Her View Friday
Yellow Arrow Publishing supports women-identifying writers from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes us stronger. Women’s voices have historically been underrepresented in literature, and we aim to elevate those voices and stories through our programs, publications, and support.
Part of our mission in supporting and uplifting women writers is to promote the Yellow Arrow community’s individual accomplishments. We’d like to further expand that support and promotion outside of our Yellow Arrow publications. Twice a month, we’d like to give a shout out to those within the Yellow Arrow community who recently published:
single-author publications
single pieces in journals, anthologies, etc., as well as prizes/awards, book reviews, and podcasts/interviews
You can support our authors by reading this blog and their work, sharing their news, and commenting below or on the blog. Congratulations to all the included authors. We are so proud of you!
Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling.
Author: Heather Brown Barrett
Heather Brown Barrett is an award-winning poet in southeastern Virginia. She mothers her young son and contemplates life, the universe, and everything with her writer husband. She is a member and regular student of The Muse Writers Center, a member of The Poetry Society of Virginia, and a former board member of Hampton Roads Writers. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Literary Mama, The Ekphrastic Review, Yellow Arrow Journal, Black Bough Poetry, OyeDrum Magazine, and elsewhere. She’s the author of Water in Every Room (Kelsay Books, 2025). Find her at heatherbrownbarrett.com.
Where are you from: southeastern Virginia
Tell us about your main writing space in three words: kitchen, predawn, coffee.
Tell us about your publication: Water in Every Room (February 2025, Kelsay Books) embodies the fluctuations of emotion and form in new motherhood. Ferocious and tender, tending and transformed, mother embraces both her child and the dualities of self in this collection of poems.
Why this book? Why now? How did it happen? This book happened because I became a mother. Writing guides me through my own mind, helps me to process, express, and discover. Writing poetry allows me to explore the motions and emotions of the darker recesses and emerge lighter. I’ve always been a very creative person. But motherhood plunged me deeper into my creativity. New motherhood has been the most challenging and most rewarding experience of my life; a bit isolating, and a lot transformative. It was my intention to create tension and visual appeal in the book with opposing forms, lines, subject, and point of view, and to thread hope throughout. Very much embodying the new mother experience! My son is great inspiration; watching a human grow and change is incredible. I also want to show him, by example, that passion and effort can lead to accomplishment, and that accomplishment fulfills us more than the accumulation of physical things.
What advice do you have for new writers? Someone with a book that needs a home? Be patient with yourself, with your writing and revision. Study the craft of writing. Create a thick skin for the inevitable rejections. It’s all part of the process. If you embrace it, you will grow as a writer.
What else are you working on/doing that you'd like to share? I'm always working on poems and creative nonfiction pieces. I prefer not to go into much detail about works in progress—sometimes works change significantly as I progress through! But I will say that lately I’ve noticed how my work on the whole—published and unpublished pieces and works-in-progress and scribbles—is a body of work in conversation with itself. Themes and motifs and metaphors continue to show up and offer something new. Motherhood and other subjects, all in conversation. This was a very exciting macro view of my own work, and helped me realize a potential full-length poetry collection.
Yellow Arrow (past and present) board, staff, interns, authors, residents, and instructors alike! Got a publication coming out? Let us help celebrate for you in Her View Friday.
Single-author publications: here.
Single pieces as well as prizes/awards, book reviews, and podcasts/interviews: here.
Please read the instructions on each form carefully; we look forward to congratulating you!
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women-identifying writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we BLAZE a path for women-identifying creatives this year by purchasing one of our publications or a workshop from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, for yourself or as a gift, joining our newsletter, following us on Facebook or Instagram, or subscribing to our YouTube channel. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (staff@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@yellowarrowpublishing), or US mail (PO Box 65185, Baltimore, Maryland 21209). More than anything, messages of support through any one of our channels are greatly appreciated.