Workshops with Yellow Arrow Publishing
Yellow Arrow workshops are supportive, generative, small-group sessions offered online. Each workshop is led by a talented and supportive instructor. Writers of all levels and genres are encouraged to join! Workshops are fantastic for emerging writers seeking an encouraging community of creatives, or for experienced writers looking for inspiration for new drafts. Workshop enrollments are intended for women-identifying writers unless stated otherwise.
If you’re not sure which workshops you want to enroll for yet, you can commit to making time for your creative journey by purchasing a Gift of Writing card now and use it to sign up for individual classes as you like. The Gift of Writing cards also make incredible gifts for the other writers in your life! You can purchase one here.
Best yet, the voucher never expires. And it is good for all workshops and classes!
Please consider donating a spot in one of Yellow Arrow Publishing’s workshops to a writer with financial hardship. When you donate a space, we’ll share with our community that we have free slots open and identify writers with financial hardships who are interested in participating.
If you are interested in attending one of our workshops but find the cost prohibitive, join our No-Cost Workshop Wait List. When a no-cost space becomes available, we will contact you!
2025 Workshop Schedule
Poetry is Life
In each class we will read and discuss new poets and old favorites who have written gems on our monthly theme. We will continue to study and gain inspiration from women poets. Past themes have included writing about nature, grief, protest, and more. In the class you will write and share new work. You will come away from each session with three or four drafts. Participants will have the opportunity to share work with their cohort and the instructor between sessions.
When: 11:00 am-1:30 pm EST
September 6, October 4, November 8
$35/session or $100 for all 3 sessions (Jan-June)
You are strongly encouraged to register for the full 3 sessions. However, you are invited to attend one session at a time as you are available.
Where: Zoom (link provided after registration)
Class Size: 15 participants
About the instructor:
Ann Quinn is the poetry editor for Yellow Arrow Journal and conducts writing workshops at The Writer’s Center, for Yellow Arrow, and at writer’s conferences throughout the country. Ann holds an MFA in poetry from Pacific Lutheran University and lives in Catonsville, Maryland with her family. Her award-winning work can be read in Poet Lore, Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, Vietnam War Poetry, Haibun Today, and other journals and is included in the anthology Red Sky: Poetry on the Global Epidemic of Violence Against Women. Her chapbook, Final Deployment, is published by Finishing Line Press. Visit her at annquinn.net.
Register here.
Burn Bright, Plant Anew: The Tower as a Guide for Revision
Rooted in the fire of Aries, The Tower guides us in both releasing what we no longer need and reseeding the earth with what can truly serve us going forward. This Major Arcana card is the perfect tool for revision—a guide for the writer in both letting go and planting anew. As we face challenges in incorporating feedback, rethinking character development, and even questioning voice, we can look to the Tower to come home. We can let go of others’ assumptions and embrace the true fiery heart of our story.
This two-session workshop will feature craft study, creation, and revision in partnership with the Tarot, including but not limited to study of the following cards: The Tower, The Fool, and The High Priestess.
This workshop is for:
Writers about to embark on a revision journey
Writers struggling with current revision goals
Writers who are curious about their own drafting and revision process and are seeking new tools
*No previous knowledge of Tarot is necessary. All genres of writers are welcome.
When: 7:00 pm-9:00 pm EST
October 1
October 8
$30/ session or $50 for the 2 session bundle
Where: Zoom (link provided after registration)
Class Size: 15 participants
About the instructor:
A novelist with an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Sarah Lawrence College, Claire Campbell is the founder of Blue Stone Writers. She reads Tarot for writers and seekers all over the world and loves teaching classes that blend artist needs with character quirks. As an avid gardener and Texas Master Naturalist, Claire is always incorporating wild spaces and weird nature into her work.
Registration is closed.
Micro Fiction: Craft and Publish
What is micro fiction in the context of a woman's busy and plucky life? In this workshop we will navigate and dissect the 50-word micro fiction/nonfiction art form. Weekly, we will enjoy the quality micro fiction work of other women across culture and identity through a "read, discuss, try it, and prepare for publication" approach. Micro fiction differs from poetry in that it's living prose, but is also related in that it reveals a narrative that is sometimes hard to tell. We will discover how the 50-word piece can pack a punch that is often more effective than longer prose.
There is a market and need for well-written, women-centric micro fiction, and we will unearth it.
When: 6:30 pm-8:00 pm EST
October 29
November 12
November 19
$28/ session or $70 for the 3 session bundle
Where: Zoom (link provided after registration)
Class Size: 15 participants
About the instructor:
Elaina has seen her poetry, essays, and short stories published across dozens of literary journals. She’s also served as Editor in Chief for installment number two of a micro fiction anthology called 50-word Stories of 2023, while also acting as an acquisitions reader for Vine Leaves Press in the genres of memoir and historical fiction. She is also an active member of the Ocean County chapter for NOW: National Organization for Women.
Over the course of the last two years, Elaina has continued to devote her time to a few very important purposes—her favorite being The Toms River Arts Community (TRAC), bringing to fruition one of her final graduate projects that began as a hypothetical. In June 2025, Elaina collaborated with a two Jersey Shore high schools to collect and curate poetry, paintings, and textiles for a Queer Art Exhibition currently displayed in one of the main gallery windows in downtown Toms River. Future art exhibits for TRAC will call upon Elaina’s writing skills for informational panels and object labels. Elaina also served as communications coordinator for the Trans Equity Coalition’s community social calendar in 2024: a grassroots resource for transgender and nonbinary individuals in New Jersey.
Elaina is a writer, teacher, and graduate student. She wrote a short memoir collection of essays and poetry (Italian Bones in the Snow) and a short story collection (Heart and Salt) both published by Vine Leaves Press. She loves ice cream, antiques, dogs, and actively advocating for LGBTQ+ community. She’s a graduate student through CUNY in Museum Studies. Her newest memoir about growing up with sensory dysregulation in the 1980s and 1990s called Chomp, Press, Pull is a full-on immersive encounter. She loves ice cream, antiques, and fabric patterns.
Register here.
Writing the Body Politic: Poetry as Personal and Public Voice
This generative poetry workshop invites women-identified writers to explore how the body, memory, and personal experience can serve as powerful sites for political expression. Whether grappling with race, gender, religion, migration, or mental health, participants will learn to transform private truths into poems that speak with collective resonance.
Through close readings of contemporary poets, guided discussion, and writing prompts, we’ll explore how to braid the lyric and the political, the intimate and the structural. Emphasis will be placed on poetic strategies—image, repetition, fragmentation, juxtaposition—that allow for emotional complexity and ethical clarity.
Together, we’ll examine the role of the poet as witness, mythmaker, and world-builder. Writers will leave with drafts, craft tools, and a renewed sense of how poetry can carry both personal and communal stakes.
Craft Focus:
Weaving personal experience with sociopolitical insight
Writing poetry with urgency, clarity, and layered identity
Using form, structure, and voice to deepen emotional and cultural resonance
Ethical considerations when writing about trauma, family, and community
When: 6:00 pm-7:30 pm EST
November 6
$28/ session
Where: Zoom (link provided after registration)
Class Size: 15 participants
About the instructor:
Kavitha Rath is a writer based in the Baltimore-DC area whose publications have appeared in Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium, Papercuts Magazine, and more. She interweaves myth, magic, and mysticism into her poetry and short stories. Kavitha participated in the 2024 Yellow Arrow Writer-in-Residence program. She has lived in a number of other cities, including Atlanta, Chennai, and London.
Register here.
Redact to Reclaim: Erasure Poems as Acts of Defiance
In a time of overwhelm and hopelessness, erasure poetry is one way to reclaim our power and write a new story. In this workshop, participants will learn more about the history of erasure poetry and the various ways erasure poems have responded to and/or subverted the original source material. We will explore erasure poems with political, socio-cultural, and literary themes.
The instructor will highlight different strategies for creating erasure poems including both digital and paper processes. Participants are encouraged to bring source materials for use during a generative writing portion of the workshop. Following the generative writing time, there will be an opportunity to share what has been created or any thoughts on the erasure poem process.
The instructor will also discuss suggestions for source material texts, considerations for publication, and publication opportunities. The goal of this workshop is for every participant to walk away feeling empowered to create their own erasure poetry in order to reshape or defy an existing narrative.
When: 2:00 pm-3:00 pm EST
October 25
$25/ session
*Participants are encouraged to bring source materials for use during a generative writing portion of the workshop.
Where: Zoom (link provided after registration)
Class Size: 15 participants
About the instructor:
Candace Kronen is a poet, activist, and speech-language pathologist currently residing in Ontario, Canada. She is a strong believer in the power of language and storytelling to effect change. Candace is a co-editor of If You Ever: Poems Inspired by Kim Addonizio, an anthology with all proceeds going to Keep Our Clinics to support independent abortion clinics. Her first full-length collection features political erasure poems and is currently under development with North Meridian Press. Additional writing can be found on Substack at "Stories I'll Tell My Daughter."
Register here.
Writing Gratitude
Welcome this Thanksgiving season with a grateful and joyful heart. Join Caroline Jennings, for a gratitude journaling workshop. Caroline will begin the workshop by introducing 1-2 poems centrally themed on gratitude, joy, and what it means to give thanks. Discussion will follow. Caroline will then provide a journaling prompt inspired by these themes. You will have quiet time to write and reflect on your own, and then we will come back together as a group to share insights and reset for the season ahead.
When: 12:00 pm-1:00 pm EST
November 19
$25/ session
Where: Zoom (link provided after registration)
Class Size: 15 participants
About the instructor:
Caroline R. Jennings spent ten years working in fitness and several more at home raising her two children. She recently found her way back to creative writing. Originally from Texas, Caroline grew up outside of Chicago. She graduated from Yale University in 2007 where she majored in Spanish with a focus in Spanish Literature. She holds a Master’s degree in Rehabilitative Counseling from The University of Texas at Southwestern. She currently lives in Darien, Connecticut with her husband, two children, and Golden Retriever, Rosie. Outside of writing, Caroline spends much of her time volunteering with the Darien Public School system and Fairfield County Swim League, considers her self a fitness junkie, and enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time with family and friends.
Register here.
The Blaze Beneath: Ecofeminist Inheritance in a Burning World
In this workshop, participants will explore the slow, hidden burn of ecofeminist inheritance through vivid imagery and experimental writing techniques. Rooted in tropical and postcolonial landscapes, we’ll examine how women’s bodies, domestic spaces, and environments carry intergenerational tension: the unspoken, the overgrown, the moulding, and the scorched.
Using a mix of poetic and prose-based exercises, participants will engage with atmosphere, sensory language, and structural experimentation to write into the spaces where memory, climate, and matrilineal legacy intersect. Together we’ll investigate what blazes beneath the surface of place and self, and craft work that holds both beauty and unease.
When: 2:00 pm-4:00 pm EST
November 22
$25/ session
Where: Zoom (link provided after registration)
Class Size: 15 participants
About the instructor:
Elizabeth M Castillo is a multilingual British-Mauritian poet, writer, and educator, currently reading for the MSt/MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford. She lives in Paris with her family and two cats, where she writes across genres, languages, and pen names, and runs a number of creative and editorial projects.
Her work explores the themes matrescence, ecofeminism, multilingualism, and the tropical gothic, drawing on the many cultures and countries that shaped her. A two-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, her writing has been published in English, Spanish, and French, and featured in journals and anthologies internationally.
Elizabeth is the author of two critically acclaimed poetry collections: Cajoncito: Poems on Love, Loss, y Otras Locuras and Not Quite An Ocean (Nine Pens Press). She teaches regular workshops for indie writers and provides creative mentoring and editorial services.
You can connect with her on social media @emcwritesthings, or via her website: www.elizabethmcastillo.net.
Register here.