Yellow Arrow Publishing Blog
Meet an Artist: Kalichi Lamar
from the 2021 art series
Storytelling takes place in many different forms, not just writing. When an artist shares a piece with others they also share a piece of who they are with their audience. We see the expression of their aesthetic, culture, and identity woven into their work.
This is definitely visible in the artwork for Yellow Arrow Journal. During each journal submission period, we ask for creative nonfiction, poetry, and cover art that reflects a chosen theme. We get incredible artwork created in various media and choose the one that best represents the theme.
To celebrate our talented cover artists, we will be releasing a series of blogs to share their stories and the importance that art has on their lives.
The second artist that we are featuring in our Art Series is Kalichi Lamar. Kalichi’s first name is Taíno for “fountain of the high mountain.” She is a Higuayagua-Taino from the island of Borikén where her roots are tied to her name and her connection to nature. Kalichi has an MS/MA in Psychology and Arts in Medicine, and she has worked professionally with cancer patients and the elderly. Additionally, Kalichi runs an online shop of wood-burn pieces, crafted items, and creative wellness sessions. Her work is inspired by nature and Taíno roots. As smoke envelops her space, it becomes incense and prayer infused into each piece. Kalichi creates to inspire others to reconnect to self, nature, and Spirit. Her art piece, “Nature Springs From Her” was seen on the cover of Yellow Arrow Journal: RENASCENCE, Vol. VI, No.1, Spring 2021.
You can find Kalichi at kalichisessentials.com or on Instagram and Facebook.
Kalichi recently took some time to answer a few questions for us.
As an artist what types of habits have you developed when creating art?
One of the most important habits I developed when creating art is the state of mindfulness. This mindfulness often transfers to a flow state. I get into this state by tending my plants in my art space, turning on instrumental music, lighting candles or incense, thanking the Creator and my ancestors, and allowing natural light to come in. This sets the tone to create and puts me in a headspace for inspiration. The result is often an intuitive and meditative creation.
What are your top five tips for aspiring artists?
Great question! My five tips for aspiring artists would be:
Start with a small, economical kit. If you are not sure what method you like, it’s best to start small; rather than purchasing all the oil paints, oil brushes, etc., to then realize you don’t enjoy or are not good at oil painting.
Try a variety of genres. You might not be good at painting, but you might be amazing at collages. Or, you might be a great jewelry maker or woodcarver. There are a plethora of creative outlets. So, try different art methods to find your niche.
Keep creating! Don’t stop creating, even if it does not take off professionally. Create because it comes from your soul.
Avoid comparing yourself to other artists. Art is subjective to each person’s taste. What may seem like an amazing art piece to one person, might not be to another. Additionally, each person’s skill develops differently. Therefore, don’t compare yourself! Art can be so many things and opportunities! Each artist has their own unique ability. Hone in on yours, fall in love with it. If it brings you joy, keep creating!
Make sure you create from your soul. Your art is a reflection of you.
What inspired you to submit to Yellow Arrow?
I learned about Yellow Arrow through a fellow tribal sister. She told me about Yellow Arrow’s RENASCENCE edition and its mission to give voices to marginalized/self-identifying women. I fell in love with this mission and felt it was a great opportunity to give a voice and exposure to my Taíno community. Every day, I am grateful I was given the opportunity.
Thank you, Kalichi, for answering our questions. You can purchase a paperback or PDF of RENASCENCE in the Yellow Arrow bookstore, along with other Yellow Arrow publications.
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The 2021 art series was created and put together by Marketing Associate, Michelle Lin. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Like us on Facebook and Instagram for news about the next journal submissions period. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Poems About the Feelings We Don’t Talk About: A Review of Gigi Bella’s Big Feelings
By Darah Schillinger, written June 2021
In her first full-length collection, Big Feelings (from Game Over Books, a Boston-based publisher of marginalized voices), Gigi Bella creates a place of understanding—a place for her audience to relate to something bigger than themselves—by coupling raw honesty with down-to-earth humor that together elevates the soul. Though her poems embody unapologetic womanhood, Big Feelings celebrates the vulnerable alongside the feminine, acknowledging that vulnerability comes with the uncertainty and struggle that defines our narratives.
The book’s story begins in the acknowledgments, where she writes:
“the world is always ending but somehow it’s weirdly never all the way over. we only have each other & our stories & our reckless dreams. we are all just a big tangled ball of our big big feelings.”
The language of apocalypse reflects the unprecedented times the world has lived through and the resilience of humanity, immediately emphasizing the importance of storytelling and understanding one another. Her thank-you(s) comfort the soul, presenting as a thick page of genuine, poetic connection that guides us into the stories she tells in a way that politely invites us to listen.
A ghost metaphor defines the early poems of Big Feelings, appearing and disappearing whenever the speaker needs a way to describe the transparent identity of a person who feels as if “something used to be there but [they] can’t find it anymore” (11). Ghost girl is an alter-ego that the poem’s speaker uses when the weight of feelings becomes overwhelming, and it isn’t until the ghost becomes a solid, living person that the speaker replaces ghosts with the idea of living for better reasons. The speaker “evaporate(s) into the ghost that they have made [her] into” (11), but then replaces that image of death with all the reasons she has to live, such as taking care of a street kitten, staying to love someone else who deserves it, or even living just to prove to others that you can.
In the poem, “ode to ducky the bodega kitten,” the speaker sees herself in the kitten’s life in the “big trash city,” which reminds her “that / feeling small / only means that i am / so so alive” (14). Taking care of the kitten seems to be the first significant step from the speaker’s ghost identity, realizing that her own survival of the things that make her feel invisible is what makes living worthwhile. In the poem, “twitter sestina for suicidal ideation,” the speaker shifts from kitten to romantic partner, describing love as “just staying when you could be anywhere” (29). Choosing to leave the comfort of her ghost persona to be present for her partner is synonymous with love—a selfless reason for remaining alive. Bella parallels the speaker’s relationship with that of Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson as a recognizable allusion to what she has experienced with her partner while also drawing attention to the time and care needed when loving someone struggling with mental health. Pete and Ariana make several appearances throughout the book, acting as a familiar connection between the speaker’s partner, and the public relationship of two people that she sees an aspect of her relationship in.
The speaker then shifts to a funnier reason for living rooted in her ethnicity, where she asks, “isn’t that the most mexican thing? staying alive when it feels like no one wants you to?” (41) The speaker finds humor in her Great-Aunt Esperanza’s determination to outlive her sister, identifying her stubbornness with her identity as a Mexican woman. She uses the stereotypes attributed to her identity to make a point about living as defiance, a message that carries with her throughout the book. The speaker’s ethnic identity is a cohesive part of the joy she has found in living, as seen in the poem, “lessons i learned from selena”:
bedazzle until your brown is so loud, you can sew it into a dress
my grandmother is frida kahlo, molded into hospital bed and we are surviving and we are alive
These recognitions of the connection between defiance and ethnicity seem to tie into the speaker’s will to live, proving her point of living in spite of feeling as though others don’t want you to. The ghost image is a visual reminder of the speaker’s discomfort with the complexity of emotions, but the language of living for others and in spite of others overpowers any comfort one may find in fading away.
Big Feelings also discusses abuse and assault in a way that helps readers who are victims feel understood while simultaneously educating those who may not understand the severity or impact of the trauma that victims go through. In the poem, “FROM MY EX,” the speaker capitalizes the entire poem to make the distinction that it is a new, more aggressive speaker, and writes, “I NEVER HIT YOU / ONLY CALLED YOU WASTED” (20). The language used is obviously verbally abusive, yet the new speaker ironically defends himself by stating that he was never physically abusive and therefore a “GOOD MAN” (20). Bella adds this poem to show the ways people can manipulate their partners and abuse them even without physical confrontation, sharing these experiences to show others what non-physical abuse can sound like. In “[good screams//bad screams],” the speaker opens up about her sexual assault and the lasting trauma that comes with it, running sentences and words together to visually represent the confusion and emotional disorientation that victims may feel in the aftermath. The speaker immediately calls
out the subject’s performative feminism, saying (34):
“. . .when you vote or post on facebook about women’s rights or think about your mom & your sister i want you to remember my face”
She brings to our attention the contrast between saying, posting, or writing about feminism, and having actual, genuine respect for women, two things that look the same but are vastly different in practice. Claiming to support women or minorities is not enough to make one a feminist, and Bella’s ability to recognize that performance and call it out so others can learn and grow from it while remaining so vibrantly honest and vulnerable with her audience makes her an incredible advocate for victims and herself.
Bella has taken the time to write from a place of personal struggle and shared it with the world to help others feel seen, having used pop culture and religious imagery to reflect the kind of modern storytelling deserving of a modern audience. Between the blazing social critiques, discussions of violence against women, and the draining reality of mental health struggles, Big Feelings has solidified itself as a space of understanding for those who feel invisible, reminding us to embrace those uncomfortable feelings we’re so reluctant to discuss. Thanks to Bella, we can all feel the same big feelings with the turn of a page.
Bella, Gigi. Big Feelings. Game Over Books, 2020.
Darah Schillinger is a rising senior at St. Mary’s College of Maryland studying English Literature with a double minor in Creative Writing and Philosophy. She previously interned for the literary magazine EcoTheo Review in summer 2020 and has had poetry published in her school literary journal, AVATAR, and in the Spillwords Press Haunted Holidays series for 2020. Darah currently lives in Perry Hall, Maryland with her parents and in her free time she likes to write poetry and paint.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Meet an Artist: Jeanne Quinn
from the 2021 art series
Storytelling takes place in many different forms, not just writing. When an artist shares a piece with others, they also share a piece of who they are with their audience. We see the expression of their aesthetic, culture, and identity woven into their work.
This is definitely visible in the artwork for Yellow Arrow Journal. During each journal submission period, we ask for creative nonfiction, poetry, and cover art that reflects a chosen theme. We get incredible artwork created in various media and choose the one that best represents the theme.
To celebrate our talented cover artists, we will be releasing a series of blogs to share their stories and the importance that art has on their lives.
The first artist that we are featuring in our Art Series is Jeanne Quinn. Jeanne creates theatrical installations that attempt to remind us that everything is ephemeral. She studied art history and baroque music performance at Oberlin College, and earned her MFA in ceramics from the University of Washington. She has exhibited widely, including Denver Art Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Kemper Museum for Contemporary Art, and Art Basel/Design Miami. She has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the European Ceramic Work Centre, Zentrum für Keramik Berlin, and many others. She is a professor and chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado. Her art piece, “Lace Drawing,” was seen on the cover of Yellow Arrow Journal, (Re)Formation, Vol. V, No. 3, Fall 2020.
You can find Jeanne at jeannequinnstudio.com or on Instagram and Facebook.
Jeanne recently took some time to answer a few questions for us.
Who inspired/influenced your journey as an artist the most?
I saw Anne Smith’s work in a show in Boston in 1990. I was incredibly inspired by what she was doing with surface decoration on ceramics and shelves and took a class from her at a local ceramics studio. I ended up becoming her studio assistant, and she served as a mentor, getting me started studying at the University of Colorado and then at the University of Washington, in ceramics. There have been many important teachers along the way—most importantly, Betty Woodman—but I never would have gotten started without Anne’s encouragement and smarts in navigating the journey. You can find Anne on Instagram or at annesmith.net.
What inspired the piece that you created for Yellow Arrow?
My mother sent me an article from the Washington Post that included a photograph of a beautiful piece of lace. She knew I had always been interested in lace, and we had a small collection of pieces tatted by my great-grandmother, which she passed on to me. The photograph she sent inspired me to start drawing lace, which I’ve done continuously ever since. I love translating something so crafted and material into an image, since, as a ceramicist, I usually do the reverse.
What projects are you currently working on?
I’m making an installation, Dust And A Shadow, for an exhibition at the Centre des Arts Visuels in Montreal. It’s my response to the isolation and general experience of Covid. I started with a drawing of some baroque architectural moldings and turned those into dimensional, linear ceramic wall sculptures. The shadows of the pieces are rendered in clear vinyl adhered to the wall, so they are both shadowy and reflective.
Thank you, Jeanne, for answering our questions. You can purchase a paperback or PDF of (Re)Formation in the Yellow Arrow bookstore, along with other Yellow Arrow publications.
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The 2021 art series was created and put together by Marketing Associate, Michelle Lin. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Like us on Facebook and Instagram for news about the next journal submissions period. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Creative Nonfiction: Nature Writing
By Melissa Nunez, written June 2021
from the creative nonfiction summer 2021 series
Nature writing is fertile ground for a writer, especially a female writer, to examine through vivid imagery and powerful metaphor the beauty, vulnerability, and strength within and without us.
Mother Earth. Mother Nature. Motherland. Across cultures and time, the connection between the female body and nature is an enduring thread.
I consider myself an amateur naturalist, but I wasn’t always this drawn to my natural environment. In my desire to instill in my children respect for our planet, for all its inhabitants, I found renewed wonder, fresh eyes with which to observe plants and creatures. After so much time as an observer, it felt very natural to make the leap from memoir and narrative nonfiction writing to nature writing, to take my words about myself (my body) and apply them to the natural world around me (earth body). I task myself with taking things that seem quite ordinary—an everyday blackbird perched on a car hood, the common daisy sprouting from the base of a stop sign—and approaching them from new angles, forming unexpected correlations. The surprise of discovering and sharing new information, a contrasting perspective.
Nature writing is also a medium in which to discuss oppression, exploitation, and inequality, considering how much habitat has been destroyed, how many creatures are endangered, have been erased. The importance of these losses is more evident in some areas of the globe than others, is considered more relevant for some people than others. Prejudices continue to inhabit our seemingly modern life, in both subversive and overt forms, adopted as norms inherent to the structure of day-to-day living. Many injustices are no longer so secret but are still susceptible to all manner of rug sweeping. Through ecological writing, we can explore how the actions we take, the choices we make, impact the world around us. Each decision has the rippling potential of exponential impact on the microcosms and ecosystems surrounding us. Poisons used to control populations of one creature marked pest (ants, rodents, coyotes) can damage countless others (raptors, reptiles, people). Trees mowed down to make room for cars and buildings displace countless animals who once dwelled there. Walls constructed to inhibit the migration of unwanted people inhibit the migratory movement of dwindling creatures—pollinators and wildcats.
We don’t always like looking too closely in the mirror, at times afraid of what we might see. This is where I find nature writing can function much like fantasy or science fiction, taking you to another world and showing you imbalances that seem so clear when presented with varying degrees of separation. You can take slices of your life and your environment and work through existing imbalances—those of sexism, racism, classism—connecting what is yours, what is mine to a more universal feminine (human) experience. Connecting what is happening with disappearing creatures to disappearing cultures, trampled bodies, and silenced voices.
With nature writing comes the potential to prompt reflection on and examination of our perspectives, our interactions with those around us—living things of human, plant, and animal kind. Our world isn’t perfect, people aren’t perfect, but we can be better. Taking a general reverence and respect for the natural world and making it a more personal experience can ignite a desire to do better. Nature-inspired writing can give a new voice to many who are fighting to be heard. It offers the opportunity for us to try, for even just a moment, to see the world from a different point of view.
The following works showcase the wide spectrum of the genre of nature writing, each author inspiring in their individual approach, style, and voice.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Smith Blue by Camille T. Dungy
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (see also Yellow Arrow staff member Siobhan McKenna’s review from Yellow Arrow Journal (Re)Formation)
You can find Melissa’s beautiful, nature-based essay “What is Mine” in Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VI, No. 1, RENASCENCE. Get your copy today.
Melissa Nunez is an avid reader, writer, and homeschooling mother of three living in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas—a predominantly Latin@ community. Her essays have appeared in Yellow Arrow Journal, The Accents Review, and Folio, among others. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaKNunez.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Inspiring Locations to Write in Baltimore, Maryland
By Siobhan McKenna, written June 2021
As a freelance writer, there are few things that motivate me to sit down and write more than the promise that I’ll be able to sip on a latte as I string sentences together. For me, writing is an experience, and being able to cultivate that experience by writing at a coffee shop or in a park prevents me from being distracted by the dirty laundry calling out or the bathroom that suddenly needs a deep clean. Finding a space to write whether it’s professionally, therapeutically, or for pleasure is not only a great way to focus but can also inspire creativity. Writing outside your home office is also a great way to support local businesses and see flyers for writing and reading events as they slowly emerge once more.
Below is a list of some Baltimore old and new favorites to bring your laptop, notebook, and a pen to in order to get your caffeine fix and channel your creative process. Remember to check a café’s Instagram or website for its most up-to-date policies regarding COVID-19.
Pitango Bakery + Café, 903 S Ann Street
Neighborhood: Fell’s Point
IG @pitango_bakery_cafe; pitangogelato.com/location/pitango-bakery-cafe/
The Fell’s Point Pitango’s corner location, tucked away from busier Thames Street and situated along a quiet harbor inlet, makes it a classic spot for writing. Many times, I have found myself heading down early in the day to take in the morning light scattering off the water as I shake away brain fog. Between sentences, you can admire joggers and stroller-pushing parents cruising along the waterfront path as tiny bakery birds flit around searching for croissant crumbs. Currently, the café has ample outside seating underneath umbrellas as the Baltimore summer saunters in.
Charles M Halcott Square, 104 S Duncan Street
Neighborhood: Butcher’s Hill
baltimoregreenspace.org/charles-m-halcott-square/
In spring and summer, this “secret” park (as I like to call it) is alive with butterflies swooping from petal to petal. Halcott Square is not truly a secret, but because of its location down an alley and its lack of visitors whenever I come to write, I often feel like I’m the only one who knows about its location despite the well-maintained flowers and free, up-to-date copies of the local neighborhood newsletter. In this quaint pocket park, there are picnic tables and benches that enable you to post up underneath the shade of a tree after grabbing an iced oat milk latte and muffin from Charmed Kitchen just a short walk down the street as you concentrate on writing your novel’s next chapter.
Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse, 1225 Cathedral Street
Neighborhood: Midtown
Named after Emma Goldman, a Lithuania immigrant to the United States and activist who fought for many causes including women’s rights (1), Red Emma’s is a bookstore, coffee shop, and community event space that is completely worker-run and strives to create a strong social justice network in Baltimore. Located in the midtown section of the city, Red Emma’s is a spot I often find myself when I want to gain insight into the minds of other writers and more information on specific social movements. I appreciate perusing Red Emma’s extensive collection of books that expound the reasons for the inequality and injustice that has plagued Baltimore and ultimately the entire country and being able to reflect in my journal over a vegan breakfast sandwich and latte.
Druid Hill Park, 900 Druid Park Lake Dr.
Neighborhood: Druid Hill Park
bcrp.baltimorecity.gov/parks/druid-hill
Built in 1860, Druid Hill Park is a wilder version of Patterson Park. While the park is landscaped beautifully, there are more opportunities to lose yourself deep among the 745 acres (vs Patterson’s 137) of forest and winding paths past The Maryland Zoo and Victorian-era Rawlings Conservatory. I love this park because there are spots where I can completely immerse myself in nature and trade in the hum of trucks for the rustle of wind through the leaves and the trickling offshoots of the Jones Falls stream. On my way to a shady patch of trees, I’ll pick up coffee and breakfast at Dovecote in Reservoir Hill which reopens with a community celebration the weekend of Juneteenth for the first time since it closed during the pandemic.
Good Neighbor, 3827 Falls Road
Neighborhood: Hampden
IG @goodneighborshop; goodneighborshop.com/
Despite opening amid the pandemic (2), Good Neighbor has been able to woo Baltimore café fanatics (aka me) with its unique collection of local and global goods (think ceramics, Scandinavian design, and glassware), flower-filled wood patio, and of course, it’s coffee. Good Neighbor’s outdoor space is situated on a hill overlooking Falls Road with The Greenhouse at Good Neighbor—a plant and flower studio with fresh and dried blooms—nestled on top of the incline. When I write here, I can feel the creative energy that flows through the space. Co-owners, husband and wife, Anne Morgan and Shawn Chopra, set up both the inside and outside of their shop to be an aesthetically delightful and comforting atmosphere where I can admire tangerine and periwinkle buds under the cover of umbrellas while finishing up my most recent blog post for Yellow Arrow Publishing.
The Parks of Mount Vernon Place
Neighborhood: Mount Vernon
Bathed in the shadow of the Washington Monument, Mount Vernon Place is four squares that surround the first monument to our earliest president. All four parks are great spaces to write, but West Mount Vernon Place has always been my favorite. Many times, I have found myself in the west green space writing poetry on one of the green benches as a cellist from the nearby Peabody Conservatory tests a new composition. I take a moment between lines to admire the Gothic-style churches, fountains, and Victorian buildings along the perimeter of the square. And yet, as with most historical spots in Baltimore, prejudice is planted among the beauty. In the north square, the empty pedestal of Roger B. Taney stands as a reminder of what has fed the soil. In August 2017, the Taney statue, along with three other Confederate sympathizing monuments in the city, was removed in the dark of night (3). Taney, a Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, wrote the Dred Scott court decision, “which stated that African Americans—enslaved and free—were property and could never be citizens of the United States” (4). As a white writer in Baltimore, it is important for me to acknowledge and sit with the legacy of white supremacy that grew and continues to fuel Baltimore and the rest of our country. The dichotomy of writing about intense topics among the flowers, fountains, and empty pedestals helps me to reflect and write about where our city and country have been and the path that I am taking to reconcile our past and current history of discrimination.
Other Inspiring Coffee Spots & Parks
Coffee: OneDo, Bird in Hand, Café Dear Leon, Vent Coffee Roasters
Parks: Canton Waterfront Park, Wyman Park Dell, Sherwood Gardens
(1) “Who is Emma?” Red Emma’s. https://redemmas.org/about.
(2) Dash, Julekha. “A stylish and eclectic ‘Good Neighbor’ moves onto Falls Road.” Baltimore FishBowl. August 2020. https://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/hampden-adds-a-good-neighbor-to-falls-road/.
(3) Pitts, Jonathan M. “Four Confederate statues once stood as Baltimore landmarks.” The Washington Post. March 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baltimore-confederate-statue-pedestals/2021/03/30/56543c2a-9170-11eb-bb49-5cb2a95f4cec_story.html.
(4) “Roger Brooke Taney Monument, 1887.” Baltimore Planning. https://baltimoreplanning.wixsite.com/monumentcommission/taneymonument.
Siobhan McKenna was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She stumbled upon Yellow Arrow while living in Baltimore and has loved every minute of working as an editorial associate. Siobhan recently began working as a travel nurse on the West Coast. As she moves to a different city every three months to work as an ICU nurse, Siobhan looks forward to writing about all that this crazy, broken, and beautiful country holds. She holds a BA in writing and biology from Loyola University Maryland and an MSN from Johns Hopkins University. You can follow her on Instagram @sio_han.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
A Highlight on Jeannie Vanasco
By Brenna Ebner, written December 2020
from the creative nonfiction summer 2021 series
With two books, The Glass Eye (2017) and Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was A Girl (2019), Jeannie Vanasco has started and continued important conversations regarding not only herself but women in general. She stands as a strong advocate for those who share in her struggles and speaks for many who have not yet been able to speak out for themselves. Vanasco has done this as a professor, advisor, and mentor to myself and many students at Towson University, and now for others through her writing. Everything from her balance of subjective and objective thinking to her writing style as she examines her experiences is refreshingly honest with a fluid tone as if she were there telling you her story in person. The peeks into her thought process that she shares with us give the reader a taste for the frustration, confusion, and weight Vanasco herself has carried thus far and a sense of the weight many others carry around as well.
Within her first book, The Glass Eye, Vanasco immediately delves into tough topics such as grief and mental health. She battles with the death of her father and the mania that comes with being named after her passed half-sister, but seeing her grapple with these hurdles makes it easy to sympathize even if we haven’t found ourselves in quite the same situation. Her problems, though maybe not immediately like our own, still delve into relatable realms, and Vanasco’s writing on her experience gives those struggling with grief room to feel validated. With this, she normalizes the discussion around the difficulty of letting someone go and struggling with something unseen. We not only see Vanasco lift herself up as she grows through this but also lift others up by creating a space for those who might relate in struggling to grasp their reality. As a topic, that is difficult to put into words; being able to see Vanasco go through it herself helps others to feel seen and heard as they deal with their own mental and emotional afflictions.
Vanasco continues to do this further in her second book, Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was A Girl, when she opens up about her experience of not only being raped but then confronting her rapist years later. It’s a huge feat that she doesn’t take lightly for herself and what it could mean for others who share her experience, and we see this as she relays moments of reevaluation on her actions to reach out to him. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Vanasco elaborates further on the impacts and grieving process surrounding this all too common trauma. Her book encourages us to continue the discussion around accountability and accept that healing is not a linear process for most of us. It’s a difficult discussion to be had especially when it is shared with someone so negatively associated with your life, but Vanasco’s fortitude is commendable.
While Vanasco’s books share her own journey through processing grief and trauma, they also lend themselves to others’ journeys through similar hurdles not only in the way she addresses these topics but also in her open writing style. While most authors are very honest in their memoir writings, Vanasco’s transparency goes above as we read moments of her worrying about how we will interpret her “characters” and how she wants to discuss certain topics but struggles to go about it. In this way, Vanasco takes her vulnerability and makes it a strength by breaking down any walls and adding a new layer of trust between her and the reader. In all these ways in which Vanasco brings up, discusses, and processes these topics and issues she becomes an important writer for women and others who may also share in her experiences. Her books test boundaries and limits and help to make what is uncomfortable in society, especially for women, much more comfortable to discuss through her candor. It’s with this that we can find a great appreciation in Vanasco’s writing.
Brenna Ebner is the CNF Managing Editor at Yellow Arrow Publishing and has enjoyed growing as a publisher and editor since graduating from Towson University in May of 2020. In between this time, she has interned with Mason Jar Press and Yellow Arrow and continues to pursue her editing career with freelance work.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
St. Paul Street Provocations by Patti Ross: Advocacy and Social Justice
Yellow Arrow Publishing announces the release of our latest chapbook, St. Paul Street Provocations, by Patti Ross. 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 Patti in all her writing and publishing endeavors.
St. Paul Street Provocations is a compelling look at current social issues, such as homelessness, that remain sidelined and ignored by those in power. It largely explores experiences and exchanges Patti had while living in Baltimore, Maryland from 2010 to 2013, just one block south of North Avenue on St. Paul Street. She found herself in a neighborhood slighted by its own city. Patti listened, wrote, and became an advocate. The nine poems intertwined with Patti’s stunning artwork work in tandem to give a voice to what Patti herself witnessed over the past decade.
Patti graduated from Washington, D.C.’s Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts and The American University. After graduation, several of her journalist pieces were published in the Washington Times and rural American newspapers. Retiring from a career in technology, Patti has rediscovered her love of writing and shares her voice as the spoken-word artist little pi. Her poems are published in the Pen In Hand Journal, PoetryXHunger website, and Oyster River Pages: Composite Dreams Issue, among others.
Paperback and PDF versions of St. Paul Street Provocations are now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore! Those who ordered a paperback before release will receive their free PDF (with colored interior images!) shortly. 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 St. Paul Street Provocations wherever you purchase your books including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. To learn more about Patti and St. Paul Street Provocations, check out our recent interview with her. Keep a lookout for info on Patti’s book launch!
You can find Patti at littlepisuniverse.com or on Facebook and Instagram, and connect with Yellow Arrow on Facebook and Instagram, to share some love for this chapbook.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. To learn about publishing, volunteering, or donating, visit yellowarrowpublishing.com. If interested in writing a review of St. Paul Street Provocations or any of our other publications, please email editor@yellowarrowpublishing.com for more information.
The Significance of Memoirs
By Brenna Ebner, written January 2021
from the creative nonfiction summer 2021 series
Did you know that Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a memoir as a narrative composed from personal experience? While this certainly describes the genre, Joan Didion, a well-known memoirist herself, summarizes the intricacies behind memoirs better when she explains, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” When we read a memoir we indulge in an unreliable narrator. Just as in fiction, where we have to sustain belief, we have to do the same to a memoir, trusting the narrator/author to tell their truth and believing it because it is theirs. But our memories are not always reliable and we can’t help our biases. Maybe what happened to someone didn’t play out the exact way they remember or certain details become lost to time. So a memoir may have more fiction than nonfiction, more embellishments than truths. But as it is what the author believes, does that make it false? This is where the controversy around the genre is found.
Opinions, feelings, and memories all change and that is something memoirists must keep in mind if and when they choose to recount their life or certain parts of it. But it is also why one could place the memoir under nonfiction. I think what keeps memoirs in the creative nonfiction category is how each is written by real people recounting real experiences and showing us how such experiences shaped them. We can’t necessarily tell them they are wrong because each piece of writing is their truth. Because of that, readers are drawn to them. Reading a memoir is an opportunity to:
Relate to one another and gain validation when we’ve experienced our own version of the same tragedy or celebration
See a new point of view and gain other experiences and live other lives when we are stuck living our own
Be humbled by realizing the complexity of life and how so many individual worlds are out there, besides your own, that are filled with great ups and downs
Watch authors grapple with the same large themes in life we must and try to make black and white of such themes in such a gray world.
Not only does this draw me to memoirs, specifically, but it also makes me grateful for those who write them. It can be difficult to relive moments in our lives and recount them for the sake of others and ourselves. It can be difficult to be vulnerable and open and invite judgment and criticisms.
I also think it’s significant that people are offering themselves to us so vulnerably because it sparks compassion, sympathy, and empathy. Although not always! Sometimes a memoir is good because it makes you upset. Not every life lived and decision made will be welcomed by readers. We are complicated, complex, and unique individuals, each of us. Regardless, I think even such controversial memoirs still remain important as they ignite discussion and exploration within ourselves and within our societies.
I’d like to argue that what makes a memoir good is its ability to do just that. When I can finish a memoir and leave with a new perspective and understanding, of either myself or the world around me (even just one aspect of it, because the world is very big after all), then I know it was a successful read. It may not happen with each and every memoir I read; both myself as a reader and the memoirist must be open to exploring outside ourselves and our limited aspects of the world. This process of reflection is refreshing to experience. With this in mind, it is very rare for a memoir to be a simple read, and for that reason, I recommend them as a genre to indulge in.
For those interested in reading some memoirs, my recommendations include:
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
Tonight I’m Someone Else by Chelsea Hodson
Mother Winter by Sophia Shalmiyev
Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
Mean by Myriam Gurba
In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
The Glass Eye by Jeannie Vanasco (see also here)
Abandon Me by Melissa Febos
Brenna Ebner is the CNF Managing Editor at Yellow Arrow Publishing and has enjoyed growing as a publisher and editor since graduating from Towson University in May of 2020. In between this time, she has interned with Mason Jar Press and Yellow Arrow and continues to pursue her editing career with freelance work.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Coming Together Across the Table (or on Zoom)
by Sandra Kacher, from March 2021
It takes courage to write, courage to reveal, and courage to hear what people have to say about your words. Brené Brown says, “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.”
A poetry writing group is the perfect place to practice this courage.
When I was in my 40s, I promised myself I would write a mystery novel by the time I was 50. I did, but it didn’t go anywhere because the first time I heard the faintest criticism I shut down. Extreme, I know, but some of us are timid and way too vulnerable to other people’s opinions. When I picked up a pen again it was to write poetry, and I knew I had to toughen up if I was going to create anything worthwhile.
I’ve heard people say, in response to change suggestions, “Well, I just write for myself.” I don’t understand why a person would write (or paint, or cook, or garden, etc.) just for themselves. I see creativity as a gift meant to be shared, and creations benefit from honest and compassionate responses from our peers.
Thus, the poetry writing group. Such a group is comprised of a small number (3–8?) of poets who come together regularly to read their work to each other and listen to the responses elicited by that work. My first rule for finding a group is “pick carefully.” I’ve been in competitive poetry groups where the feedback is harsh in the name of “just being honest.” I’ve also been in groups where the level of commitment and experience is less than mine. It has been important for me to find groups with the right level of skill (so I can trust their insight) and also with the right level of love. Love for poetry, love for the process, love for daring to believe we (I) have something to say in poetic form. I don’t have to be best friends with everyone, but I do need to trust that their intention is to be genuinely helpful.
I’m now in several writing groups and I’ve asked my writing buddies to share why they keep coming and keep working so hard.
Here is a summary of their responses:
Accountability: “Having to bring a poem on a predictable and regular basis heightens my commitment. It helps me keep going through the dry times.”
Quality Enhancement: “The others in a workshop often notice things (both positive and negative) in the poem that I have not and offer solid ideas to improve the poem.”
Networking, Identity, and Belonging: “I enjoy being with my tribe . . . others who share my interest in poetry . . . and often other important values. Others offer ideas [regarding] prompts, craft, readings, workshops, teachers, books, submission calls that enrich my writing life.”
Fun: “In addition to everything else, a sweet relationship with smart, perceptive, funny, beautiful women; one that deepens every encounter.”
How do we create such communities? I started with going to poetry meet-ups in my community (after procrastinating for several months. It does take courage!) and met several poets with whom I am now in groups. One group started with two of us who shared a love of San Miguel de Allende and Spanish, along with writing. We each invited others to join us. That group now has five wonderful women (a deliberate choice) who have been meeting and improving for several years. One of my groups grew out of a shared class—a common way to find compatible members. Two of us also tuned into Billy Collins’ podcasts and responded to a group of male poets who were looking for women to balance things out.
We began with ground rules for listening and responding. We found that starting with sharing “the gold” we hear and finishing with a round of “rust” creates a balanced atmosphere and allows for building trust to hear critiques. In that same group we begin with a SPIRE check-in—how am I Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Relationally, and Emotionally? We aren’t rigid but we do cover those areas, and through this kind of check-in, we’ve come to admire, understand, and love each other. Another group I’m in is purely reading and critiquing, equally useful for improving our work but less warm and personal (however, I’ve found sharing poetry can’t help but lead to personal connection). The degree of personal sharing depends on the desires of members. It seems to me it takes at least six months, more like a year, to get into a really good groove together.
I am a better poet than I was three years ago, and I thank my group members for that. I encourage anyone who wants to be a better writer to find a tribe of writers and plunge in!
Sandra Kacher comes to writing poetry after years of hearing about the inner lives of hundreds of therapy clients. She brings the same compassion and sense of irony to her poetry as she brought to listening to hundreds of therapy clients. Touched by Mary Oliver and heartened by Billy Collins, she brings a heart for beauty and an ear for music to her writing. She hopes poetry shares the ways she is moved by nature, human life, and all the flotsam that catches her eye. As an older poet, she is shaped daily by intimations of mortality, and most of her work is touched by loss—past or to come. Poetry keeps her open, fights off cynicism in a world that leaves her listless these days.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Telling the Truth Beautifully
By Kerry Graham, written March 2021
from the creative nonfiction summer 2021 series
Your life is a collection of stories.
Powerful. Painful. Profound.
And it’s not just the milestones or the unbelievable tales you can tell again and again. Your life, even in its mundane moments, is a series of stories.
Many of us are raised to understand stories as fiction: made from imagination. Or if someone tells us a “true story,” it’s outrageous in some regard. Hard to believe.
But those aren’t our only options for storytelling. There’s a magnificent in-between, stories that are engaging, original, relatable.
And honest.
Creative nonfiction is telling the truth beautifully, even—especially?—when the truth is anything but. It’s crafting a story from the reality of your lived experience. It’s reflecting on what you’ve endured, accomplished, and explored, and finding narrative structure within that. When you write creative nonfiction, you chisel away the entirety of your days to the pieces you’d find in a plot: beginning, middle, end. You create characters out of the people you’ve shared conversations, meals, office space, children, bus stops, public parks with. You write the words shouted, whispered, thought. Your readers weren’t with you, but through your words, you make us feel like we were. For a few paragraphs, or pages, or maybe even the course of a memoir, you invite us into the world as only you know it.
As a writer, I’ve attempted numerous genres. My favorite, by far, is creative nonfiction. When I put the truth to paper, I not only get to do what I love—create art out of language—I get to remember, reflect, understand my own life. The opportunity to make meaning of any given moment reminds me that each instant is a blessing. When we write creative nonfiction, we “taste life twice,” as Anaïs Nin, a French-Cuban-American writer, famously said.
Although creative nonfiction can be about anything we know to be true, I write almost exclusively about one thing: my lovelies. This is my 10th year teaching high school English in Baltimore City public schools, and since my earliest days in the classroom, I’ve called my students “my lovelies.” I write about how they inspire, worry, nurture, frustrate me. I write because my lovelies make each of my days meaningful—so meaningful that, often, it takes the painstaking process of delicately arranging our interactions on a page for me to fully grasp them. I also write because of what it gives my readers, most of whom have never been to Baltimore, Maryland, let alone inside our public schools: a chance to learn. Empathize. Reexamine. Wonder.
The impact creative nonfiction has on its readers is another reason I revere this genre. Reading someone else’s true stories grants readers a chance to connect—to people, places, experiences—they might have never before considered.
Anaïs Nin said, “We write to expand our world when we feel strangled, or constricted, or lonely.” As a writer, I wholeheartedly agree, though I’d argue that’s also why we read, especially creative nonfiction.
Kerry Graham lives, teaches, writes, and kayaks in Baltimore. Her vignettes have appeared in The Citron Review, Crack the Spine, and Gravel, among others. Her personal essays have most recently appeared in HuffPost. Connect with her on social media @mskerrygraham.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
The Power of Vulnerability
By Michelle Lin, written May 2021
Can vulnerability really be viewed as a weakness? Black lesbian mother warrior poet, Audre Lorde, argued that vulnerability is a source of strength that can be used to comment on societal issues and prevent a feeling of isolation (1). This is seen in how Lorde opened up about her experiences with the lack of inclusion she faced from White feminists while participating in a feminist panel, her struggle with acceptance within the Black feminist community due to her sexuality, and her ability to discuss her experiences as a cancer survivor.
As a Black lesbian feminist, Lorde demanded equality for both Black feminists and lesbians on several feminist panels, where Lorde spoke out about the divisions seen within the feminist community regarding race and sexuality. This is mentioned by Emily Bernard when she explored Lorde’s essay, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (1), which called out White feminists for their lack of inclusion:
“And yet, I stand here as a Black lesbian feminist, having been invited to comment within the only panel at this conference where the input of Black feminists and lesbians is represented. What this says about the vision of this conference is sad, in a country where racism, sexism, and homophobia are inseparable. To read this program is to assume that lesbian and Black women have nothing to say about existentialism, the erotic, women’s culture and silence, developing feminist theory, or heterosexuality and power.”
Despite their efforts to stand up for equality, Lorde showed that White feminists only created one panel for both Black feminists and lesbians, thus portraying the lack of inclusion at the Second Sex Conference in New York in 1979 (1). By capturing this lack of inclusion, Lorde demonstrated that there were still divisions within the feminist community when addressing race and sexuality. Lorde pointed out that Black feminists and lesbians have just as much to say on the topics that White feminists addressed at their panels. To exclude women of different races and sexualities centers the focus of women’s rights issues on one particular group, thus leading to the inability to address issues that women of all different backgrounds and sexual orientations experience on a daily basis.
Lorde furthered her point that White feminists should recognize the inequality that they have imposed on people of color in her poem, “Who Said It Was Simple,” where Lorde called out White feminists for their oppression of people of color (2):
Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes
a waiter brother to serve them first
and the ladies neither notice nor reject
the slighter pleasure of their slavery.
In this stanza of the poem, Lorde pushed White feminists to recognize those who work for them, and that their ability to attend the marches is connected to those who help them—people of color. When White feminists fail to recognize those who aid them, they are unable to see that they, too, play a role in the oppression of people of color. Lorde vocalized that the inequalities that people of color face are still present even during a women’s movement.
As a writer, Lorde also discussed the issues she experienced as a Black lesbian feminist who often received criticism from the Black feminist community for her sexuality: “. . . now walking into rooms full of / black faces / that would destroy me for any / difference / where shall my eyes look?” (1). The act of emphasizing her difference in the excerpt demonstrates that Lorde was unable to find any form of reassurance coming from the Black feminist community because she identified as a lesbian. By mentioning this point, Lorde amplified the fractures seen in the Black feminist community that prevents Black feminists and lesbians from unifying to fight against the inequalities that they collectively experience as women.
Along with sharing her experiences as a Black lesbian feminist, Lorde’s ability to be vulnerable with her audience is seen when discussing her experiences battling breast cancer in 1978, liver cancer in 1984, and later, ovarian cancer in 1987 (1). By addressing cancer in her writing, Lorde opened up the opportunity for others to connect with her to discuss the effects of cancer: “She knew that speaking out about her own experiences with cancer had the potential to liberate other women to talk about the effects of the disease on their own lives” (1). When cancer survivors, like Lorde, share their own stories, it allows others to feel less isolated in their struggles when dealing with the disease, and it also invites others to explore a topic that isn’t largely discussed (1).
The lack of representation of individuals addressing the topic of sickness is captured in Margaret Kissam Morris’ article “Audre Lorde.” Morris mentions that disease isn’t covered in society due to the prioritization of youth and healthiness (3):
“In mainstream American society, an obsession with youth has rendered the subject of aging, disease, and dying undesirable topics for public discourse outside of the medical, psychological, and religious contexts.”
Morris argues that the failure of representing those struggling with diseases in everyday discussion would naturally lead to a negative association to sickness. When an individual, like Lorde, discusses her experiences in a piece of writing within The Cancer Journals, that person demonstrates that fostering a conversation around the topic not only prevents the feeling of isolation that a patient may be experiencing but also opens up an opportunity for the public to recognize that sickness is a part of the human experience, thus reducing the stigma that was once associated with the topic.
Throughout the process of battling cancer, Lorde took a stance, sharing her experiences by refusing to wear prosthetics despite being told that her decision would result in her being viewed as unprofessional in a workplace environment: “Her objection to prosthetics was a rejection of another kind of silence and erasure and a defiant refusal to conform to the expectations of others when it came to the way she chose to move in the world” (1). By refusing to conform to the norm, Lorde commented on the cultural issues of how women should be presented in the workplace, making a statement to the medical community and women in general on how women shouldn’t have to conform to a norm in order to be viewed as professional. Through sharing her personal experiences with cancer, Lorde demonstrated that vulnerability can prevent the feeling of isolation as well as raise awareness on the ongoing issues related to women’s rights in both the medical and feminist communities.
By discussing these three issues in her writing—inequality within the feminist community in terms of representation of lesbians and Black women, fractures within the Black feminist community when discussing the topic of sexuality, and her experiences with cancer—Lorde communicated that the first step to developing understanding with and compassion to one another, is through writing and sharing the stories that weren’t previously told. Through reading about these experiences, Lorde’s audience will then be able to recognize and demand change.
As a writer, Lorde spoke to me because of her ability to tap into vulnerability as an opportunity to raise awareness of the issues experienced in her everyday life. Throughout my experience with coming out, I found myself actively searching for stories written by women who are LGBTQ+. One thing that I have noticed is that the stories and experiences that I came across, whether through videos I stumbled across on the Internet or in the novels and poetry books that I read, these stories were predominantly written by or told through the perspective of White women. In doing so, I found myself struggling to see myself within the stories that I was watching and reading. When a writer, like Lorde, speaks up about her own experiences, she not only opens up an opportunity for LGBTQ+ women of color to relate to the pieces she has written but also invites them to become a part of diversifying the narratives being told in the LGBTQ+ community.
(1) Bernard, Emily. “Warrior Poet.” New Republic 252, no. 4 (April 2021): 58–61.
(2) Lorde, Audre. “Who Said It Was Simple.” Poetry Foundation. Orig. from 1973. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42587/who-said-it-was-simple.
(3) Morris, Margaret Kissam. “Audre Lorde.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 23, no. 1 (March 2002): 168.
Michelle Lin was a senior at Towson University who graduated in Spring 2021. She had previously worked as the Online Poetry Editor for volume 69 of Towson University’s Literary Magazine Grub Street. Michelle currently lives in Lutherville – Timonium, Maryland. During her free time, she enjoys reading and writing poetry, and playing guitar. To read her writing follow her on her Instagram @m.l_writes.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Creative Nonfiction: Representations and Truths
By Brenna Ebner
from the creative nonfiction summer 2021 series
Creative nonfiction is a perplexing genre and while many first think of it as rigid and boring retellings of historical events, that isn’t quite accurate. This specific genre of writing is focused on retelling but in an imaginative way with an emphasis on prose. That is what makes creative nonfiction different from other nonfiction styles of writing. In fact, its focus on prose and writing skills is often shared with fiction and poetry. And that is where the creative part of the genre comes in. The author must find a way to recall and explore in a captivating, realistic, and most of all trustful way since the genre is centered around the concepts of truth and reality.
This can be difficult since we each are biased in our points of views. Plotting and research, however, can ensure a thoughtful attention to detail and (as much as possible) accurate representation. Considering this, readers of the genre get an opportunity to explore many topics, themes, ethics, morals, etc., as we compare lives and opinions and learn from them.
Moreover, a creative nonfiction author tries to stick to what really happened. And while this seems very straightforward, one’s personal truths, experiences, and perceptions may not match another’s reality of a situation as it is solely based on one person’s memory as much as the accompanying research. This subjective take on the objective shows the reader how the world around us may be understood in many different ways and that the truth can take various forms depending on each person’s perspective.
We get questions all the time about what qualifies as creative nonfiction and wanted to jot down our thoughts about this. So what do we think falls into this category? Well, practically anything. Some specific and popular types of creative nonfiction writing include:
Memoirs – narrative writing with the focus on connected personal experiences or a point of view all connected to a theme (e.g., Mean by Myriam Gurba)
Personal narratives – narrative writing focused on one singular event, big or small, that connects back to your personal outlook and opinions (e.g., Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o and LGBT Activism by Uriel Quesada, Letitia Gomez, and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz)
Biographies – chronological events in the life of a specific person (not the author) with no focus on a particular experience (e.g., Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America's First Celebrity by Tana Wojczuk)
Autobiographies – chronological events in the life of the author with no focus on a particular experience (e.g., My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland)
Literary journalism – factual reporting mixed with narrative writing, often includes research and is similar to journalism but with the prose style of fiction so it doesn’t sound as rigid (e.g., Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea Ritchie)
Even writing such as interviews, nature writing, and sports writing can be included in creative nonfiction. It can take any form such as diaries and journals (check out The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits), lyrics (described as mixing poetry with essay; check out Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine), and graphics (graphic narratives and novels; check out Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel). The sky’s the limit!
Overall, creative nonfiction is a broad and welcoming genre that can encompass so much with so few rules: retell your experience, be it big or small, and do so in an original and expressive way. And with this, we then are able to read about millions of other aspects, opinions, histories, realities, and more. We can find deep and personal reflection taking place, gray areas being explored, and marginalized groups finally having a voice.
We can learn and grow in ways that are enthralling and fascinating as readers, writers, and editors of creative nonfiction, on both a personal and global level. And that is where my own personal interest in creative nonfiction comes from. It’s a powerful way to become more enlightened about not just the world around myself but the individuals who inhabit it and make it what it is. There is so much I have discovered that I was blind to previously and I’m so grateful to be able to learn directly from others such as in our most recent Yellow Arrow Journal RENASCENCE where I got to discover a whole new side to our world and its history that includes numerous cultures, experiences, beliefs, opinions, and ways of being. In any way you experience creative nonfiction, you get to grow yourself and grow with others as writers emerge from the margins of our society and readers and editors become more aware from their powerful works.
And why we at Yellow Arrow focus on creative nonfiction along with poetry. Check out some of our blog posts (every Tuesday!) throughout the summer as we take a closer look at this genre and why people love this writing style.
Brenna Ebner is the CNF Managing Editor at Yellow Arrow Publishing and has enjoyed growing as a publisher and editor since graduating from Towson University in May of 2020. In between this time, she has interned with Mason Jar Press and Yellow Arrow and continues to pursue her editing career with freelance work.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts.
Meet a Staff Member: Annie Marhefka
Yellow Arrow Publishing is incredibly excited to officially introduce our new Executive Director, Annie Marhefka, to the Yellow Arrow family. Annie is a writer, HR consultant, and mama residing in Baltimore, Maryland, with her husband John and their daughter Elena. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves traveling, building puzzles, and hiking with her toddler. Her work has been featured on Coffee + Crumbs. Annie is working on a memoir about mother/daughter relationships; you can find her writing on Instagram and at anniemarhefka.com.
Here’s what Annie had to say about joining Yellow Arrow:
There are really three core areas I feel passionate about in my work: helping organizations grow and thrive, creating/writing, and empowering women. It feels very serendipitous to have found a role where I can combine my background and talents to contribute to all of these passions under one (virtual) roof. I’m thrilled to get to know the Yellow Arrow community better and support its ongoing vision.
Annie took some time recently to answer some questions for us. Show her some love in the comments or on Facebook/Instagram!
Tell us a little something about yourself:
My professional career has centered around using my HR expertise to help organizations grow and thrive. I love helping businesses create from scratch and use culture as a driving force for change and development. I spent over a decade helping to build and grow one of the largest providers of K-12 online education in the U.S. as Head of HR and later COO. Most recently, I established an HR consulting firm, The Vivi Group, and provide services to organizations in the areas of organizational design, employee engagement, change management, communications, talent development, and policy and risk management.
What do you love most about Baltimore?
I truly find Baltimore charming in its diverse landscape, culture, people, and food. I love that I can walk between neighborhoods in the city, but also that I can spend weekends on my father’s boat on the bay; that I can have a delicious dinner at Gunther & Co. or steamed crabs in the backyard; that I can be one of thousands tailgating for a Ravens game or catch incredible live music in Fells Point at a cozy dive bar. I love Baltimore’s grit, quirkiness, and charm.
How did you get involved with Yellow Arrow and what do you do?
In 2020, I was awarded a writing residency at Yellow Arrow. I was one week into my residency when the state of the COVID-19 pandemic had begun to shut things down, and so I had to figure out a way to complete my residency virtually. Along the way, I met some incredibly talented writers and supporters of Yellow Arrow and was drawn to the sense of connection and support surrounding the organization.
What are you working on currently?
I spend my time juggling many different passions! My toddler is about to start preschool but until recently, she was my main nine-to-five gig. I am working through edits of the first draft of my memoir about mother/daughter relationships. I am in the process of launching a volunteer-run writing initiative called The Salt Box Creative along with some very talented local writers. I also provide HR services through my consulting business.
What genre do you write and why?
I write mostly creative nonfiction, but lately have also been dabbling in some poetry as well. I am fueled by relationships (and coffee), so I love using my writing as a way to explore connections between individuals.
Who is your favorite writer and why?
It’s so hard for me to pick just one! Instead, I will share some writers I’m currently loving! I just finished What Kind of Woman, a poetry collection by Kate Baer that was just stunning. I am still going back and rereading certain poems that spoke to my soul (and recommending them to all of my female friends). I am also reading Beth Kephart’s Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, which has really helped me hone in on the craft of writing memoirs as I work on mine.
Who has inspired and/or supported you most in your writing journey?
My mother was my biggest inspiration and also the biggest supporter of my writing. When I was young, she was a stay-at-home mom to me and my brothers but during that time, she also built her own poetry business from scratch. She would meet with individuals and talk to them about a loved one and then write a poem for them. I would help her pick out the perfect stationery and frame the gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings. She really touched people with her poems, and it inspired me to find work that I was passionate about, and that would mean something to others.
What do you love most about writing?
I love that writing can serve such different purposes for different individuals. For me personally, it is both a vocation, a therapeutic endeavor, an act of self-reflection, and a creative outlet. I love reading something that I connect with deeply, and I love when my writing evokes the same feeling for someone else.
What advice do you have for new writers?
I recently participated in a writing workshop where we had to write three pages every morning, longhand. This was a little bit of a shock to my system, as I hadn’t written longhand since college; my handwriting is terrible, and I usually prefer the efficiency of typing on my laptop. By the third day, my hands were cramping, and I felt like I was just writing a lot of garbage. But at some point, it turned into a habit and I started writing some really good stuff—better than anything I’d typed in months. I realized that without the distraction of my laptop tools, I was able to just dump out my thoughts without editing myself along the way. It was really freeing. I often go back and find little gems in those pages that I can turn into something great, and it’s something I’ve tried to keep up. So my advice would be to try to write every day, even if it feels like you’re just producing garbage.
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We are so fortunate to have Annie join our team. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Grub Street: Inspiring All Kinds of Writers
Interviews from fall 2020
Yellow Arrow Publishing has had several interns from Towson University’s Grub Street, so we wanted to share more about Grub Street and Grub Street Literary Magazine. Grub Street and Yellow Arrow Publishing have a shared connection through a love of the arts, specifically literature. Our fall 2020 marketing intern, Elaine Batty, interviewed Gel Derossi and Grace Jordan, current Editors-in-Chief, to get a better insight into the creation of Grub Street. You can find the latest issue, Volume 70, on the Grub Street website. A huge thank you to Grub Street staff for working around their busy schedules to tell Elaine all about Grub Street.
EB: What is Grub Street and how does it work?
Grub Street is Towson’s student-produced, award-winning literary magazine that publishes editions annually. This year is the 70th edition of Grub Street. Edition 68 won a Gold Circle Award for the 17th year in a row that Grub Street has been recognized. Six students accepted in edition 68 were also recognized and awarded. Grub Street publishes a print edition each year, but we also run a website in which we feature more works from writers and artists. Students enroll in a year-long class under a faculty advisor—this year and in most previous years, our faculty advisor is Jeannie Vanasco—and through this class, students receive roles within top managing positions, genre teams, and marketing and publicity.
Grub Street accepts works submitted online in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art, as well as genre-defiant works. Anyone can submit to Grub Street, not just Towson University students. Our high school contest also features work from one to two high school students; all of our submissions are reviewed by an accomplished author—last year’s was Jung Yung, critically acclaimed author of Shelter—and winners receive a $100 dollar prize.
Our genre teams work together in reading submissions and deciding what works to feature in print and/or online. We also maintain a “blind review process” in which the top managing positions move over submissions from our Submittable account and remove any identifying information so that all works are chosen based on the works themselves; this levels the playing field and makes everything fair.
Putting together a literary magazine requires honesty from its staff. It requires clear communication and conversations about topics of personal and societal importance. With the way Vanasco facilitates our conversations about submissions and taste and aesthetics and oppression, [we] personally, and [we] sense others do as well, feel encouraged to speak up, even if [we] don’t speak perfectly and even if [we] might be wrong. Grub Street feels like a community. We talk to each other with what feels like an elevated form of respect. We honor the opinions of our classmates and [we] hope that everyone feels like every opinion of our staff is equally valuable. We all stand behind our mission of inclusivity and diversity and representation for marginalized identities.
EB: In what way do you feel Grub Street benefits Towson students as well as the community?
The ways in which Grub Street benefits students is vast: Grub Street gives undergraduate students the opportunity to get their hands into all types of work within the publishing and literary field. You don’t need prior experience to be involved in Grub Street, but you will leave with concrete experience within copyediting, reading submissions, marketing, [and] designing, and leave with a physical, new print edition of Grub Street that you and your team created together.
Grub Street also strives to engage within the Baltimore community. We distribute our print edition at book festivals, conferences, and other Baltimore-based universities, and are also working on distributing our issues to prisons.
Yellow Arrow’s Editor-in-Chief, Kapua Iao, also asked Brenna Ebner (fall 2020 publication intern and current CNF Managing Editor for Yellow Arrow, and Editor-in-Chief of Grub Street, volume 69) further questions about her experiences.
KCI: Where does the name ‘Grub Street’ come from?
It was originally an address in London back in the 18th century where low-end publishers and “hack writers” were found competing to make a living from their works. People there dealt with hard critiques, became targets of satire, and scuffled over plagiarism. Their literary world was cutthroat with aspiring writers constantly putting out new work to get noticed and no copyright laws to protect anyone’s writing. Our name commemorates that and the ways in which writing, publishing, and editing has evolved from that structure but still remains just as competitive and passionate. Dr. George Hahn, an English Professor and past chair of the Department of English, has a great explanation of Grub Street’s name included in each issue as well.
KCI: Can you explain more about how students get involved with Grub Street?
It’s a class at Towson actually! You can take it either first or second semester, but it typically is best to do both in order for sake of consistency in the magazine. If being on staff isn’t of interest to those who want to get involved, they can easily submit multiple pieces (there is of course a cap to the amount depending on the genre) and become a contributor. That option is available to everyone, too—not just students. Copies are free as well so if participating in those ways still aren’t of any interest, anyone could become a reader and supporter of Grub Street that way. We welcome everyone at the launch parties to celebrate with us (when they aren’t shut down for [COVID-19 regulations]) and to enjoy PDF copies online.
KCI: How does someone become Editor-in-Chief of Grub Street?
Recently it’s been . . . based on previous experience (have they taken Grub Street before?), performance as a student (good grades, attendance, etc.), and graduation date, which Vanasco, current faculty advisor, considers and then chooses based on that. The position requires you to be able to commit for the full school year, so we want someone that is reliable, committed, hardworking, and available. They’ll be in charge of the whole process: picking staff positions, making sure we stay on schedule, having final say on pieces we include and editing them, how the website is run, communicating between genre teams and the creative services department and faculty advisor, organizing the launch party, everything! The faculty advisor helps immensely though so it isn’t quite as overwhelming and the managing editors take on a large bulk of the process as well, such as the high school contest, weighing in on design and layout decisions, communication between staff, and much more. The whole staff is a strong support system but ultimately the Editor-in-Chief has to oversee it with the faculty advisor supervising and guiding.
KCI: What has your experience taught you?
Grub Street was what ultimately helped me figure out what I wanted to do in life after college. It gave me the direction and experience I needed to understand that editing and publishing was the career I wanted to pursue and could, and I can’t thank Vanasco enough for giving me that opportunity. I also don’t think anything could have prepared me for what to expect stepping into that kind of leadership role, too, but it helped me grow immensely on a professional level and taught me a great deal about myself. I never realized how much work went into publishing and editing until I got to be part of the process. When I pick up any piece of literature now, I think about all the people who put in the work to get it into my hands and in that polished state. For literary magazines and journals, specifically, I think about how between the covers is a space that has been created by multiple people for multiple people to express themselves and help them feel like they belong somewhere and to something. There’s a whole new appreciation for something I certainly took for granted previously and I want to continue to be a part of it.
Elaine Batty is a student at Towson University graduating with a BS in English on the literature track. Her poetry has been featured in the College of Southern Maryland’s Connections literary magazine. In her free time, she enjoys reading all genres of fiction, writing poetry, and playing with her two cats, Catlynn and Cleocatra. Elaine’s two real passions are literature and travel, and she plans to look for a job following graduation that will allow her to pursue both full time.
Gel Derossi (they/them) is a white, trans, neurodiverse person who reads, writes, and draws with a mission to create more representation for marginalized folks. They currently study creative writing at Towson University.
Brenna Ebner is a recent Towson University graduate and Editor-in-Chief of Grub Street Literary Magazine, volume 69. She has interned at both Mason Jar Press and Yellow Arrow Publishing and is looking forward to continuing to grow as an editor and establish herself in the publishing world.
Grace Jordan is one of the 2020–2021 Editors-in-Chief of Grub Street, along with [Gel]. She is a sophomore at Towson University, studying both Dance Performance and Choreography and English with a minor in creative writing. She is also a part of the Honors College. Find her on Instagram @graciejordan.
You can find Grub Street on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts.
Awaken and Reflect: Yellow Arrow Journal (Vol. VI, No. 1) RENASCENCE
When we first announced the theme of our just released Yellow Arrow Journal issue, Vol. VI, No. 1 (spring 2021), on RENASCENCE, we were eager to read through submissions and explore the idea of cultural resurrection through the eyes of diverse authors/artists that identify as women. And we received many thoughtful, wonderful pieces that explored the idea of a personal/cultural renaissance, reviving something that was once dormant. We thank everyone who took the time to send us their experiences and wish we could have published them all. That said, the chosen pieces and contributors resonated with Taína (our guest editor), the Yellow Arrow team, and each other in a way we did not expect. Alone, each piece explores a poignant moment in life. A reflection on a moment or even a lifetime of moments.
Together, as a complete issue, the pieces delve into personal and collective cultural identity and how we might view (and could view) moments or reflections we didn’t think to contemplate. As Taína states:
Some pieces are nostalgic, bittersweet gifts from the depths of our memories that we cling to, while others are terror-filled nightmares we cannot awaken from fast enough, and still others are calls to action that will not be ignored. Each included story is a petroglyph on a cave wall, a flag planted in paper and ink. Each author is an explorer of their own culture, not discovering or conquering—for the stories of our ancestors have always been there waiting—but acting as pioneers of the past, revisiting and reclaiming the deep-rooted whispers and reflecting them into the future.
Perfect-bound and PDF versions are now available from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. Discounts are also available (here) if you would like to purchase copies for friends and family (minimum purchase of five). You can also search for Yellow Arrow Journal on any e-book device or anywhere you purchase books, including Amazon and most other distribution channels.
If you preordered your paperback copy before today, you will receive your free PDF shortly. Thank you for following our prerelease Renascence LIVE! events and for supporting our contributors. And don’t forget to join us June 4 at 7:00 pm EST for Renascence: A Reading, featuring authors of the issue and hosted by Taína. Details and how to connect to the reading can be found here.
We hope you enjoy reading RENASCENCE as much as we enjoyed creating it. Thank you for your continued encouragement of Yellow Arrow Publishing and the women involved in RENASCENCE.
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Yellow Arrow is Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
When Writing Holds Weight
Board and staff at Yellow Arrow Publishing would like to thank Michelle Lin, our marketing intern, for all of her hard work over the past few months. As an essential part of our marketing team, Michelle created marketing campaigns and promotional images, supported past and upcoming publications, and provided extra help wherever it was needed. You can see her words and her images on Yellow Arrow’s Facebook and Instagram. We are thrilled that Michelle will continue to put her spin and her charm on Yellow Arrow promotions after her internship ends.
From Jennifer N. Shannon, our Marketing Director: Michelle has been an invaluable part of the marketing team for Yellow Arrow Publishing essentially since I began. To be honest, without her, much of the success and growth within our social media presence and our newsletters would not have happened. Michelle’s work ethic and energy around Yellow Arrow’s mission, along with her desire to learn, is infectious and I don’t know what I’d do without her! I am so happy she wants to stay on after her internship is over. Thank you, Michelle, you are awesome!
Michelle graduates this spring 2021 from Towson University. She had previously worked as the Online Poetry Editor for volume 69 of Towson University’s Literary Magazine Grub Street. Michelle currently lives in Lutherville – Timonium, Maryland. During her free time, she enjoys reading and writing poetry, and playing guitar. To read her writing, follow her on Instagram @m.l_writes.
We would love for Michelle to explain why poetry means so much to her.
by Michelle Lin, from March 2021
I first started writing poetry consistently at the age of 16. Over the years, writing quickly became a coping mechanism as well as a hobby for me. It has influenced the way that I approach writing both academically and leisurely, where most of my pieces would often be written at really odd hours of the night while listening to music. Depending on the type of content that I was working on, the writing process, which includes prewriting and editing, could take up to three or more days. However, one thing that I did not entirely anticipate that would come out of my experience of writing poetry was how it would teach me to have confidence in who I am as an individual and how it can serve as a tool to help others feel seen and understood.
I’ve always looked at poetry as the language of the heart. It’s vulnerable, unfiltered, unpredictable, and yet incredibly powerful in how it helps a writer stay in tune with their headspace. When a writer chooses to share a piece with others it invites the reader to connect with them emotionally. This state of vulnerability was one that I once feared at first as a writer because I defined as a lesbian.
When I was growing up the topic of being LGBTQ+ wasn’t discussed that often within my household. Of course, there was the conversation of “What if we brought home a person of the same gender?” that would be brought up every once in a while, but the topic of being gay was never something that was spoken about in-depth. Even with the content that my siblings and I consumed as kids, whether this came in the form of literature, music, movies, or TV shows, LGBTQ+ representation was never really seen in the media we were exposed to. This ultimately led to this feeling of not belonging and isolation that haunted me throughout my coming out process, especially living within a community where there was an indirect implication that there is only one way to love, and that way was considered the “right” or “acceptable” way of loving. To deviate from the norm would put us in a position where the way we loved was viewed as “unnatural” or “weird.” I now see that part of the issue was the lack of narrative of seeing LGBTQ+ representation in my daily life growing up that kept me in the mindset that I didn’t quite fit in with others within my community.
I remember, the thought of sharing poetry related to the topic of being gay, in a poetry class in the beginning, was really terrifying to me. I was worried that people wouldn’t be able to connect with my poems if they knew how I identified. At the time, I had avoided using she/her pronouns in my writing if I could and I would often edit them out of my poems. When I realized what I was doing, I was sitting on my bed in my dorm room as a Freshman at Towson University. A few questions raced through my mind at the time and continued to circle around my head throughout the first half of my Sophomore year as well: When did I become so scared of being myself? If poetry is my go-to coping mechanism and my hobby, why did I feel the need to filter myself during the editing process?
Maybe it was the desire of wanting to belong that put me in that position. That I didn’t want to be different, even though our differences and experiences are what shape us to be the individuals that we are today. To overcome this hurdle, I started sharing my poems that covered being a lesbian on Instagram first, which taught me how to be more comfortable with who I am as a writer. Slowly the practice of writing openly LGBTQ+ poetry did carry over to the poems I would share in my poetry classes as well. As a writer, one of the reasons that I continue to write is not only to strengthen my voice as a poet but to also help the reader feel less alone if they are going through a similar situation. To see an LGBTQ+ writer being themselves in their creations not only acknowledges the existence of us as a community but it also opens up the opportunity for readers to recognize themselves in the pieces we create.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Nature Springs From Her: Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. VI, No. 1 RENASCENCE
It’s official! The cover of our Yellow Arrow Journal issue on RENASCENCE (Vol. VI, No. 1, Spring 2021) is here and PRESALE has commenced! “Nature Springs From Her” by Kalichi Lamar, pyrography on a wood panel, was inspired by the ceiba tree, the national tree of Borikén (Puerto Rico). It is also the sacred tree of her people, the indigenous Taínos. This tree was used to build canoes and is believed to have a direct connection to the spirit world and secrets of Atabey (mother earth). Rather than say more here, we’ll let Kalichi, Taína, and some of our authors explore the significance of “Nature Springs From Her” and RENASCENCE through a series of Facebook Live events starting tomorrow with Kalichi. Renascence LIVE! is a celebration of the hard work put into this journal issue by Taína, the Yellow Arrow team, and the authors/artist. It is an opportunity for the contributors and Taína to speak for themselves. To explain why renascence and cultural resurrection resonated with them.
By Taína
This issue of the Yellow Arrow Journal was born in an email where an idea was shared that was just too big for a blog post. That idea was writing about cultural resurrection.
When Yellow Arrow Publishing invited me to be guest editor of this issue, I leaped at the chance. I was thrilled not just to take up space as a Taíno woman, but for the chance to amplify the voices of other marginalized writers and to share with them the power to declare their existences in paper and ink.
It’s no secret that I am a disciple of paper and ink. Of all of the weapons that could be proffered, these are the ones I will always choose. In the correct hand, paper and ink are tools of resistance. Of rebellion. Like my ancestor etching petroglyphs on the caves of Isla Mona, it is daring to make permanent a fleeting existence. The fuel which has ignited revolutions and birthed nations. In the hands of the silenced, paper and ink is a re-claimation. A renascence. It is ours.
It calls us to an awakening, not just of things that were dormant, but systemically silenced. This Yellow Arrow Journal issue on RENASCENCE is an invitation to journey through each other’s cultural renascence in the various manifestations awakening can take. Some pieces are nostalgic, bittersweet gifts from the depths of our memories that we cling to, while others are terror-filled nightmares we cannot awaken from fast enough, and still others are calls to action that will not be ignored. Each included story is a petroglyph on a cave wall, a flag planted in paper and ink. Each author is an explorer of their own culture, not discovering or conquering—for the stories of our ancestors have always been there waiting—but acting as pioneers of the past, revisiting and reclaiming the deep-rooted whispers and reflecting them into the future.
That this issue was almost too easy to put together, is a testament to the Yellow Arrow team, and to the authors and artists who dared to submit to us. Even the challenges we’ve faced along the way have manifested themselves into crucial learning experiences. For this, I am deeply grateful to everyone at Yellow Arrow, but especially to our Editor-in-Chief Kapua Iao, for making this experience one of profound growth and meaning.
I’d also like to invite you all to a marvel at the cover of this issue and to watch Renascence LIVE!, where we’ll find out all about who our authors/artists are and how they connected to the theme. There’ll even be time for comments and questions from you! I can’t wait to see you there!
If that isn’t enough, we’re giving you a free PDF of RENASCENCE with every preorder before May 20! That means you can have access to the beautiful cover art, and the incredible experience of renascence, on launch day!
For we will be ancestors one day and this renascence is our legacy.
Taína is a Baltimore-based Higuaygua Taíno writer, on a mission to write the Taíno culture into existence the same way the colonizers have attempted to erase it: one word, one Taíno at a time. Her essay “Killing Ty” appeared in Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. V, No. 1 RESILIENCE and was nominated for a 2021 Pushcart Prize. Find out more at TainaWrites.com and connect with her on Instagram @tainaconcurls or on Facebook @TainaWrites.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. To learn more about publishing, volunteering, or donating, visit yellowarrowpublishing.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to learn more about future publishing, event, and workshop opportunities. Publications are available at our bookstore, on Amazon, and from most distributors.
Meet a Board Member: Gina Strauss
We at Yellow Arrow Publishing would like to introduce another board member, Gina Strauss. For over 25 years, Gina has worked as a teacher and advisor in a variety of educational settings. Her advanced degrees in counseling and healing arts add a unique dimension to her writing style and interactions with others. She is an advocate for conscious living and is mindful of how all of our relationships serve as mirrors to us. Gina believes that much can be learned from life’s experiences and recognizes the wealth of positive thought that can be gleaned from small day-to-day moments. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband and two teenage daughters.
Gina recently took the time to answer some questions for us.
YAP: Tell us a little something about yourself.
I never saw myself as a writer. Even though I religiously wrote in my journal during my teenage years, my calling in life has been in the areas of teaching and counseling. It wasn’t until I was in my late 20s and early 30s, as a part of my healing process, I felt the nudge to begin to put my life experiences down on paper to share my story, my voice. Since then, I have self-published a book called Letters to My Teenage Daughter: We’ve Got You, and I have also had one of my creative nonfiction stories, “Listening to the Wisdom of My Body: A Fertility Journey,” published in the RESILIENCE issue of the Yellow Arrow Journal.
In addition to writing as the spirit calls me, I am in the middle of a transition from working as a Montessori teacher to establishing my own private practice as a licensed counselor. I am looking forward to seeing how this piece of my journey unfolds, particularly as I will be continuing my learning to include skills as a Nature Informed Therapist.
YAP: What do you love most about Baltimore?
I am a homegrown Baltimore girl! I love the traditions of Baltimore—eating crabs, watching the Orioles play baseball, and driving to the snowball stand after dinner. I also love the rich history and vibrancy of the cultural events that Baltimore offers.
YAP: How did you get involved with Yellow Arrow and what do you do?
I first heard of Yellow Arrow through a connection with a woman who was also in the Maryland Writers Association (MWA). She asked if anyone in MWA would like to be a reader at one of Yellow Arrow’s events and I responded. After that reading, I did another workshop with Yellow Arrow and had one of my creative nonfiction pieces published in one of the Yellow Arrow Journal issues. Yellow Arrow has given me so much support as a new writer!! A short time later, I was asked to be a board member and have been in that position since January 2020, first as the Feminine Leadership Advisor and now as the Treasurer.
YAP: What are you working on currently?
Right now, I am working on a chapter that will be a part of an anthology on the healing qualities of nature. The anthology is coordinated by Heidi Schreiber-Pan from the Chesapeake Mental Health Collaborative in Towson, Maryland. I am honored to be a part of this collection of personal stories highlighting how nature can be a therapeutic tool.
YAP: Who is your favorite writer?
My favorite writer is Maya Angelou. There are so many things I love about her writing as well as who she was as a person. I am most drawn to the poetic way she speaks about her life and her undying belief in the goodness of humans.
YAP: Who has inspired and supported you most in your writing journey?
In addition to the support I have received from Yellow Arrow, I am deeply grateful to Andrea Hylen who has held a space for my creativity and personal healing for several years. As a Leadership Coach, she hosts an online “Co-Working Space for Cultural Creatives” several times a year. She has been my guide in opening up more to what I want to share in my writing.
YAP: What do you love most about writing?
I love to express my life’s journey in writing. Being able to tell little snippets from moments in my life where I had an AHA moment is so fulfilling. Even though there are writing “rules” in some cases, most of the time, writing is a tool for free expression and is limitless. I love that about it.
YAP: What advice do you have for new writers?
Find a support person/group
Read and listen to other authors
Work through your fears regarding sharing your voice
Trust the ebb and flow of the writing process
Write for yourself—others will connect to your authentic sharing.
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We are so fortunate to have Gina on our team. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Poems of a Loss We’ve No Ritual For—Miscarriage: A Review of Chloe Yelena Miller’s Viable
By Naomi Thiers
Chloe Yelena Miller’s book Viable (you can find it at www.chloeyelenamiller.com) is that semi-unusual thing, a collection of poems we need right now—because it touches on a human experience that cuts to the bone but isn’t often spoken directly about. I don’t think there is enough non-gauzy poetry published about childbirth itself and about caring for a very young infant—the true complexity and marvel of it. And there’s definitely not much poetry about losing a child through a miscarriage. I can hardly think of any collections of poetry centered on that kind of loss, only a few individual poems, such as “The Premonition” by Sharon Olds from The Gold Cell.
So, I’m truly glad to read Miller’s strong book Viable with its first section—“Carried”—entirely about the ache of losing a child two months into a pregnancy. The remaining two sections of the book express moving through a second pregnancy that does go full term, and the longest section, “Carry,” describes the birth of this son and the first years of life with him (though even this successful pregnancy carries a shadow of fear because of the recent miscarriage). These are situations, emotion-tangles, our culture has no rituals or pat phrases for, but that need to be talked about. Miller’s honest poetry invites us in.
Exploring aspects of language itself, including Italian grammar, helps Miller express the confused feelings and questions around losing a child you’ve never truly known, as in these stanzas from “Short Duet/Dualities”:
Words rhythm originates in blood flow, the opening and closing of chambers. Internal iambic pentameter. Here I am, left with one song. The doctor probes, searches for where you were.
The noun miscarriage conducts images like electricity. My mother pushed her baby in a tall-red carriage. Here sunshine, there are a new bonnet.
Shocks, seen and unseen, beneath the tires.
More often, Miller’s style is minimalistic with often one vivid image from nature flaring out. This works well for writing about shadowy grief our culture doesn’t have a label for. Here’s “Wasn’t”:
Before anyone else knew
I was pregnant,
I wasn’t.
I think of her as female
(to keep the narrative clear.)
Stemless cherry blossoms landed whole
on the sidewalk,
bright sun flattened the landscape
Cherry blossoms—hinting at the contrast between the bright, hot loveliness of spring in the Washington D.C. area (where Miller and I both live) and the bleakness of loss—return in my favorite poem in this section:
Objects
To mourn a woman,
carry her picture, wear her lapel pin.
There is nothing to wear
or carry after a miscarriage.
In Japan, mothers mourn
lost water children.
Gardens of small statues
in red knitted hats, bibs.
Hands in my pockets,
I stand at the edge of the Tidal Basin,
wilted cherry blossoms above and below.
Some of the subtlest, most crafted poems in terms of sound are those few which paint the speaker’s second pregnancy when awe mixes with some fear: “An infinity/ in your smallness, rapid growth./ So many parts we need to craft/for you to walk, eat or dance on a stage.”
Though it was years ago, I can remember pregnancy. The feeling of the baby alive and shifting inside during those months is an exceptionally hard sensation to funnel into words. Miller gets at it, as well as this time’s fizzy hope, in this poem which draws on the Italian concept of Iniziare (meaning to initiate or begin):
Italian vocabulary: Iniziare
A small liquid universe shifts
as I walk outdoors;
baby carried below my heart’s
iambic pentameter.
Fluids and doors opening.
You hear voices of to-be-loved parents.
So much yet-to-be
outside this expanding world.
Things really take off in the book’s final and often joyful section, which starts with a poem describing the physical sensations accompanying a Cesarean section—something I never thought to read in a poem. But why shouldn’t this way of giving birth, with its own odd feelings and atypical way of greeting the newborn, be brought alive through poetry? Many women experience a Cesarean—why shouldn’t we get this kind of news from poetry? Here’s most of “Three Weeks Early”:
Most of me, all of you, hidden:
blue curtain along my bare clavicle.
My head turns to one side to vomit,
jaw rattled with cold, I gasp.
Your father holds my hand, my face.
I think of my mother,
cold enough to ask for socks in labor.
I can’t feel my feet to know if they are cold.
You hear my cries before I hear yours.
You first see my wet face
from the distance of your father’s arms.
The sense of touch, more than any other, suffuses these poems about caring for an infant. Without being too graphic, they tell it like it is: the highs and the exhaustions, the non-gauzy reality of breastfeeding (“there’s a bruise on my breast/from your knocking for milk”), the rabbit hole of fascination with the baby you fall down. Many of the poems have short stanzas and short enjambed lines; they are full of repeating physical images (the baby’s mouth, fingers, skin pressing skin, sleep in all its stages, or lack of) and sometimes shift quickly from one odd image to an entirely new one. This mirrors the intense, enclosed, fuzzy quality of the first months with a new baby, that strangeness of suddenly being with a minuscule person you barely know and trying to fathom its habits. I’ll quote from two poems, first one that straps you into the intensity of a howling baby:
Empty, I’m a renamed woman – Mom –
holding a baby. He screams;
tonsils red, tongue vibrates,
like a revving engine.
He screams and screams and screams.
Oh, the screams!
(From “Birth Announcement”)
and one that taps into the intimacy of nursing:
My fingers support your infant skull,
above and below your ears.
Such fierce hunger at my breast:
your jaw shakes side to side,
toe-starting shiver to wail.
Finally, you settle,
and I understand hunger,
the loneliness of it all.
(From “Fierce Hunger”)
There’s one last section of five poems, each an apology, including an apology to the baby lost through miscarriage. These poems are short, cryptic, and express a gentle ache that lingers even as the speaker is, by the end, centered in a happy family (as depicted in the book’s lovely final poem, “Your Creation Story,” addressed to her son at age 6).
Miller’s book itself may get some people talking about miscarriage, but in addition, the book offers three pages of resources, poetry collections and memoirs that touch on pregnancy, miscarriage, and motherhood, and books dealing with grief. It’s quite a lot packed into one book. As one of Viable’s blurbs reads “it’s all there: the hope, the loneliness, the wreckage and the love.”
Miller, Chloe Yelena. Viable. Lily Poetry Review Books, 2021. Available at https://lilypoetryreview.blog/lily-poetry-review-press.
Naomi Thiers (naomihope@comcast.net) grew up in California and Pittsburgh, but her chosen home is Washington D.C./northern Virginia. She is the author of four poetry collections: Only the Raw Hands Are Heaven, In Yolo County, She Was a Cathedral, and Made of Air. Her poems, book reviews, and essays have been published in Virginia Quarterly Review, Poet Lore, Colorado Review, Grist, Sojourners, and other magazines. Former editor of the journal Phoebe, she works as an editor for Educational Leadership magazine and lives on the banks of Four Mile Run in Arlington, Virginia.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
everybody dies. ~ A Conversation with Briana Wingate
Originally from December 2020
“I’m tellin’ you. Ain’t nothing a fierce woman has to say that goes unheard.”
From “In the Valley,” everybody dies. (2019)
A Yellow Arrow Publishing Editorial Associate, Bailey Drumm, interviewed author Briana Wingate about her 2019 book everybody dies. (currently sold out!). Briana Wingate (or b.a.w.) has recently decided to take ownership of her full name. She lives, writes, and socially distances in Baltimore, Maryland, with her lucky black cat and collection of adult coloring books. She finds inspiration in Black women, neo soul, and popular 90s television. When she’s not scribbling in a journal somewhere, she can be found curled up with a good book and a bottle of wine. She has very strong feelings about The Golden Girls and is willing to discuss them via Twitter or Instagram @briana_shmiana.
YAP: How was everybody dies. conceptualized?
Call it morbid, but I think a lot about death as just a part of the human process. It’s this one thing that we all do no matter who we are, who our loved ones are, or what’s going on around us. everybody dies. was basically my way of asking, “What if someone dies because that’s just what people do? What if the focus of the story was somewhere else?”
YAP: What is your routine writing practice like? Has it changed since this publication? If so, how?
It has! Believe it or not, I had more time to write while I was still in school, so it came a lot more freely. I didn’t have to think too hard about finding the time; I just did it. It was easy to make writing a priority in my life because there was so much outside motivation to just create, even when it didn’t come easy. Now, my motivation is mostly internal and always finds a way to fall in priority behind something else. It’s so much simpler to blame work and general adult life for not writing these days than it is to say I’m afraid of not being good enough at something that actually holds my heart. There was a period of time after completing the MFA program where I wasn’t writing at all, and it made me feel as though I was betraying myself. These days, I’ve been writing just for my own eyes, just to practice with no real expectations. When the stars align just right, I talk out ideas with friends as a sounding board. But I’m not ready to fully workshop what I have just yet, let alone submit. Almost, but not quite. It still feels a little uncomfortable sometimes. A little more hesitant. A lot more eraser smudges. But, I’ve been scribbling in my journal before bed each night, and it feels a little easier each time.
YAP: What was the easiest story to write?
“Things Falling from the Sky.” I had a lot of fun writing that one.
YAP: What about the most difficult? How did you tackle it?
“Dying Season” changed in so many ways so many times. Characters were swapped out, entire scenes were cut, and I was frustrated through it all. I had trouble getting to an ending that felt right. I can definitely say I leaned on my cohort a lot for help. But ultimately, I ended up walking away from the story for a couple weeks and going back over what inspired me to write it to begin with. A friend and I were talking and realized that someday, people who were part of such defining moments in our youth will eventually die without anyone calling to let us know. I found the ending when I realized that the feeling I was looking for was acceptance.
YAP: Were there any pieces that you considered for the collection that didn’t make the cut? Why?
Definitely. I had a two-page piece that I was certain was going to be the first story in the collection, but it just hadn’t been fleshed out enough in time for production deadlines. It’s still sitting in my files, so I may revisit it someday.
YAP: How did you land on this title? Were there any other contenders?
I don’t remember any others sticking with me as much as everybody dies. It’s something you can’t really argue with, but it’s still a conversation starter. There’s a death in each story, but each story is more about the surrounding events. By saying ‘everybody dies’ in lowercase letters upfront on the cover, it was like my way of saying, “Everybody dies. But that’s not always where the story is.”
YAP: I heard, when producing these, you had a handmade element. What was it?
I made a few handbound copies and tied live flowers to the front covers. Inside, I added sheets of vellum at the beginning of each story that were cut out to form an erasure poem from each first page.
YAP: What’s something you hope your readers get out of this collection?
A good laugh. A good hurt. A good conversation.
YAP: Do you have any new projects in the works?
[From March 2021:] I started a new podcast with a local visual artist/musician/good friend, Lové Iman. You can find us at ewwcreatives.com, follow us on Instagram and Twitter @EwwVarietyShow, and listen to The Eww Variety Show on all major platforms.
YAP: Is fiction the only form you practice?
Fiction is where my heart has always been, but I dabble in nonfiction as well. Nothing serious. Just my own long-winded introspections.
YAP: Would you choose to self-publish again in the future? What was that process like for you?
Who knows? I’d never say never, but there’s pros and cons to everything. I’m admittedly a control freak, so seeing something that was just mine go from concept to tangible object was definitely a rush. However, having worked behind the scenes with local presses before, helping other people see their work come to life, there’s definitely a level of comfort in knowing there are other people invested in your brainchild.
YAP: What do you hope people take from this chapbook?
Everybody dies. That’s not the whole story. How are you living?
YAP: How would you summarize this collection in less than 50 words?
everybody dies. is a collection of short stories that each include a dead body but aren’t about death. There’s a little bit of humor, a little bit of heartache, and a little bit of weird inside, all meant to tell the human story.
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Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling. Thank you Briana for taking the time to share your stories with us. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts.