Yellow Arrow Publishing Blog

Kapua Iao 10/31/23 Kapua Iao 10/31/23

Blazing the Path Forward with Yellow Arrow Publishing

By Adhithi Anjali

Starting tomorrow, November 1, Yellow Arrow Publishing will fire up our 2023 social media fundraiser: Blazing the Path Forward. Yellow Arrow is a nonprofit organization established to support, inspire, and publish women-identifying writers. Women’s voices have historically been underrepresented in literature, and we aim to elevate those voices and stories through our programs and publications. It is our hope that providing more opportunities for women to participate in the literary arts will stimulate social change by expanding literary norms. For every writer who gets published, there are a hundred more with equally valuable stories to tell.

With Blazing the Path Forward, we will provide writing prompts throughout November about creating, writing, and using poetry and prose to capture movement and growth. Prompts will be posted every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. Just in case you miss any of the prompts, you can find weekly recaps on Fridays. We would love for everyone to share the prompts and, if feeling adventurous, their own responses. Write alongside us in the Comments or in your own posts using the hashtag #YAPForward. Make sure to tag Yellow Arrow as well so we can see what you write.

We hope to bring awareness to Yellow Arrow programs and publications through this initiative and encourage community members to donate to support our mission.

DONATE NOW

If you are unable to donate, please share our posts and prompts to help spread the word about Yellow Arrow. We are so grateful for the continued support from our authors and our community and are especially happy to use Blazing the Path Forward as an opportunity to spark, strengthen, and build our relationships with the writing world, in Baltimore and beyond. We at Yellow Arrow are so excited to see what our community does with Blazing the Path Forward.

Make sure you take advantage of the creative energy of November and write with us. We hope these prompts inspire you to grab your pen (or Google Doc) and write freely and honestly. For yourself, for your friends and family. For your community. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.

Our three Yellow Arrow fall 2023 interns have worked hard on this fundraiser, and we are so appreciative of their time and thoughtfulness. Thank you Adhithi, Samantha, and Beverly for making this happen, and thank you Adhithi for spearheading Blazing the Path Forward.

Adhithi Anjali is the fall business development intern. She is a third-year student at the University of California, Davis, majoring in English and comparative literature. Samantha Pomerantz is the fall publications intern. She is a writer and a student at Elon University, class of 2024. Finally, Beverly Yirenkyi is the fall program management intern. She is a current honors undergraduate student at Towson University, majoring in philosophy. You can learn more about Adhithi, Samantha, and Beverly in another blog later in November.

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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we SPARK and sparkle this year: purchase one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, join our newsletter, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or subscribe 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.

Kapua Iao 10/10/23 Kapua Iao 10/10/23

Just Keep Being: Swimming in Gilead by Cassie Premo Steele

Yellow Arrow Publishing announces the release of our final chapbook from 2023, Swimming in Gilead by Cassie Premo Steele. Since its establishment in 2016, Yellow Arrow has devoted its efforts to advocate for all women writers through inclusion in the biannual Yellow Arrow Journal as well as single-author publications and Yellow Arrow Vignette, and by providing strong author support, writing workshops, and volunteering opportunities. We at Yellow Arrow are excited to continue our mission by supporting Cassie in all her writing and publishing endeavors.

Swimming in Gilead takes us through the journey of a woman who, empowered to express herself through the feminist spirit of a writing group, explores what it means to be a woman and an ally in an era of uncertainty. In the summer of 2020 as the pandemic was raging, Cassie joined a group of six women—three from Canada and three from the United States, four white and two women of color, and five lesbians and one straight—to sit and write remotely once a week. They called themselves the Sisters of Gilead, strangers who came together during the loneliness and terror of the pandemic and in the process, helped each other survive. And they helped each other write.

Cassie is a lesbian ecofeminist poet and novelist who lives in South Carolina with her wife. Her collection of poetry is her call to action, an invitation to each of us to examine what is within, and how, with the support of feminist advocates as friends, we can make something beautiful out of our “torn parts.” The poems within Swimming in Gilead were written under the loving kindness and acceptance of the Sisters of Gilead. By opening into vulnerability, the poems show readers how to “swim in Gilead” with hope and perseverance even as our rights as women are being ripped away.

The photograph used on the cover of Swimming in Gilead is by Sofia Tata (sofiatata.com) and cover design was by Alexa Laharty, Yellow Arrow Creative Director. According to Cassie, “The combination of sea and land formation creates an image of a woman in silhouette and draws readers into an intimate dialogue with the poems.”

Paperback and PDF versions of Swimming in Gilead are now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. If interested in purchasing more than one paperback copy for friends and family, check out our discounted wholesale prices here. You can also search for Swimming in Gilead wherever you purchase your books including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. To learn more about Cassie and Swimming in Gilead, check out our recent interview with her.

You can find Cassie on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and connect with Yellow Arrow on Facebook and Instagram, to share some love for this chapbook. You can also share a review to any of the major distributors or by emailing editor@yellowarrowpublishing.com. We’d love to hear from you.

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Guest User 10/3/23 Guest User 10/3/23

Meet the 2023 Yellow Arrow Best of the Net Nominees

The Best of the Net recognizes the work of writers published online by independent presses. The project was started in 2006 by Sundress Publications to create a community among the online literary magazines, journals, and self-publishing platforms. The award represents an incredible opportunity for Yellow Arrow Publishing to further showcase and support our authors. Our staff is committed to letting our authors shine. Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling.

Here are our Best of Net nominees from Vignette AWAKEN for 2023. You can find some of our authors reading from AWAKEN on the Yellow Arrow YouTube channel.

L.M. Cole

“Lately I’ve Been Talking Too Much”
I, an object, shattered into fragments,
am searching for the phrase
that nobody would understand
but you, who have listened with
patience to myself in fractals of light and perspective

L.M. Cole is a poet and artist residing on the U.S. East Coast. She is the coeditor of Bulb Culture Collective and a poetry reader for Moss Puppy Magazine, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Bitchin’ Kitsch, The Pinch Journal, CLOVES, Stanchion, Defunct Magazine, and others. Her debut poetry chapbook SALT MOUTH MOSS QUEEN (Alien Buddha Press 2022) is available on Amazon. Find her on Twitter @_scoops__ and on her website poetlmcole.com.

L.M. was also one of the contributing authors of Vignette SPARK with her poem “Just Make Art, They Say.” You can find an interview between L.M. and Melissa Nunez from earlier this year at yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/interview-nunez-cole.

Maggie Flaherty

“Tacoma”
Awake! Awake! The closer
I look, the more I see this earth—
this present moment—burning.

Where’s a gust of healing rain,
a soothing wind that lifts
or sets us down gently?”

Maggie Flaherty began writing poems in high school but stopped for a busy 50 years or so. In 2016, after retiring, she attended a workshop taught by the poet and essayist Lia Purpura at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. There, her interest in poetry returned like a homing pigeon. In 2020, she graduated from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University with a master’s in poetry. These days, she works in the garden or watches the birds. That’s where many of her poems begin: in the always-changing weather.

Kerry Graham

“Reminder”
Nudging my door open, I step into, on, among stillness. My eyes wander within the room’s four walls, where my lovelies and I will make another year’s worth of memories, magic, mistakes.

Kerry Graham is a Baltimore-based writer, book coach, and former high school English teacher. Her newsletter, Real Quick, is a monthly glimpse into her writer life. Kerry is a Creative-in-Residence at The Baltimore Banner.

Nancy Huggett

“I Am Full of Milk and Walking”
To make things right.
I stride,
eyes bright from sleepless nights
and this thin slice of freedom

Nancy Huggett is a settler descendant who lives, writes, and care-gives in Ottawa, Canada, on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people. Thanks to Firefly Creative, Merritt Writers, and not-the-rodeo poets, she has work out/forthcoming in Braided Way, Event, Five Minute Lit, Intima, Literary Mama, Pangyrus, Poetry Pause, Prairie Fire, Reformed Journal, (RE) An Ideas Journal, and Waterwheel Review.

Janice Northerns

“Something Like Love”
But what has never faded is the piercing grief I felt that first visit when I stumbled into the kitchen in that predawn dark and discovered the bowl, the spoon, the oatmeal—the simple morning still-life my mother had laid out for my father. And with it, my realization that he was dying.

Janice Northerns is the author of Some Electric Hum (Lamar University Literary Press, 2020), winner of the Byron Caldwell Smith Book Award from the University of Kansas, the Nelson Poetry Book Award, and a WILLA Literary Award Finalist in Poetry. She grew up on a farm in rural West Texas and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas Tech University, where she received the Robert S. Newton Creative Writing Award. Other honors include a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a Brush Creek Foundation writing residency, and a Pushcart Prize nomination. She lives in Kansas and is currently working on her second book, a hybrid collection of poetry and essays inspired by the life of Cynthia Ann Parker.

Shikhandin

“Epiphany”
. . . .But you are alive still. And so

is time and breath and your jam-jarred dreams. All
it needs is a flick of your wrist to open.

Shikhandin is the pen name of an Indian writer. Books include After Grief – Poems, Impetuous Women, Immoderate Men, and Vibhuti Cat. Honors include, runner up in the George Floyd Short Story Contest (2020, United Kingdom), Pushcart Prize nominee by Aeolian Harp (2019, U.S.), Pushcart Prize nominee by Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (2011, Hong Kong), winner of the 2017 Children First Contest curated by Duckbill in association with Parag, an initiative of Tata Trust, first prize in the Brilliant Flash Fiction Contest (2019, U.S.), runner up in the Erbacce Poetry Prize (United Kingdom), winner of the 35th Moon Prize (Writing in a Woman's Voice: USA), first runner up in the The DNA-OoP Short Story Contest (2016, India), second prize in the India Currents Katha Short Story Contest (2016, U.S.), first prize in the Anam Cara Short Fiction Competition (2012, Ireland), longlist in the Bridport Poetry Prize (2006, United Kingdom), and finalist in the Aesthetica Poetry Contest (2010, United Kingdom). Shikhandin’s prose and poetry have been widely published in India and abroad in online and print journals and anthologies. Her speculative novella, The Woman on the Red Oxide Floor, is forthcoming in 2023–2024.

Katarina Xóchitl Vargas

“The Ills of Invasion”
There are 25 million
slaughtered ancestors in my genes.
When the withering starts
they spill into my veins all at once:
ancient danzantes with phantom limbs—
feet stomping, ankles rattling,
reawakening my Earth with ayoyotes

Katarina Xóchitl Vargas (she/her) is an emerging Xicana poet, originally from Mexico. After her family moved to the U.S., she began composing poems to process alienation. A dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico, today she writes resistance poetry and lives on occupied Tsenacommacah territory where she is working on her first chapbook. Katarina is the first-place recipient of the inaugural Mulberry Literary Fresh Voices Award. Her poems first appeared in Somos en escrito: The Latino Literary Online Magazine, Cloud Women's Quarterly Journal, The Acentos Review, Penumbra, and Barrio Panther. Follow her on Instagram @Cantos_de_Xochitl.

Ann Weil

“The Unraveling”

. . . .I still feel
the warmth of his arms, the heat between us
that made three new lives, the burning gut that knows
the pain of shared complicity. Love can melt
even as our fingers grasp for it.

Ann Weil writes in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and on a boat off Snipe’s Point Sandbar, in Key West, Florida. Her most recent work appears in Maudlin House, Pedestal Magazine, DMQ Review, 3Elements Review, The Shore, and New World Writing Quarterly. Her chapbook, Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman, published by Yellow Arrow Publishing, debuted in April 2023. See more of her work at annweilpoetry.com.

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Kapua Iao 8/1/23 Kapua Iao 8/1/23

Yellow Arrow Journal (VIII/02) EMBLAZON Submissions are Now Open!

Yellow Arrow Publishing is excited to announce that submissions for our next issue of Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 2 (fall 2023) is open August 1–31 exploring the power and ephemerality of life’s fleeting moments. Guest editor Leticia Priebe Rocha states,

“As we navigate the turmoil of daily life and the heaviness of what lies beyond our control, it takes an intentional effort to nurture [life’s fleeting] moments into existence and to sustain the life they bring us. For me, this effort is often driven by introspection: What makes you feel alive? What connections have shaped your being? How do you tap into the well of love and hope within you? The act of creation through poetry and art has been a blessing toward answering these questions, empowering me with an openness to receive the ephemeral and inscribe it not only in memory but on the page.”

This issue’s theme will be EMBLAZON

: to conspicuously inscribe or display
: to depict (a heraldic device) on something
: to celebrate or extol publicly

And here are some questions to consider when choosing or writing for this issue:

What are the experiences that inscribed themselves onto your being and made you who are? Who are the people who adorn your life? Whose lives do you adorn in return? What are the places and contexts that you inevitably herald in all of your interactions?
Of the ephemeral instants that have embellished your existence, what marks and stays with you? What are the sensations, emotions, and images that anchor you in your own aliveness?
What is your relationship with time? How do you view its nature, particularly in relation to the fleeting moments that make up the human experience?
What are the sparks that you strive to ignite during your time on this Earth? How do you hope to illuminate the world when your time comes to an end?

Yellow Arrow Journal is looking for creative nonfiction, poetry, and cover art submissions by writers/artists who identify as women, on the theme of EMBLAZON. Submissions can be in any language as long as an English translation accompanies it. For more information regarding journal submission guidelines, please visit yellowarrowpublishing.com/submissions. Please read our guidelines carefully before submitting. To learn more about our editorial views and how important your voice is in your story, read About the Journal. This issue will be released in November 2023.

EMBLAZON’s guest editor, Leticia Priebe Rocha, earned her bachelor’s from Tufts University, where she was awarded the 2020 Academy of American Poets University and College Poetry Prize. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, she immigrated to Miami, Florida, at the age of nine and currently resides in the Greater Boston area. For more information, visit her website at leticiaprieberocha.com. Leticia’s poem “Lost In” was part of Yellow Arrow Journal PEREGRINE, and she was our .W.o.W. #46 (March 2023). We are excited to work with Leticia over the next few months.

The journal is just one of many ways that Yellow Arrow Publishing works to support and inspire women through publication and access to the literary arts. Since its founding in 2016, Yellow Arrow has worked tirelessly to make an impact on the local and global community by advocating for writers who identify as women. Yellow Arrow proudly represents the voices of women from around the globe. Creating diversity in the literary world and providing a safe space is deeply important. Every writer has a story to tell, every story is worth telling.

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Annie Marhefka 7/31/23 Annie Marhefka 7/31/23

Meet the 2023 Yellow Arrow Publishing Writers-in-Residence

Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling. Since 2019, Yellow Arrow Publishing has been proud to offer a residency program that enables us to support, uplift, and amplify the voices of women-identifying writers residing in the Baltimore area. We continue to evolve the program and are delighted to share our 2023 writers-in-residence with our community.

First, a note of thanks. As our programs and community continue to grow, we consider our team tremendously fortunate to have received such a diverse and talented group of applicants. We are reminded again of the passion and storytelling that surrounds and charms us. Our deepest gratitude to all those who applied or took this opportunity to learn more about Yellow Arrow.

For 2023, we are thrilled that Bird in Hand café and bookstore is partnering with us to provide an inspiring location from which our writers can work at their craft! Bird in Hand has provided Baltimore’s Charles Village neighborhood the perfect blend of coffee, books, and community since 2016.

Please join us in congratulating our 2023 writers-in-residence: Kat Scott and Tramaine Suubi.

Kat Scott is an MFA student at the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and holds a Master of Arts from Indiana University. As a writer, Kat likes to explore the places where meetings occur, between humans, animals, nature, etc. In some small way, she hopes to open a questioning of the boundaries we place that lead to othering, embracing instead the idea of a congeries. Kat lives in Remington and works as an assistant editor for The Hopkins Review.

Kat will be the Writer-in-Residence for August and September.

Tramaine Suubi is a multilingual Bantu artist who was born by the Nile River and raised by the Potomac River. They earned an MFA in creative writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Their poems live in Solstice Literary Magazine, Prompt Press, Protest Through Poetry, Plantin Magazine, Kiwi Collective Magazine, and other spaces. They were a contributor at the Tin House Summer Workshop and they are officially represented by the Creative Arts Agency. Their forthcoming book debut will be published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. Tramaine is in love with all things water.

Tramaine will be the writer-in-residence for October and November.

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Kapua Iao 7/18/23 Kapua Iao 7/18/23

Embracing the Ephemeral Nature of the Human Experience

Yellow Arrow Publishing would like to announce the next guest editor for Yellow Arrow Journal, Leticia Priebe Rocha. Leticia will oversee the creation of our Vol. VIII, No. 2 issue.

This next issue of Yellow Arrow Journal will explore the fleeting moments in life that anchor the human experience. Think about the flash after a spark is lit, before a fire burns big and bright . . . the flashes, the sparks, are ephemeral, just like life’s fleeting moments. They make us who we are. To learn more about this idea, read Leticia’s words below. And mark your calendars: the theme will be announced next week, submissions open August 1, and the issue will be released in November.

Leticia earned her bachelor’s from Tufts University, where she was awarded the 2020 Academy of American Poets University and College Poetry Prize. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, she immigrated to Miami, Florida, at the age of nine and currently resides in the Greater Boston area. For more information, visit her website at leticiaprieberocha.com. Leticia’s poem “Lost In” was part of Yellow Arrow Journal PEREGRINE, and she was our .W.o.W. #46 (March 2023).

Please follow Yellow Arrow on Facebook and Instagram for the theme and submissions announcement. Below, you can read more about Leticia’s perspectives on the ephemerality if life. We look forward to working with Leticia over the next few months.

By Leticia Priebe Rocha

“Nothing is more difficult than surrendering to the instant.”
Clarice Lispector

I was born in the fourth most populous city in the world, São Paulo, Brazil—a beautiful, bustling place rich in culture and architecture. I have few but precious memories of the grand metropolis that raised me. The São Paulo Museum of Art, for example, fostered a lifelong love of art museums that compels me to add these institutions to my itinerary in any place I travel, no matter how brief my stay.

A particular memory that I have held dear since I was seven years old unfolded a few hours away from my city, in the countryside town of Santo Antonio do Pinhal. My little family (mom, dad, baby sister who was a few months old) and I were spending a weekend in the midst of greenery and waterfalls, a lushness that is profuse in many regions of Brazil. As we were winding down for bed on our first night there, my mom called me to step outside with her for a minute. I was struck immediately by the symphony of crickets that enveloped us, my body blanketed in an awe intensified as I looked up and witnessed the unwavering glow of the cosmos pulsing above in every direction. The sheer abundance of stars unknown in my typical urban setting cradled my seven-year-old frame with an acute awareness of my own smallness for the first time. It was at once terrifying and thrilling—I felt myself blossoming alongside the universe, an inseverable connection that I ground myself in to this day.

A few years later, when I was nine years old, we immigrated to another major city, this one on an entirely different continent—Miami, Florida, United States of America. I remember nothing of packing decades of my parent’s lives or my sister and I’s brief time on Earth in a few suitcases. I have no recollection of stepping onto the plane that would bring us to a new reality, and inevitably, new versions of ourselves. The only piece of the journey that I remember is walking through Miami International Airport and being entirely dazzled by the sky visible outside. There was not a cloud in sight, only a blueness punctuated by the relentless sunlight that is signature to Miami in the middle of June. A fleeting image that I still carry with me as a remnant of the child that I was and a beacon of who I would become.

I spent nearly a decade in Miami before parting ways with my first home in this country. I landed in Medford, Massachusetts, to attend university and stuck around ever since. I often joke that I knew Massachusetts was my new home when I flew to a conference in San Francisco and my primary preoccupation while getting off the plane was where I could find the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts (the answer was a definitive “not on every street corner” like you’d find in Boston). It was in an Uber navigating the streets of Boston at 2:00 a.m. that I realized I was in love for the first time. I had just said goodbye to my beloved, the feeling of being held like their one and only anchor to this world lingering over me as I hopped in the car. As I greeted the driver, Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” started playing on the radio, a gorgeous sonic accompaniment to the surrender of my heart. Though I had no certainty of what would come next, a door had been unlocked inside me to a fundamental, profoundly, and exquisitely human experience.

The fleeting moments I described here are inextricable from the person I am today, each instant a spark in forging the fire of the self. As we navigate the turmoil of daily life and the heaviness of what lies beyond our control, it takes an intentional effort to nurture these moments into existence and to sustain the life they bring us. For me, this effort is often driven by introspection: What makes you feel alive? What connections have shaped your being? How do you tap into the well of love and hope within you? The act of creation through poetry and art has been a blessing toward answering these questions, empowering me with an openness to receive the ephemeral and inscribe it not only in memory but on the page.

As Clarice Lispector so eloquently put it, “Nothing is more difficult than surrendering to the instant. That difficulty is human pain. It is ours. I surrender in words and surrender when I paint.” Being alive is a messy, heartbreaking, and beautiful thing. I hold a deep gratitude for the people and places that have inscribed themselves into my essence and for every moment of grace that has granted me the space to grow into myself. I cherish the thought that I have done the same for others in this existence where we are so deeply entangled. May we all find the strength to embrace the transience of this life and adorn the world with sparks far beyond our time here.

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Thank you, Leticia, for your beautiful words. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we SPARK and sparkle this year: purchase one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, join our newsletter, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or subscribe 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.

Kapua Iao 7/11/23 Kapua Iao 7/11/23

Magic in the Air: Black girl magic & other elixirs by shantell hinton hill

Yellow Arrow Publishing announces the release of our latest chapbook, Black girl magic & other elixirs, by shantell hinton hill. Since its establishment in 2016, Yellow Arrow has devoted its efforts to advocate for all women writers through inclusion in the biannual Yellow Arrow Journal as well as single-author publications and Yellow Arrow Vignette, and by providing strong author support, writing workshops, and volunteering opportunities. We at Yellow Arrow are excited to continue our mission by supporting shantell in all her writing and publishing endeavors.

Black girl magic & other elixirs is an important poetry collection about the embodied experiences of a ‘90s Black girl growing up in the American South and how those experiences shaped her becoming a Black woman. Within, shantell recalls moments of playing hide and seek as a means of survival, trauma attached to bologna, the essence of her mother embodied in a fragrance, and even a favorite moment with her first and forever homegirl, her grandma. She weaves together stories from her childhood with current events, juxtaposing the cultural term ‘Black girl magic’ with her personal struggles to show how she became the ultimate Renaissance woman who embraces both the magic and the mundane of her surroundings.

An engineer turned pastor, shantell, a native of Conway, Arkansas, situates her work at the intersections of social justice, public theology, and Black feminism/womanism. shantell builds upon and pays homage to the revolutionary work of Black women authors, poets, leaders, and culture bearers. This collection bears witness to the often unspoken truths about the survival, wit, and skill Black girls and Black women develop in a world dominated by a myriad of interlocking oppressions. For shantell and Black girls everywhere, Black girl magic & other elixirs illustrates how justice, storytelling, ethics, and Black women’s spirituality weave together on the page to show how we can find ourselves “truly in love with who we’d become.”

Cover design was by Alexa Laharty, Yellow Arrow Creative Director. According to shantell, “The roller skates, cassette tape, and perfume all communicate a certain essence of ‘being’ that one can feel, smell, and hear. Likewise, the pictures of my younger self and my present-day self represent much of my journey of becoming and self-possession—signifying the power in reclaiming the little girls that live inside of us while empowering the women we have fought tooth and nail to belong to ourselves.

Paperback and PDF versions of Black girl magic & other elixirs are now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. If interested in purchasing more than one paperback copy for friends and family, check out our discounted wholesale prices here. You can also search for Black girl magic & other elixirs wherever you purchase your books including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. To learn more about shantell and Black girl magic & other elixirs, check out our recent interview with her.

You can find shantell on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter or on her website at shantellhhill.com and connect with Yellow Arrow on Facebook and Instagram, to share some love for this chapbook. You can also share a review to any of the major distributors or by emailing editor@yellowarrowpublishing.com. We’d love to hear from you.

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Kapua Iao 7/3/23 Kapua Iao 7/3/23

What Ignites Your Spark? The Yellow Arrow Vignette SPARK Online Series Begins

By Siobhan McKenna

Welcome to the second annual release of Yellow Arrow Vignette, Yellow Arrow Publishing’s online creative nonfiction and poetry series. For this issue, we aligned with our 2023 yearly value and chose the theme of SPARK. We will publish the SPARK pieces on Mondays and Wednesdays from today through September 11, ending with a reading from our 2023 Vignette authors on September 13 at 8:00 p.m. EST.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/vignette/spark-2023

As writers it can be difficult to articulate the reasons for creating a word map to navigate the beauty, guilt, loss, and nuance in this world. There are writers who need to write even though it is a challenging, arduous process and there are writers who easily sit down in front of the page daily to unpack their thoughts. I fall somewhere in between . . . although more often on the scale of procrastination until the words burst through my sweaty and overly caffeinated fingertips in a large swell and then I edit and edit. And edit again.

Whichever writer you are, you are a writer.

This mantra was instilled in me by one of my favorite writers, Laurel Braitman. Over the last few years, I’ve participated in several of her writing workshops which she would often begin by reminding everyone that it didn’t matter if we had written last year or that morning. If we had shown up to write, we were writers.

This sentiment resonates with me as someone who doesn’t feel called to write every day and yet, when I do find myself needing to untangle my thoughts through words—everything else falls away. Laurel’s reminder also helps soften the nagging voice that says: you are not writing, submitting, editing enough.

These thoughts are exhausting and don’t help me write more. Don’t we already live with enough self-judgment? Let’s not add this judgment to our writing and instead simply bask in the pleasure of ideas that we weaved together and applaud those who spun an image depicting that feeling we could not communicate.

These past few months, I’ve been harnessing my SPARK for writing by taking in the words of other writers—mainly women (although David Sedaris did slip in quite often). I sped through memoir after memoir: Laurel Braitman, Ashley C. Ford, Brandi Carlile, and Stephanie Foo; and realized I was in a state of seeking. Seeking inspiration on how to write well, but mostly seeking to remember that these contemporary women had celebrated great joys and tremendous losses and survived; were still surviving.

Outside the page, I also found inspiration on my commute through New York City’s boroughs; from stumbling upon tulip laden pocket parks to watching in amazement as a little girl slumbered soundly against her father’s shoulder on the subway. The car lurched and screeched, still her eyes never fluttered. Even now, there’s a poem unfurling in my synapses about her. About that beautiful sleep, that trust.

During this time, I didn’t do as much writing as I wanted. Perhaps, that’s always the case? And yet, I don’t feel as guilty as I usually do when this happens. Instead, I feel like this phase of soaking in and seeking inspiration was exactly what I needed to write.

Since leaving New York City for my next travel nurse assignment, lines and ideas have been emerging in the quieter moments of my day. As I was walking home along the Puget Sound in my current city of Seattle, the sky pink and the leaves breathing, the hazy outline of a poem formed in my head. And yesterday, a glorious string of words sat next to each other in an email; I scribbled them on a sticky note as a title for an essay.

In this summer’s Vignette, the theme SPARK takes on a variety of forms from the literal to the meta. C.D. Jones’s poem “this time machine” recalls the tangible heat and heartache of young love while Veronica Wasson’s essay “On Clothing (Five Pieces)” ponders how clothes were the catalyst needed for her to explore her authentic self.

Some of the Vignette writers use the theme of SPARK to explore the influences in their lives that have ignited their creative pursuits. Angela Acosta praises poets Concha Urquiza and Ernestina de Champourcín among others as a guiding life force in her poem “A Centennial for Herstory,” and in “To be Frank (or Why I Write),” Laurel Maxwell invokes the sentiments of Maya Angelou and Virginia Woolf as she deliberates on why writing is her creative medium.

You’ll also discover meditations on the necessity (and struggle) to write from authors such as Marisa Victoria Gedgaudas in her poem “Colygraphia”:

I must try to find the words. I must keep this promise to myself. I must pay the debt even if there is no one coming to collect it.

And writers who discuss the “unseen cloud” and “electric current” that guides our writing such as in “Zeitgeist,” a poem by Elyse Welles that kickstarts our series:

It taps us on our shoulder

Zaps us in our dreams and waking thoughts

It asks us,

“does this fit?”

Fit what? It’s baseless needs and wants.”

Thank you to all the writers who followed that glimmer of inspiration and kept their promises to write. I am amazed by the breadth of our collection and hope that a SPARK ignites in you as you read each published piece.

Thank you, Kapua Iao, Editor-In-Chief, and Annie Marhefka, Executive Director, for supporting me throughout this series. Thank you also to the Yellow Arrow Publishing board for their continued support on this endeavor. Thank you also to our wonderful editorial associates, readers, and interns: Sydney Alexander, Cecilia Caldwell, Angela Firman, Meg Gamble, Melissa Nunez, Mickey Revenaugh, Beck Snyder, and Andrea Stennett. These folks diligently read through submissions, worked on edits, and contributed amazing feedback for every single submission we received! Finally, thank you to every writer who submitted to the series and gave us the opportunity to read a slice of your story. We are delighted. We are grateful.

Since January 2020, Siobhan McKenna has worked for Yellow Arrow as an editorial associate and interviewer, among many other roles. She is now the Vignette Managing Editor. Siobhan earned her bachelor’s degree in creative writing and biology from Loyola University Maryland and a master’s degree in nursing from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to her work at Yellow Arrow, Siobhan is a travel nurse and is currently located in Seattle, Washington. Her writing can be found in Canthius, Intima, throughout the Yellow Arrow blog, and with Next Level Nursing.

*****

Kapua Iao 5/30/23 Kapua Iao 5/30/23

Show Us Your Spark: Chapbook Submissions Open at Yellow Arrow Publishing

At Yellow Arrow Publishing, we believe every woman has a story to tell and every story is worth telling. And with that sentiment, we are excited to reopen submissions for chapbooks to be published in 2024. From May 29 to June 30, Yellow Arrow will accept submissions of poetry chapbooks and, *new* this year, creative nonfiction chapbooks by authors who identify as women from around the world. Given this and changes to the process this year, we wanted to provide some details here. We can’t wait to see what you send to us.

Chapbook submissions may be poetry, creative nonfiction (e.g., personal narratives, essays, reflections, flash prose, and micro memoirs), or hybrid, no more than 50 pages long and written by authors who identify as women. In general, creative nonfiction should be between 15,000 and 25,000 words total (there is no minimum or maximum number of pieces to include, use your discretion) and poetry between 20 and 50 poems; hybrid can be any combination.

This year, we have also added a sliding scale fee to chapbook submissions. We aim to ensure that the journey to publication is accessible to all writers, but also want to have the ability to support and promote our authors throughout the year. When we publish an author, that writer becomes a member of the Yellow Arrow community, and we do all we can to promote their voice, share their story, and nurture their creative journey to publication.

$0: Reserved for BIWOC authors (by checking this box, you acknowledge that you are a BIWOC author and will not attach a receipt)

$5: Reserved for those experiencing financial hardship (financial hardship means this is what you can afford right now, no questions asked)

$10: Standard submission fee

As a small, independent press, our ability to compensate authors has been limited in the past, but with the addition of a small fee, we anticipate being able to provide our authors with a monetary incentive to go along with the editorial and promotional support we have always offered.

Finally, as our volume of submissions has grown over the past few years, we have decided to accept submissions through a Google form (here) rather than email. The form is simple with required and optional questions, including name, bio/personal introduction, and demographics. You will be asked to upload your submission as an attachment to the form along with your fee receipt (if required). By sending your completed submission you agree to the following statements:

You are a writer who identifies as a woman
You have read and submitted within the guidelines

Our writers and readers come from all walks of life and so do we. We are taking steps across our portfolio to increase representation and give greater visibility to the voices of underrepresented women-identifying storytellers and take much into consideration when creating our procedures and guidelines. When we review submissions we look for writing that tells your story. We love pieces that feel authentic, that give us a window into who a writer is and what has shaped them, and that connect us to them.

You can find our guidelines and some FAQs at yellowarrowpublishing.com/cbsubmissions along with the YAP Chapbook Submissions form. We can’t wait to see how your piece sparks our inspiration along with yours. If you have any questions, please contact us at submissions@yellowarrowpublishing.com.

*****

Kapua Iao 5/16/23 Kapua Iao 5/16/23

Immersion in the Arts: Yellow Arrow Publishing Writers-in-Residence 2023

Since 2019, Yellow Arrow Publishing has been proud to offer a residency program that enables us to support, uplift, and amplify the voices of women-identifying writers residing in the Baltimore area. We are excited to announce the transformations to our 2023 Writers-in-Residence program. Applications are open June 1-30.

Residency programs are appealing to writers for many reasons, but some of the highlights are often the freedom from distractions offered, additional support in the way of mentorship or community resources, and the opportunity to immerse yourself in an artistic atmosphere, sharing and exploring with other creatives while you work at your craft. As writers, we dream of ideal writing Edens: a secluded cabin in the woods, a rocking chair on a wraparound porch at an old farmhouse, a writing desk surrounded by shelves packed full of vintage classics. A residency is sometimes viewed as an escape, a way to step away from our lives and immerse ourselves in nothing but the writing.

In reality though, we often find such ventures logistically challenging. Whatever our daily burdens may be—professional occupations, caregiving, busy schedules, financial obligations—it’s tough to convince ourselves that making time and space for our writing is what’s best for those around us. How can we step away, entirely, from our lives for days or weeks at a time? How can we achieve complete immersion?

Yellow Arrow began its Writers-in-Residence program for just this reason. We have always emphasized that our focus is around supporting and empowering emerging writers, but what is an emerging writer? To us, it is the writer who, when we meet you at a book festival and ask, “Are you a writer?” your response is, “Well, I write. I’m not sure I would call myself a writer.” An emerging writer is someone who has maybe been published, but is still working their way into the literary world. An emerging writer is someone who isn’t making a living on their writing in a way that affords them the opportunity to step away for a lengthy period of time. An emerging writer is someone who considers writing a passion, a vocation, a calling.

With this focus on emerging writers, we have reimagined our residency program to provide you with all the things an emerging writer should have without the burden of leaving home: a place free from the distractions of daily life to write, a community of resources and fellow creatives to support you, and an immersion in the vibrant Baltimore arts scene.

Yellow Arrow Publishing is thrilled to announce our Writers-in-Residence program for 2023. One writer will serve as a writer-in-residence for the months of August and September, and another will take residency for the months of October and November. This year, thanks to a partnership with Bird in Hand Café, our residences will have a space to write surrounded by books (and coffee!). Bird in Hand is providing both of our 2023 writers-in-residence a $200 gift card to provide sustenance while writing in the Charles Village bookstore and café. In addition, Yellow Arrow is granting the writers a $200 stipend to use toward expenses—childcare, transportation, writing supplies—whatever your needs are. We’ve also added in free Yellow Arrow writing workshops during the course of your residency. And we will continue to advocate for our writers-in-residence by doing all we can to amplify their voices and support their creative endeavors.

Our residency is not an escape, but it could be the opposite. It could be an arrival. The spark to start the fire within.

There is no application fee. No genre limitations. All Baltimore-area writers who identify as women are encouraged to apply. Questions? Email admin@yellowarrowpublishing.com. View the full residency program description here.

*****

Kapua Iao 4/11/23 Kapua Iao 4/11/23

Living Life to the Fullest: Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman by Ann Weil

Yellow Arrow Publishing announces the release of our latest chapbook, Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman, by Ann Weil. Since its establishment in 2016, Yellow Arrow has devoted its efforts to advocate for all women writers through inclusion in the biannual Yellow Arrow Journal as well as single-author publications and Yellow Arrow Vignette, and by providing strong author support, writing workshops, and volunteering opportunities. We at Yellow Arrow are excited to continue our mission by supporting Ann in all her writing and publishing endeavors.

Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman by Ann Weil dives head first into a life lived to its fullest, exploring both small and large moments, deftly demonstrating how our experiences and memories create who we were, who we are, and who we will be. From bedroom closet to funky island town, from salsa lessons to riding out a hurricane, Ann weaves us through painful and joyful personal learning moments, using her poetry to tell her powerful and reflective story. Ann compels us to consider our own moments, our own secrets, our own beauty, reminding us that “We aren’t meant to sleep through a tread-water life.”

Ann writes at her home on the corner of Stratford and Avon in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and on a deck boat at Snipe’s Point Sandbar off Key West, Florida. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and appears in more than 45 journals and anthologies including Crab Creek Review, Bacopa Literary Review, Whale Road Review, Shooter Literary Magazine, Eastern Iowa Review, and DMQ Review. Ann earned her doctorate at the University of Michigan and is a former special education teacher and professor of education.

Through this collection, Ann conveys that it is possible to survey multiple facets of oneself to find beauty within. Whether reflecting on womanhood, exploring the pain of loss, the complexities of marriage, the intimacies of friendship, the unspoken truths about pleasure, or the desire to love a body as one ages, she tells us that no matter what, we are more than okay as is. In a sense, Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman is a love letter from Ann to every woman out there as well as to herself.

Cover and interior photography were taken by Jillian Mayotte and Kelsey Orr while cover design was by Alexa Laharty, Yellow Arrow Creative Director. Ann wanted the cover “to reflect the content of the book,” particularly through its quirky, playful imagery. According to Ann, “I like to have fun—I don’t like to take life too seriously.”

Paperback and PDF versions of Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman are now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. If interested in purchasing more than one paperback copy for friends and family, check out our discounted wholesale prices here. You can also search for Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman wherever you purchase your books including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. To learn more about Ann and Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman, check out our recent interview with her.

You can find Ann on Instagram @annweilpoetry or annweilpoetry.com and connect with Yellow Arrow on Facebook and Instagram to share some love for this chapbook. You can also share a review to any of the major distributors or by emailing editor@yellowarrowpublishing.com. We’d love to hear from you.

*****

Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we SPARK and sparkle this year: purchase one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, join our newsletter, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or subscribe 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.

Kapua Iao 2/1/23 Kapua Iao 2/1/23

Yellow Arrow Journal (VIII/01) KINDLING Submissions are Now Open!

Yellow Arrow Publishing is excited to announce that submissions for our next issue of Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 1 (spring 2023) is open February 1–28 addressing the overarching concept of advocacy and community. Guest editor, Matilda Young, states,

The work of changemaking is the work of community and care, of recognizing how our lives and futures are inextricably linked. Our writing can reflect this vital work and be a part of how we bring change to life.

Maybe it is by sharing our full selves with the world or speaking clearly to the injustice of the past and present. Maybe it is sharing the story of how another person inspired us or helped us find healing or how we ourselves find healing and connection in the practice of community care. Like writing, changemaking is fundamentally an act of imagination: envisioning a world that does not yet exist but must.

This issue’s theme will be KINDLING

: easy combustible material for starting a fire

: something or someone that helps start (spark) a movement, an event,

changemaking, and/or advocacy

What is your vision for advocacy? How can you kindle changemaking in yourself? In others? How do people broaden their vision and their actions?
How have you (or how can you) create inspiration in yourself and in others?
How do you get yourself or someone else to join a journey toward advocacy?

Yellow Arrow Journal is looking for creative nonfiction, poetry, and cover art submissions by writers/artists who identify as women, on the theme of KINDLING. Submissions can be in any language as long as an English translation accompanies it. For more information regarding journal submission guidelines, please visit yellowarrowpublishing.com/submissions. Please read our guidelines carefully before submitting. To learn more about our editorial views and how important your voice is in your story, read About the Journal. This issue will be released in May 2023.

KINDLING’s guest editor, Matilda Young (she/they), is a poet with an MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland. She has been published in several journals, including Anatolios Magazine, Angel City Review, and Entropy Magazine’s Blackcackle. She enjoys Edgar Allan Poe jokes, not being in their apartment, and being obnoxious about the benefits of stovetop popcorn. Matilda’s poem “This Yes, This” was part of Yellow Arrow Journal FREEDOM, and Matilda was our .W.o.W. #7. Matilda was also one of our three fantastic Writers-in-Residence 2022 cohort. We are excited to work with Matilda over the next few months.

*****

Kapua Iao 1/10/23 Kapua Iao 1/10/23

SPARK: Generating Heat and Light with Yellow Arrow Publishing’s 2023 Yearly Value

By Mickey Revenaugh

It’s a thrilling thing to newly affiliate with an organization you’ve long admired: Every interaction crackling with shared verve, every discovery shimmering with potential.

It’s also profoundly humbling to join such an organization after it survived widespread yet very specific peril. The global pandemic that killed millions also shut down a beloved physical location, threw budgets into disarray, and sent intimate literary interactions online overnight.

That’s my starting place as new board president for Yellow Arrow Publishing: Equal parts thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity to serve. That’s also what makes SPARK the perfect 2023 value for Yellow Arrow and for me.

As 2022 hit its final stretch this winter, the Yellow Arrow staff and board considered a chunky list of possible values for the new year ahead. The new value had to build on 2022’s AWAKEN, which Executive Director Annie Marhefka reflected on so eloquently a year ago. Previous yearly values include REFUGE for 2020 and EMERGE for 2021—watchwords that trace not only Yellow Arrow’s experience of the last few years but the culture as a whole.

For 2023, SPARK captures the quickening of the pulse we feel now after awakening. Anticipation—possibly even anxiety?—leading to action: Let’s get up. Let’s go, now.

And yet, the truth is that a spark is not a blaze, nor a lit lantern, nor an engine roaring in full throttle. A spark is a precondition, necessary but not sufficient. The immortal poet Bruce Springsteen once wrote, “You can’t start a fire without a spark,” but that was in a different song than “I’m On Fire.”

So Yellow Arrow and I approach 2023 with excited humility. We’re aiming to accelerate recent expansion of our publishing program, including our biannual Yellow Arrow Journal, our chapbook series, and 2022’s successfully launched online journal, Yellow Arrow Vignette—all with extra sizzle provided by our monthly author spotlight .Writers.on.Writing. We’re building out our workshop offerings, including our unique Restorative Writing series and the ever-popular Poetry is Life. And we are finding new ways to ignite creative and communal kindling with in-person events across Baltimore and beyond. All this with an eye toward the financial sustainability that feeds our literary fires.

Together we’ll gently but relentlessly coax Yellow Arrow’s spark of 2023 into full flame, heating and lighting our way through this year of extraordinary promise. Won’t you join us?

Mickey Revenaugh is an education innovator, mission-driven leader, and recovering journalist/current writer of creative nonfiction and fiction. In addition to cofounding a Maryland-based international network of virtual schools, she serves in Board leadership for a New York City charter school, a national charitable foundation, and a global private school. Her writing has appeared in VICE, Chautauqua, Cleaver, Catapult, Louisiana Literature, Lunch Ticket, and many others. She holds an MFA from Bennington College, an MBA from New York University, and a BA in American Studies from Yale. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and can be found online at mickeyrevenaugh.com or Instagram @mickeyrevenaugh.

*****

Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we SPARK and sparkle this year: purchase one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, join our newsletter, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or subscribe 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.

Kapua Iao 12/20/22 Kapua Iao 12/20/22

2022 Year in Review: Wrapping Up a Year of Change

Dear Yellow Arrow Community,

If asked, I think most people would choose summer or spring as their favorite season, but there is something about the beginning of winter that beckons, that sparks a moment of pause, that promotes a bit of stillness. That stillness is not just an opportunity for reflection, but an opening for what is to come. In the same way we prepare our houses for holiday guests—sweeping the floors and cleaning the oven and dusting off the holiday decorations—at Yellow Arrow Publishing, we are winding down what has been an incredibly fulfilling year and readying for 2023 even more focused on supporting and empowering women writers. But before we clear some space on the shelves for all that is to come, let’s take a moment to look back at all we have done in our 2022 Year in Review.

Each year we select a yearly value that embodies the energy we want to bring into our work, and this year, we selected AWAKEN. We focused on paving a new path forward which included sprinkling some in-person events into the all-virtual programming of the past few years, expanding our Board of Directors and staff, and kicking off new ventures, like expanded workshop offerings and the launch of Yellow Arrow Vignette, our new digital publication.

With Yellow Arrow Journal this year, we first explored the theme of UpSpring with guest editor Rebecca Pelky. A poem that really resonated for me was Zorina Exie Frey’s “Vitamin Seed”:

All this time, everyone’s been going the wrong way.

They build ladders and monuments to rise when what

you really have to do is root down. Grab a handful

of earth. Reel deep. Touch the core. The seed. The

heart.

Zorina’s words reminded me that the heart of what we do here at Yellow Arrow is empower women-identifying writers to tell their stories.

Our latest release of Yellow Arrow Journal, PEREGRINE, focuses on illuminating and reclaiming languages, exploring our authors’ personal connections with language, self, and place. Guest editor Raychelle Heath shared, “As a traveler myself, finding home in places of welcome, the word peregrine feels like it also applies to me, and to this broader human experience that we are all traveling through in one way or another.” We are still gushing over the gorgeous cover art by Daryle Newman, who told us, “I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed being a part of this publication. I have not spoken to my art for some time so doing the interview was incredibly cathartic, thank you.” We hope you find a little bit of home in the words of these stunning writers and that their voices awakened something inspirational within you—whether that be a desire to take pen to paper, a reflection on what home means to you, or the instinct to take flight and tackle a new adventure.

An UpSpring author shared their appreciation recently: “And thank you for the thorough support and communication throughout—everyone at Yellow Arrow Journal is incredibly hardworking and thoughtful.” We published 47 different writers in Yellow Arrow Journal this year and 19 more in our first-ever digital publication, Yellow Arrow Vignette AWAKEN.

In addition to the journal, we published three incredible poetry collections: The most beautiful garden by Nikita Rimal Sharma, when the daffodils die by Darah Schillinger, and What Is Another Word For Intimacy? by Amanda Baker. We were thrilled that our chapbook authors this year were all from the Baltimore area so we could continue to awaken in our first community. It was great to see them flourish and awaken in their own way. We recently announced our 2023 chapbook authors and can’t wait to share their stories with you and work with them on their journeys as authors.

We spent our spring working with the fabulous 2022 Writers-in-Residence, and we were so inspired by their words that we published a collection of their poetry, I (want to) love you, Baltimore. We are grateful to Arao Ameny, Amy L. Bernstein, Catrice Greer, and Matilda Young for sharing their voices with us.

This year, we were (finally) able to start attending some in-person events again. What fun we had! We had a virtual booth at SMOL Fair, participated in The Lost Weekend Book Festival outside of Greedy Reads in Remington, enjoyed reading and sharing with friends at the Write Women Book Festival, and had Yellow Arrow authors and writers-in-residence read poetry on-stage at the Arts & Drafts Festival at Guinness Open Gate Brewery. But here is what stood out to me: can I tell you how many times a writer tentatively approached our table and when asked if they were a writer, they would respond, “Well, I write. I’m not sure if I would call myself a writer.” This, friends, is exactly why Yellow Arrow exists! We are here to spark your writing journey, to surround you with fellow creatives on similar paths of exploration, to lift your voices.

Yellow Arrow also offers accessible, affordable workshops year-round that foster a sense of community and support among writers in all stages of their creative journey. This year, we listed a total of 26 workshops with topics ranging from the development of craft elements like writing dialogue through the exploration of ars poetica and generative nature poetry. One workshop participant shared, “I felt connected to the other workshop participants and appreciated the diversity of thought and writing styles represented,” and another stated, “I appreciated the wide-ranging poets, moments of interaction among participants, and quiet reflective periods to journal and write.” We also kicked off the year by publishing a collection from the writers in our 2021 Poetry is Life series led by Ann Quinn (our 2022 session continues into February, and we encourage you to sign up; information about the 2023 session will be available next month!). We also just announced a new series that begins in January: Restorative Writing with Raychelle Heath. You can sign up for all six sessions now or join one session at a time. This is a great way to kick off the new year by honoring your writing intentions on a monthly basis in our supportive community!

We introduced some cool, new ways to support our independent press in 2022, like our brand new merch store (go grab a mug!) and our addition to the Amazon Smile program (go add us as your favorite charity and we’ll benefit from your holiday shopping!) and the reopening of Yellow Arrow Journal subscriptions (we'll let you know when 2023 subscriptions open).

I have tremendous gratitude for all the hard work that goes into our programs and publications, and the team behind the scenes who make all of this happen are some of the most talented and passionate individuals I have ever worked with. Our readers, volunteers, interns, guest editors, workshop instructors, and board members have unwavering dedication to Yellow Arrow’s mission, and this is so evident in the wonderful publications we produce and programs we offer. This year, we welcomed additional staff and board members, and also are sadly saying farewell to a few. We are incredibly fortunate to have had Gina Strauss step in as our interim board president for 2022. She has led our team this year with grace, compassion, and such a warmth of spirit that we will undoubtedly still feel the uplifting effects of her contributions for a long time to come. Jessica Gregg, who has been serving as our board secretary, will also be stepping away at the end of the year. Jessica has been such an asset to our team and though we are sad she is leaving the soard, we know she will also remain a part of our Yellow Arrow community.

We are thrilled to introduce our new board president to you, as well as two other new members joining our board, neither of which is a stranger to the Yellow Arrow family! We feel so grateful to have these three incredible talents join our team. Stay tuned for interviews with our new board president, Mickey Revenaugh, our new director of author support, Patti Ross, and our new director of fundraising, Nikita Rimal Sharma.

One final note. Around the literary world this year, we have read stories of small presses and literary institutions closing their doors. The literary arts space is one where we cheer each other on, and we have been saddened to see other organizations that reached a point of financial unsustainability. At Yellow Arrow Publishing, we are pushing on with our mission to support and empower women-identifying writers, and as we do, we are asking for your continued support now and into the new year.

Now, more than ever, we believe in the power of words and literature to amplify women’s voices and share our powerful stories with the world. Our goal is to be as inclusive and accessible as possible to all women-identifying writers, and in order to pay our contributing authors and keep submissions low or nonexistent, we must build up our financial resources. We are thrilled that we have been awarded a creativity grant from the Maryland State Arts Council for 2023, and we continue to apply to other grant and funding opportunities.

Furthermore, we have kicked off a fund drive to support the future of Yellow Arrow Publishing. To help us reach our goal, we are aiming for 50 donors of $50 or more and 10 donors of $100 or more. Funds raised go directly to support our programs, and in 2023 we plan to focus on expanding access to the literary arts for women-identifying writers by:

Offering low-cost, accessible workshops for creatives to explore the craft of writing
Expanding outreach and scholarship efforts to encourage more writers from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic groups to attend our workshops
Offering additional resources for emerging writers entering the literary world
What does your donation accomplish? A $50 donation from you is the equivalent of:
- One free 1-hour event that could be available to up to 25 writers
- Two workshop scholarships
- Five poetry or prose pieces published in Yellow Arrow Journal

We are ever so grateful for your continued support of women-identifying writers. Donate today to help us achieve our fundraising goals!

Yellow Arrow depends on the support of those who value our work; your continued support means everything to us. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (staff@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@DonateYAP), or US mail (PO Box 65185, Baltimore, Maryland 21209). You can further support us by purchasing one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, joining our newsletter, following us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or subscribing to our YouTube channel. More than anything, messages of support through any one of our channels are greatly appreciated.

Once again, thank you for supporting independent publishing and women writers.

Warmest Wishes,

Annie Marhefka and the Yellow Arrow Publishing team

Annie Marhefka is a writer in Baltimore, Maryland. Her creative nonfiction and poetry have been published by Lunch Ticket, Literary Mama, Pithead Chapel, Anti-Heroin Chic, and others, and her work has been nominated for Best of the Net. Annie is the executive director at Yellow Arrow Publishing, a Baltimore-based nonprofit supporting and empowering women writers, and is working on a memoir about mother/daughter relationships. You can find Annie’s writing on Instagram @anniemarhefka, Twitter @charmcityannie, and at anniemarhefka.com.

Yellow Arrow 12/6/22 Yellow Arrow 12/6/22

Meet the 2023 Yellow Arrow Publishing Pushcart Prize Nominees

The Pushcart Prize honors the incredible work of authors published by small presses and has since 1976. And since then, thousands of writers have been featured in its annual collections—most of whom are new to the series. The Pushcart Prize is a wonderful opportunity for writers of short stories, poetry, and essays to jump further into the literary world and see their work gain recognition and appreciation.

The Prize represents an incredible opportunity for Yellow Arrow to further showcase and support our authors. Our staff is committed to letting our authors shine. Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling. We are so proud of everyone we publish at Yellow Arrow. Without further ado, let’s meet the 2023 Yellow Arrow Pushcart Prize Nominees!

**AMANDA BAKER**

“A coda: Your relationship between you and you is the most important.” *What is Another Word for Intimacy?*
~ Those words of poetry / you said to me / I think you need to turn them around and say them to yourself / and when you’re ready / when you actually believe them / when you love yourself enough / to be the poem / then you’ll be ready for me ~

Amanda Baker is a mental health therapist, 200-hour yoga instructor, and poet from Baltimore, Maryland. She attended the University of Maryland School of Social Work as well as James Madison University. She is also the mother of her four-year old son, Dylan. Her self-published poetry collection, ASK: A Collection of Poetry, Lyrics, and Words, features work from her early teens into her 30s. You can find her on Instagram @amandabakerwrites.

Amanda’s latest chapbook What is Another Word for Intimacy? was just released in October 2022 and can be found in the Yellow Arrow bookstore.

**DIANN LEO-OMINE**

“The Hawk,” *Yellow Arrow Journal* Vol. VII, No. 2 **PEREGRINE**
~ For once in my life, there was no need for language. I will see the place I am from. I will feel the place I am from. I will arrive. ~

Diann Leo-Omine was born and raised in San Francisco, California (Ramaytush Ohlone land), and the colorfully boisterous Toisanese diaspora. Residing now in California’s North Central Valley (Nisenan land), she was awarded a 2022 creative nonfiction fellowship with Rooted and Written at the San Francisco Writers Grotto. She also cocurated and edited the Asian American food zine Lunchbox Moments. Her writing can be found in The Six Fifty, The Universal Asian, Write Now! SF Bay’s Essential Truths, and the BIPOC Writing Party’s forthcoming anthology. You can find her on Instagram @sweetleoomine and Twitter @sweetleoomine, as well as on her website sweetleoomine.com.

Diann contributed her creative nonfiction piece “The Hawk” to Yellow Arrow Journal’s Vol. VII, No. 2 issue, PEREGRINE.

DARAH SCHILLINGER

“the daffodils die,” when the daffodils die

~ what a devastating way to fall in love. ~

Darah Schillinger has previously published poetry in the St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s literary journal, AVATAR, on the Spillwords Press website, in Maryland Bards Poetry Review 2022, and in the first edition of Solstice Magazine. Her first poetry chapbook, when the daffodils die, was released in July 2022 by Yellow Arrow Publishing. Darah is currently Editor-in-Chief of Grub Street Literary Magazine and is pursuing her professional writing graduate degree at Towson University. She lives in Perry Hall, Maryland, with her dog, Moby. You can find her on Facebook @darah.schillinger and Instagram @darahschillinger.

Darah’s chapbook when the daffodils die can be found in the Yellow Arrow bookstore. She also contributed a poem, “i walk home at 10:03 pm,” to Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. VII, No. 1, UpSpring. Darah was the Yellow Arrow 2021 summer publications intern.

**NIKITA RIMAL SHARMA**

“The most beautiful garden,” *The most beautiful garden*
~ Or maybe she has morphed into
a fragrant bush of roses—
enamored by beauty,
guarded by thorns. ~

Nikita Rimal Sharma currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland, and is originally from Kathmandu, Nepal. Professionally, she works at B’More Clubhouse, a mental health nonprofit that is all about working toward reintegration and finding community for adults living with mental illness. Nikita’s first published poem was in Yellow Arrow Journal (Re)Formation from fall 2020. Her first published chapbook, The most beautiful garden, came out in April 2022. She covers themes such as mental health, immigration, and personal growth with a touch of nostalgia. You can find her on Instagram @nikita.playwithwords.

Nikita’s chapbook The most beautiful garden can be found in the Yellow Arrow bookstore. Her poem, “Be You, Beautiful,” can be found in Yellow Arrow Journal’s Vol. V, No. 3 issue, (Re)Formation. She also contributed her work to EMERGE: Pandemic Stories and Poetry is Life. You can learn more about Nikita in her May 2021 Yellow Arrow Journal .W.o.W.

**KAY SMITH-BLUM**

“On Edge,” *Yellow Arrow Journal* Vol. VII, No. 1 **UpSpring**
~ A new foundation will be required. One that rests on individual needs rather than the whole. One that has space for new dreams. The sun casts its sinking spell. The breach shrinks in its glow. ~

Kay Smith-Blum, named Woman Business Owner (NWWA) of the Year 2013, is a recovering retailer writing in Seattle. She coauthored the “Every Man, Every Woman” series of cards and posters published by Schurman Fine Papers and Portal Publications. Kay is the author of two novels of historical fiction, currently out for agent review. Her humorous essay, “Targets,” was nominated by Heavy Feather Review for Best of the Net 2020. Other essays in her “Virus Days” humor series have been published by Pif Magazine, Quail Bell Magazine, and several other fine journals. Her short fiction can be found now or in the future at Fiction Southeast, Yellow Arrow Journal, Change Seven Magazine, and Minerva Rising, among many others. You can find Kay on Twitter @kaysmithblum, Instagram @discerningksb, and Facebook/Linkedin @kay.smithblum. You can also find her on her website kaysmith-blum.com.

Kay contributed her creative nonfiction piece, “On Edge,” to Yellow Arrow Journal’s Vol. VII, No. 1 issue, UpSpring.

*****

Yellow Arrow recently revamped and restructured its Yellow Arrow Journal subscription plan to include two levels. Do you think you are an Avid Reader or a Literary Lover? Find out more about the discounts and goodies involved at yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-subscription. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts.

You can support us as we AWAKEN in a variety of ways: purchase one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, join our newsletter, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (staff@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@yellowarrowpublishing), or US mail (PO Box 102, Glen Arm, MD 21057). More than anything, messages of support through any one of our channels are greatly appreciated.

Kapua Iao 11/1/22 Kapua Iao 11/1/22

Meet the Yellow Arrow Publishing 2023 chapbook authors

By Kapua Iao

For the past few years, we have been busy creating chapbooks! In 2020, Yellow Arrow Publishing released its first two chapbooks: Smoke the Peace Pipe (Roz Weaver) and the samurai (Linda M. Crate). Learning how to navigate the world of single-author publications and getting to know the authors was truly rewarding. Roz and Linda were and are fantastic writers and fantastic women. In 2021 we published three more incredible collections, No Batteries Required (Ellen Dooling Reynard), St. Paul Street Provocations (Patti Ross), and Listen (Ute Carson). This year, we had the privilege of working with three local, Baltimore authors with their collections, The most beautiful garden (Nikita Rimal Sharma), when the daffodils die (Darah Schillinger), and What is Another Word for Intimacy? (Amanda Baker).

Given all the fantastic authors we’ve worked with one on one, we couldn’t wait to review and choose our 2023 chapbook authors. The review committee blindly read through 79 submissions, and every chapbook was heart-filled and personal. And because we consider everyone that publishes with Yellow Arrow family, we spent much time really thinking about our decision. From these initial submissions, we created a longlist of 20 chapbooks then a shortlist of 10 chapbooks (see below for our longlist and shortlist), eventually selecting three to publish in 2023. It was difficult to email every submitter letting them know our decision (writing an acceptance email is as hard as a decline as you never know how either message will be received), but the process is done, and we are so excited to work with the three chosen.

So, without further ado, let’s meet the 2023 Yellow Arrow chapbook authors!

**Ann Weil**

*Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman*

coming April 2023

Ann Weil writes at her home on the corner of Stratford and Avon in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and on a deck boat at Snipe’s Point Sandbar off Key West, Florida. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and appears in more than 45 journals and anthologies including Crab Creek Review, Bacopa Literary Review, Whale Road Review, Shooter Literary Magazine, Eastern Iowa Review, and DMQ Review. Ann earned her doctorate at the University of Michigan and is a former special education teacher and professor of education. Read more of Ann’s poetry at annweilpoetry.com.

Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman explores beauty, womanhood, loving, living fully, and ultimately, aging, from the perspective of a 61-year-old woman (me!).

When did you first realize words have power?

Ha! Great question. I first realized words have power at the age of seven when I won a contest for my poem “Wobbly the Pumpkin Witch.” That was a big day for me, and I still remember the words to that poem (my 85-year-old mother does, too!). But seriously, words have always been important to me, first as a reader—my favorite pastime ever. Little Women slayed me as a teen and when I was introduced to Mary Oliver as a young mother, my life was truly transformed. Imagine that! Poetry can change your life. As an academic, I poured myself into my research and wrote scholarly articles for the field of special education, but my right-brained heart couldn’t wait to get back to reading and writing poetry. Writing has become my daily joy, and joy is its own source of power, right?

Shantell Hinton Hill

Black girl magic & other elixirs

coming July 2023

Shantell Hinton Hill is the ultimate Renaissance woman. An engineer turned pastor, Shantell situates her work at the intersections of social justice, public theology, and Black feminism/womanism. A native of Conway, Arkansas, Shantell is married to Rev. Jeremy Hill. They recently welcomed their first child, Sophie June, to their growing family. Shantell obtained a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School. She also earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University.

She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and the National Society of Black Engineers. She is also an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Her vocational experiences include work as a process control engineer, a Bible teacher, and as Assistant University Chaplain at Vanderbilt University. At Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Shantell focuses on community engagement, faith-based coalition building, and narrative change to imagine more just communities in Arkansas. In her spare time, Shantell is also a freelance writer/author and curates digital content that centers the wholeness and thriving.

Black girl magic & other elixirs is a poetry collection that uplifts the embodied experiences ranging from Black girlhood to womanhood, particularly in the context of growing up in the 90s in the American south. The collection brings to bear the often-unspoken truths about the survival, wit, and skill Black girls and women develop in a world dominated by a myriad of interlocking oppressions. Additionally, this collection seeks to pay homage and build upon the revolutionary work of Black women authors, poets, leaders, and culture bearers. The thematic story arc is an in-depth journey into the nuances of the over-popular term “Black girl magic” juxtaposed with the struggle to realize a world where such magic would no longer need to exist. I am hopeful this collection illustrates that I am passionate about the intersections of justice, storytelling, ethics, and Black women’s spirituality.

When did you first realize words have power?

I started writing my first novel when I was eight or nine years old. I vividly remember writing neatly lined words onto a yellow notepad of a story about a little girl who runs away and forges an adventurous life on her own. It was the summertime, and I was spending several weeks at my grandparents’ house in Greenwood, Mississippi. Besides languishing in the oppressive jim crow-esque heat, there was nothing to do except sit in the front room and listen to the ticktock of 60 Minutes or the gospel messages of John Hagee—my grandfather’s favorite shows to watch while he was sleeping soundly in his folding chair. In those days, my grandfather’s words were law. and his wishes were sovereign.

But in my novel, I created the storyline, characters, and themes that transported me to a place where I could make decisions, take risks, and make-believe other people whom I understood and who I could pretend understood me. Writing gave me license to be big. It gave me the agency to be the commentator of my world rather than a passive participant in a world controlled by others. Discovering my gift for writing unlearned my eyes to see beyond the here and now. And it remains one of the most powerful tools I use today.

**Cassie Premo Steele**

*Swimming in Gilead*

coming October 2023

Cassie Premo Steele, Ph.D., is an award-winning ecofeminist author of 16 books and audio programs ranging from novels to poetry and nonfiction and scholarship. Her novel, The ReSisters, published by a small, independent press in Maine, was a #1 bestseller on Amazon in the category of books for young people combating prejudice and racism. We Heal from Memory, her scholarly work published by Palgrave, advanced ideas about the power of poetry to heal individual and collective trauma 20 years before these ideas were introduced into the mainstream. Her nonfiction book, Earth Joy Writing, published by Ashland Creek Publishing in Oregon, continues to sell well seven years after publication and is available for sale at Congaree National Park, where she leads seasonal forest journaling workshops. Her poetry has won numerous awards, including the Archibald Rutledge Prize named after the first Poet Laureate of South Carolina, where she lives with her wife.

In the summer of 2020 as the pandemic was raging, Cassie joined a group of six women—three from Canada and three from the United States, four white and two women of color, and five lesbian and one straight—to sit and write together by Zoom once a week. They were strangers who came together during the loneliness and terror of that time and in the process, they helped each other survive.

They called themselves the Gilead Sisters.

The poems in Swimming in Gilead were written under the loving kindness and acceptance of these women who became “her eye” for each other. By opening into vulnerability, the poems show readers how to “swim in Gilead” with hope and perseverance as our rights as women are taken away.

When did you first realize words have power?

I was a child under the shadow of Watergate. In fact, I suggested putting blue construction paper on the floor and a white fence on the walls to decorate the classroom for parent night when I was in kindergarten. I knew even then that words have power—to empower and disempower, to reveal truths and cover lies, to help people and to hurt them.

I took these insights with me as I grew, and I used them to help me through a difficult childhood and later incidents of sexual assault. Poetry was always the medicine that helped me gain clarity, find healing, and rediscover my power.

The poems in Swimming in Gilead show that combination of vulnerability and authority as each poem reveals the deeper truths that allow readers to live with courage and a renewed connection to their creative fire.

We can’t wait to work with Ann, Shantell, and Cassie next year but definitely have to acknowledge all the incredible collections we received in the summer. In particular, we would love to give a shout out to our shortlisted and longlisted authors.

Meet our shortlisted authors:

Lorena Caputo

Shelby Catalano

Susan Cummins Miller

Theta Pavis

Melanie Weldon-Soiset

Sophie Zhu

And our longlisted authors:

Priscilla Arthur

Carol Barrett

M.M. Buckner

Margaret Cantú-Sánchez

Carolina Hospital

Saadia Khalid

Diane Payne

Ana C.H. Silva

Richelle Lee Slota

Ellie White

Such incredible writing! Thank you to everyone who took the time to send your words to us. It was a pleasure to read what you put on the page.

Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling. We are so proud of everyone we publish at Yellow Arrow. You can learn more about all our authors here and support them by purchasing publications in the Yellow Arrow bookstore.

Kapua Iao 10/11/22 Kapua Iao 10/11/22

Unexpected Moments: What is Another Word for Intimacy? by Amanda Baker

Yellow Arrow Publishing announces the release of our latest chapbook, What is Another Word for Intimacy? by Amanda Baker. Since its establishment in 2016, Yellow Arrow has devoted its efforts to advocate for all women writers through inclusion in the biannual Yellow Arrow Journal as well as single-author publications, and by providing strong author support, writing workshops, and volunteering opportunities. We at Yellow Arrow are excited to continue our mission by supporting Amanda in all her writing and publishing endeavors.

What is Another Word for Intimacy? came to fruition after years of not writing. As a child and teenager, Amanda had a passion for writing that got lost amidst the illusion of glamor in straight As and the molding of oneself to be apologetically pleasing. Who has time for vulnerability, fascination, imagination, and daydreaming when you’re told they get in the way of productivity and accomplishment? How can you access inner deepness if your heart closes? What leads to a closed heart? Without these answers, Amanda was rarely intimate, unless you count psychology books and social parties, where intimacy is diluted by the appetizers, side wall conversations, and free drinks. Amanda’s passion and deep-seated writing did not fully return until her 30s. Now, she writes to fill the void. She writes to create connections. She writes to find true intimacy, believing it is about the vulnerability that comes with being open and honest when connecting to someone else, whether in friendship, companionship, or love.

In What is Another Word for Intimacy? Amanda travels through unexpected moments of intimacy—a pack of fruit mint gum, the inside of a pocket, an old green dress that still fits—only to realize that all exists within oneself. Relationships are a vessel for growth. Relationships are a mirror, reflecting back in us what we believe about ourselves.

Amanda is a mental health therapist, 200-hour yoga instructor, and poet from Baltimore, Maryland. She attended the University of Maryland School of Social Work and James Madison University. She is a mother of her four-year-old son, Dylan, and enjoys time in nature. Amanda has self-published a poetry collection that includes written work from her early teens into her 30s. You may find her book ASK: A Collection of Poetry, Lyrics, and Words on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The incredible cover was created in-house by Creative Director Alexa Laharty after a few conversations with Amanda. “Intimacy does not need to be defined in words,” Amanda conveyed in a recent chat, “this cover represents all that we are not able to fully say, understand, or see. It still creates a shared authentic experience. It creates a resonance, a vitality, a life force. Touching palm lines, interlaced fingers, a hug of hands is my favorite! The way energy can be felt from miles and miles away and in a touch, in hand holding.”

Paperback and PDF versions of What is Another Word for Intimacy? are now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. If interested in purchasing more than one paperback copy for friends and family, check out our discounted wholesale prices here. You can also search for What is Another Word for Intimacy? wherever you purchase your books including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. To learn more about Amanda and What is Another Word for Intimacy?, check out our recent interview with her.

You can find Amanda on Instagram @amandabakerwrites and connect with Yellow Arrow on Facebook and Instagram, to share some love for this chapbook. We’d love to hear from you.

*****

Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Yellow Arrow recently revamped and restructured its Yellow Arrow Journal subscription plan to include two levels. Do you think you are an Avid Reader or a Literary Lover? Find out more about the discounts and goodies involved at yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-subscription.

Kapua Iao 9/6/22 Kapua Iao 9/6/22

The Fact of Living in a Place: I (want to) love you, Baltimore publication release

Yellow Arrow Publishing announces the release of our latest publication, I (want to) love you, Baltimore, by the Yellow Arrow 2022 Writers-in-Residence: Arao Ameny, Amy L. Bernstein, Catrice Greer, and Matilda Young. Since its establishment in 2016, Yellow Arrow has devoted its efforts to advocate for all women writers through inclusion in the biannual Yellow Arrow Journal as well as single- and multi-author publications, and by providing strong author support, writing workshops, and volunteering opportunities. We at Yellow Arrow are excited to continue our mission by supporting the residents in all their writing and publishing endeavors.

I (want to) love you, Baltimore is now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore as a paperback and a PDF. A heartfelt thanks to Arao, Amy, Catrice, and Matilda for going on this journey with us. Visit yellowarrowpublishing.com/writerinresidence-program to learn more about the 2022 writers-in-residence.

Below, Yellow Arrow Executive Director Annie Marhefka, who accompanied the residents on their journey, dives deeper into what it means to be a Yellow Arrow resident and what it means to create and compile a publication as a group.

By Annie Marhefka

As writers, we like to seek out opportunities to explore our craft in a way that grounds us in place. Writing retreats are places you escape to in order to write, writing fellowships award you funds to write wherever you want, and writing residencies offer you a place to go to dedicate time to the pursuit of writing. A residency by definition is “the fact of living in a place.” Residency programs are meant to foster community among its participants. This year at Yellow Arrow Publishing, we decided to have a virtual writing residency for Baltimore residents, a thing that is at odds with itself, a thing that should not even exist.

Founder Gwen Van Velsor initially designed yellow Arrow’s residency program to accommodate emerging writers who could not spend weeks or months in a location far removed from where their obligations resided. The original residency was flexible—a place, the Yellow Arrow House, you could go to at hours of your own choosing, a space to call your own, for the sole purpose of writing. But in 2020 as we all know, our shared physical spaces became places where disease could spread rather than places where we could find community. In fact, my introduction to Yellow Arrow was through its residency program during this time; mine began in March of 2020. As a new mother who had quickly found it impossible to write, even with childcare, in my own noisy home, I was ecstatic to have been awarded a residency with Yellow Arrow. I hired a nanny to watch my child a few afternoons each week and headed off to my new writing space in Highlandtown.

The writing space was intimate—a small wooden desk in a corner by two windows that looked out over the intersection of South Conkling and Bank streets. Despite its plainness, it was apparent that someone [Gwen] had taken care to make the space feel cozy, safe, inspiring. One window was adorned with a large paper cutout of a woman writing. The silhouette cast a feminine shadow across the room when the sun peeked over the brick building across the street. An empty notebook whose cover was decorated with a picture of the Baltimore skyline laid upon the desk, along with a basket of pens, a vase of yellow flowers, and a yellow coffee mug.

While I had sought out the writing residency to escape others, to find solace in a place where I was isolated, it struck me once I arrived that the thing about the space that made it conducive to writing was the presence of other writers in the room. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a classic green chalkboard easel. On it, Gwen had drawn a swirly yellow arrow and written this quote by Emily Kamminga, a contributor to Yellow Arrow Journal, COURAGE (Vol. III):

On that first day, I wrote 3,000 words—almost an entire chapter for my work-in-progress, a memoir about my relationship with my late mother. I was elated. Then, several days later, I penned an article about the world shutting down for I Heart Highlandtown’s website. It is stunning to read that back to myself now—how I thought of it as temporary, how I thought of the pandemic story having an ending. Fast forward to 2021, when I took on the role of executive director of Yellow Arrow and had to re-envision how we would (how we could) host programs, like the writing residency, without a physical space. When our mission was centered around building community space for emerging writers and creatives, how could I create a community virtual space that was as sacred and nurturing to the soul as the space Gwen had created for me?

I knew immediately that the residency program could not be done in isolation in this way. We were all already isolating, physically; I could not then expect writers to pursue their creative endeavors alone in their rooms. They needed a safe zone. They needed a sanctuary. They needed a place—even if it was not a real, tangible location. We decided to create a virtual cohort of writers and the writers had to be in Baltimore. Even though they may never meet in person, they needed to have place in common. Places can amplify our differences and our commonalities; they can separate us, unite us, bond us. And Baltimore is where Yellow Arrow’s roots are, and where my roots are, so Charm City would be a requirement.

The four writers we selected, Arao, Amy, Catrice, and Matilda, submitted stunning portfolios of work, and would represent different facets of Baltimore—different neighborhoods, different experiences, different perspectives. My intention was to meet monthly with the four writers and check on their progress, as I did not want to overburden them in an already over-burdensome online landscape with more Zoom calls, but I also intended to let the writers guide me in how I facilitated the program. In our first meeting, they all agreed they preferred to meet weekly, and so that became the new plan. For several months, we met on Zoom and most days, we started our conversations with how everyone was doing personally. Sometimes, we let those check-ins drive our entire meeting space. Sometimes they needed to. We talked about our losses, our writing inspirations, and sometimes our inability to feel inspired at that moment.

But mostly, the writers shared their words. Arao, Amy, Catrice, and Matilda put their full selves forward throughout their residency program. The irony of having a virtual residency grounded in Baltimore was that it was not grounded in any place at all. For each Zoom call, we clicked on a web link, adjusted our lighting, and muted ourselves when we weren’t talking. Some of us even had faux backgrounds that blurred when we shifted too quickly to the left, and here we were talking about the city that surrounded us, and our relationship to it without really being in it together.

The only rule I had given them was that the writing had to incorporate Baltimore in some way—as setting, as background, as character. They drafted poems and read them aloud with a vulnerability that only a writer with a half-finished first draft fully understands. We sent clapping emojis and typed out lines that stood out to us in the chat with exclamation marks to convey how much the words impacted us, and we went off mute to cheer and cry and say, “Thank you for sharing that with us.”

Most importantly, we created a beautiful publication out of the residency program, now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore as a paperback and a PDF. You can also search for I (want to) love you, Baltimore wherever you purchase your books including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. To learn more about the residents, check out our residents’ blog posts here.

I know that you, as a reader, will feel rooted in the place that inspired these beautiful poems: our Baltimore. And I know that you, as a reader, will be as thankful as I am that these writers shared their stories with us. They created for each other what I had only hoped to replicate from that tiny little writing studio in Highlandtown: the fact of living in a place, together.

Annie Marhefka is a writer and publishing professional in Baltimore. Her creative nonfiction and poetry have been published by Hobart, Literary Mama, Pithead Chapel, Anti-Heroin Chic, Sledgehammer, and others. Annie is the Executive Director at Yellow Arrow Publishing and is working on a memoir about mother/daughter relationships. Annie spent the majority of her career as an executive in human resources in the ed-tech industry before switching paths to focus on motherhood and creative writing. When she’s not writing or wrangling her children, she likes to spend her time on the Chesapeake Bay and other bodies of water. You can find Annie’s writing on Instagram @anniemarhefka, Twitter @charmcityannie, and at anniemarhefka.com.

*****

Kapua Iao 7/12/22 Kapua Iao 7/12/22

Everything is cyclical: when the daffodils die, a chapbook by Darah Schillinger

Yellow Arrow Publishing announces the release of our latest chapbook, when the daffodils die, by Darah Schillinger. Since its establishment in 2016, Yellow Arrow has devoted its efforts to advocate for all women writers through inclusion in the biannual Yellow Arrow Journal as well as single-author publications, and by providing strong author support, writing workshops, and volunteering opportunities. We at Yellow Arrow are excited to continue our mission by supporting Darah in all her writing and publishing endeavors.

when the daffodils die includes an assortment of poems exploring love, loss, and the self. Within the pages are various references to the wonders of nature, providing her readers with the tangible to describe intangible feelings. From wintery landscapes to cloudy skies and yellow summer days, Darah wields her poetry within when the daffodils die to bring her readers on a journey through their (and her) relationship with themselves and with those they choose to surround themselves with. Young love, a mother’s love, self-love, spiritual love, all encompassing love. Her willingness to write about the many facets of love and the way she challenges both herself and the long-standing truths within society about women and their place within the world makes this collection of poetry one of courage, defiance, and an appreciation for the overlooked things in life.

Darah previously interned for the literary magazine EcoTheo Review in summer 2020 and has had poetry published in her school literary journal, AVATAR, on the Spillwords Press website, in issue one of the Solstice Literary Magazine, and in the Maryland Bard’s Poetry Review 2022. Darah currently lives in Perry Hall, Maryland, with her parents, and in her free time, she likes to write poetry and paint. She plans to pursue an MS in professional writing and hopes to establish a career in publishing after its completion.

The stunning, simplistic cover art and interior daffodils were created by Creative Director Alexa Laharty.

Paperback and PDF versions of when the daffodils die are now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. If interested in purchasing more than one paperback copy for friends and family, check out our discounted wholesale prices here. You can also search for when the daffodils die wherever you purchase your books including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. To learn more about Darah and when the daffodils die, check out our recent interview with her.

You can find Darah on Instagram @darahschillinger or @brokewritersociety and on Facebook @darah.schillinger, and connect with Yellow Arrow on Facebook and Instagram, to share some love for this chapbook. We’d love to hear from you.

*****

Kapua Iao 4/12/22 Kapua Iao 4/12/22

From Kathmandu to Baltimore: The most beautiful garden by Nikita Rimal Sharma

Yellow Arrow Publishing announces the release of our latest chapbook, The most beautiful garden, by Nikita Rimal Sharma. Since its establishment in 2016, Yellow Arrow has devoted its efforts to advocate for all women writers through inclusion in the biannual Yellow Arrow Journal as well as single-author publications, and by providing strong author support, writing workshops, and volunteering opportunities. We at Yellow Arrow are excited to continue our mission by supporting Nikita in all her writing and publishing endeavors.

The most beautiful garden is an expression of Nikita. It is a collection of poems that includes themes such as mental health, South Asian culture, her mother, and family. It reflects on deep heartaches, dark moments and light moments, pride, joy, and love, with the hope that anyone who reads The most beautiful garden also gets a chance to reflect on the beautiful being they are in spite of the baggage and everything they hold.

The incredible cover art was created by Creative Director Alexa Laharty based on a photograph Nikita provided of her mother. Interior images were also drawn by Alexa.

Nikita currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband and Pitbull Terrier, Stone, and works at B’More Clubhouse, a community-based mental health nonprofit. She is originally from Kathmandu, Nepal. Nikita is a typical homebody who gets a lot of joy from slow running, short hikes, reading, and deep thoughts. She has always loved writing and started writing at the age of seven when she wrote a fairy tale titled “Star Girls.” Nikita wishes she had saved a copy of it.

Paperback and PDF versions of The most beautiful garden are now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. If interested in purchasing more than one paperback copy for friends and family, check out our discounted wholesale prices here. You can also search for The most beautiful garden wherever you purchase your books including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. To learn more about Nikita and The most beautiful garden, check out our recent interview with her.

You can find Nikita on Instagram @nikita.playwithwords, and connect with Yellow Arrow on Facebook and Instagram, to share some love for this chapbook. We’ll let everyone know about her book launch soon.

Happy National Poetry Month!

*****

Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts.

L.M. Cole

I, an object, shattered into fragments,am searching for the phrasethat nobody would understandbut you, who have listened withpatience to myself in fractals of light and perspective

Maggie Flaherty

Awake! Awake! The closer I look, the more I see this earth—this present moment—burning.

Where’s a gust of healing rain, a soothing wind that lifts or sets us down gently?”

Kerry Graham

Nudging my door open, I step into, on, among stillness. My eyes wander within the room’s four walls, where my lovelies and I will make another year’s worth of memories, magic, mistakes.

Nancy Huggett

To make things right.I stride,eyes bright from sleepless nightsand this thin slice of freedom

Janice Northerns

But what has never faded is the piercing grief I felt that first visit when I stumbled into the kitchen in that predawn dark and discovered the bowl, the spoon, the oatmeal—the simple morning still-life my mother had laid out for my father. And with it, my realization that he was dying.

Shikhandin

. . . .But you are alive still. And so

is time and breath and your jam-jarred dreams. Allit needs is a flick of your wrist to open.

Katarina Xóchitl Vargas

There are 25 millionslaughtered ancestors in my genes.

When the withering startsthey spill into my veins all at once:ancient danzantes with phantom limbs—feet stomping, ankles rattling,reawakening my Earth with ayoyotes

Ann Weil

. . . .I still feelthe warmth of his arms, the heat between usthat made three new lives, the burning gut that knowsthe pain of shared complicity. Love can melteven as our fingers grasp for it.

AMANDA BAKER

“A coda: Your relationship between you and you is the most important.” What is Another Word for Intimacy?

~ Those words of poetry / you said to me / I think you need to turn them around and say them to yourself / and when you’re ready / when you actually believe them / when you love yourself enough / to be the poem / then you’ll be ready for me ~

DIANN LEO-OMINE

“The Hawk,” Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. VII, No. 2 PEREGRINE

~ For once in my life, there was no need for language. I will see the place I am from. I will feel the place I am from. I will arrive. ~

DARAH SCHILLINGER

“the daffodils die,” when the daffodils die

~ what a devastating way to fall in love. ~

NIKITA RIMAL SHARMA

“The most beautiful garden,” The most beautiful garden

~ Or maybe she has morphed into

a fragrant bush of roses—

enamored by beauty,

guarded by thorns. ~

KAY SMITH-BLUM

“On Edge,” Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. VII, No. 1 UpSpring

~ A new foundation will be required. One that rests on individual needs rather than the whole. One that has space for new dreams. The sun casts its sinking spell. The breach shrinks in its glow. ~

Ann Weil

Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman

coming April 2023

Shantell Hinton Hill

Black girl magic & other elixirs

coming July 2023

Cassie Premo Steele

Swimming in Gilead

coming October 2023

Subscribe to the Yellow Arrow Newsletter!

I, an object, shattered into fragments,
am searching for the phrase
that nobody would understand
but you, who have listened with
patience to myself in fractals of light and perspective

Awake! Awake! The closer
I look, the more I see this earth—
this present moment—burning.

Where’s a gust of healing rain,
a soothing wind that lifts
or sets us down gently?”

To make things right.
I stride,
eyes bright from sleepless nights
and this thin slice of freedom

is time and breath and your jam-jarred dreams. All
it needs is a flick of your wrist to open.

There are 25 million
slaughtered ancestors in my genes.

When the withering starts
they spill into my veins all at once:
ancient danzantes with phantom limbs—
feet stomping, ankles rattling,
reawakening my Earth with ayoyotes

. . . .I still feel
the warmth of his arms, the heat between us
that made three new lives, the burning gut that knows
the pain of shared complicity. Love can melt
even as our fingers grasp for it.