Michele Kirichanskaya is a first-generation Ukrainian Jewish American writer from Brooklyn, New York. A graduate of the New School MFA Program and Hunter College, when they are not writing, they are reading, watching an absurd amount of cartoons, and creating content for platforms like GeeksOUT, Catapult, Bitch Media, Salon, The Mary Sue, ComicsVerse, and more. Their work can be found here and on Insta @MicheleKiricha1.

I had the opportunity to interview Michele, which you can read below.

What books about the ace experience have you read recently? What insights have they given you about being ace?

Shapes of Love by L. V. Peñalba, Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell, Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao. Whether it’s stories about musical artists or supernatural entities or budding college students, each is a reminder of the diversity that ace stories can portray. 

How has your experience with the aspec and queer community changed for you in the past year? How have they progressed? What needs to change?

I’ve gotten more confident about asserting the need for visibility for aspec identities and see a lot of movement from independent artists and authors. We still need more mainstream representation.

What in the past year has given you the most ace joy? What has been the most challenging?

Seeing my ace friends promoting my book Ace Books. ☺  What has been the most challenging is seeing countries implementing more ways to be terrible to our community. 

What are some common threads that have come up for you in your conversations with other aces and aros? How have they connected with your experience?

We still seem to be having the same conversations with non-ace and non-aro people about what our identities are. We’re tired of going over the 101s of being aspec, and just want to see more nuanced representations of being aspec, especially in genre fiction, i.e., romance, horror, fantasy, etc.  

What has had the most impact for you on the discourse around asexuality?

Seeing ace activists, content creators, and authors like Yasmin Benoit, Alyshia “Lici” Rodgers, and Darci Little Badger working to showcase ace visibility and expand on intersectionality in the ace community. 

What do you make of the common exclusionary talking points (e.g. “No ace/aro/bi people at Pride”, etc.) that often come out around Pride Month?

No more gatekeeping queer people at Pride! Save that for cops and terfs.

What would you say to aspec people who feel like their stories are being ignored by the queer community?

Queer stories, like any other marginalized community, are often dominated by those with the most privilege, i.e., social capital, gendered privilege, etc. Oftentimes this means cis gay men’s stories often feel like the most “deserving” of the spotlight. Meanwhile, it takes each and every one of us to build a revolution, from the trans women of color who have been there from the start to the ace activists who are expanding our ideas of intimacy and community. Your stories matter, always.

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Guest Blogger Justin Ancheta is a stuttering second-generation Filipino-Canadian immigrant who is passionate about the tarot, science, spirituality, and queerness. He currently resides in Treaty 13 territory, where they are exploring their writing voice in experimental and hybrid creative nonfiction. His writing draws from their experience as a racialized and disabled bi+ ace person in intersecting liminalities. Their work has been published in Queer Toronto, AZE Journal, and Carte Blanche. He is @rampancy on Twitter and Instagram.