, for one of my modules, I wrote a narrative poem about an asexual girl who was struggling to cope with her mental health after an attack. Writing this moved me so much, and it got incredible feedback from both the staff at Kingston and my agent. I wanted to include it in anthology–and then I thought, why don’t I put one together? After all, wouldn’t a YA ace anthology just be awesome?
I reached out to my agent with this idea, and she was so enthusiastic. We put together a proposal and I invited other ace-spec writers to take part and put out an open-call for new and unpublished writers. I was absolutely blown away by just how much interest the open-call received, and there were so many phenomenal submissions to choose from.
In the last year, a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes for this anthology, and now I’m delighted to announce that Being Ace is officially going to be a book. I am so excited to be working with the amazing Tamara Grasty at Page Street, and we’ve got an incredible line-up of YA authors involved. Not only have we got some critically-acclaimed and award-winning writers on board, but I’m delighted to say that five of the fifteen contributors were discovered through the open-call.
Image reads: “Madeline Dyer, ed.’s BEING ACE, an anthology of short stories and poetry in multiple genres from contemporary to fantasy to science fiction that celebrate and explore the sub-identities of the asexual spectrum from a mixture of established and emerging YA writers, including Akemi Dawn Bowman, Lara Ameen, Rosiee Thor, Moniza Hossain, Linsey Miller, Ayida Shonibar, and Kat Yuen, among others, to Tamara Grasty at Page Street, for publication in fall 2023, by Erin Clyburn at Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency (world).”
We announced the book deal on Twitter, and the response just blew me away! Within hours of announcing it, a Goodreads page for the anthology appeared and the other writers who are signed up for the anthology began revealing their participation too. I hope to soon post a further announcement on here with the full line-up of contributors, so watch this space!
