.WRITERS.ON.WRITING..Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #71
Kari Ann Martindale
How did you first publish your writing and what was it?
The first thing I had published was technically a sarcastic editorial I wrote to the local newspaper in high school about Pell Grants for prisoners, though I’ve changed my opinion since then. About the only good thing that came out of it was that I experienced the joy of having someone accept my writing and publish it. Otherwise, I wish I’d never mailed that letter.
What period of your life do you find you write about most often?
I write about 2003 a lot, the time I spent in a war zone in Iraq, which was an unexpected turn in my poetry. And I’m always writing about THE NOW, i.e., current events.
Your most interesting writing quirk?
Unlike many people, I write to silence, with no music or noise in the background.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
To write even more, and to finish all the poems I’ve started!
Kari Martindale has been published in various literary journals and featured in festivals, ekphrastic events, and literature nights across Maryland. She sits on the Board of Maryland Writers’ Association, helped get EC Poetry & Prose off the ground, and holds an MA in linguistics. Her poem “The List” was a finalist for Line of Advance’s Colonel Darron L. Wright Award. A globetrotter at heart, she’s always planning her next trip. She prioritizes kindness over politeness and justice over peace.
Yellow Arrow published Kari Ann’s piece “Sightseer” in Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VII, No. 2, PEREGRINE. You can find her on Instagram @karilogue and her website kariannmartindale.com.
.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #70
Amanda Kooser
What period of your life do you find you write about most often?
Childhood is a big one. It’s not so much that everything I write is set in my childhood, but that it explores the reverberations from that time. I have a constant sense of the past boomeranging around. I’m also very engaged in the present moment and with experiences in nature.
What is your writing Kryptonite? Your most interesting writing quirk?
I’ve been fortunate to have a journalism career, which means writing on demand and on deadline. That attitude has spilled over into all of my writing projects, so I never fear a blank page. When it comes to quirks, I brainstorm in the shower at night. If I’m stuck on a piece, I contemplate it while shampooing and figure it out. Then I jump out of the shower and get back to writing.
What are you currently working on (even non-writing things)?
Journalism-wise, I’m covering a lot of space stories involving NASA missions. I’m querying a historical literary mystery co-written with my mother and revising a speculative novel about drought, forgotten gods, and human women. I play guitar and write indie rock/Americana songs for my band The Dawn Hotel. You can find me in an Aikido dojo most week nights, training, and teaching and flying around. Journalism-wise, I’m covering a lot of space stories involving NASA missions. I’ve got a couple novels (one a portal fantasy and one a hybrid fiction/nonfiction postmodern metaphysical detective tale) I’m submitting. In poetry-land, I’m working on a series about the body and a series about the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico. I play guitar and write indie rock/Americana songs for my band The Dawn Hotel. Lastly, I’m trying to catch a pigeon with an injured wing that has taken up residence in my backyard so I can take him to wildlife rehab. So far, he’s evaded me, so I’m putting out food and water for him
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
Oh, it’s a chatty beast and it’s fickle. Sometimes it whispers unkind things about the quality of my work, but I’m good at talking back when it gets like that. We’ve agreed not to dwell on the negative, so my inner voice is usually a swell of excitement that’s at its best when we can say “Hot damn, that was fun!” in chorus.
Amanda Kooser (she/they) is a freelance journalist and longtime contributor to CNET specializing in goofy rocks on Mars. They graduated from the University of New Mexico creative writing MFA program in 2022. Their work has appeared in the Harwood Anthology and Conceptions Southwest with upcoming pieces in The Twin Bill and New Mexico Poetry Anthology. Amanda cruises Route 66 in Albuquerque in a pink-and-chrome ‘50s car and plays a pink-sparkle guitar in indie rock band The Dawn Hotel.
Yellow Arrow published Amanda’s piece “Handsome” in Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VII, No. 2, PEREGRINE. You can also find them on Twitter @akooser and at their website amandakooser.com.
.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #69
Milan Harris
What period of your life do you find you write about most often?
I’m very interested in writing about the present. I often turn to my current situations, experiences, and interests to inform my writing. If it’s not about the present, it’s certainly about childhood. More than periods of life, I turn to a lot of similar themes, but they can also be molded by the situational and environmental contexts I exist in. I find myself writing a lot about death, grief, and liberation, but also about love and connection—I think all of those themes are constantly interacting with each other, and I’m constantly interacting with them.
What word do you find yourself using most often in your writing?
Oddly enough, I use a lot of words relating to the body like flesh, blood, and bone. Much of my writing tends to be visceral and imagery—heavy, and I usually connect the body and the physical realm to the ideas I write about.
Why did you submit “we been been immortal” to Yellow Arrow Journal? Why this piece at this time to this place?
I write a lot about grief because grief has followed me in many ways, for many years. In 2024, grief has been especially present, as over 200,000 Palestinians have been killed. For me, grieving death is both personal and communal, individualized and politicized. A lot of my writing recently has helped me to process the grief I’ve felt for loved ones passing, but, it’s also helped me to grieve communally—“we been been immortal” is a direct response to seeing the deaths of so many Black people in Baltimore and the world. Though I had a specific context of why I wrote this poem over a year and a half ago, I think it can connect to oppressed people all over the world. I think it says that we can grieve in the ways most authentic to us, love intimately and uniquely, and we will still be here. We will always be here, immortal, transcendent, and eternal.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
Mostly to get off my butt and stop procrastinating.
Formerly the director of an after-school program, Milan Harris now works as a researcher inequity-based education practices in Maryland. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, she has always been a lover of literature. She’s written for various online journals, but in 2020 she cofounded her own creative arts magazine, Amani Sol, with her best friend. They’re currently working on their third issue. When not writing, she can be found gardening, cooking, or doing yoga.
Yellow Arrow published Milan’s piece “we been been immortal” in Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 2, kitalo. You can also find her on Instagram @milanrougee_ and at her magazine’s website amanisolmag.com.
.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #68
Elyse Welles
What is the first book that made you cry?
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I remember my teacher reading it aloud in elementary school and sobbing away at the unending love, the unconditional gifts the tree gave year after year . . . and it was the unappreciativeness of the boy-turned-man that made me cry. I remember looking around at the classmates I had and thinking, “Why isn’t everyone else sobbing?!”
How did you first publish your writing and what was it?
My very first published work as a working writer was an essay in Aayo Magazine about finding calm amidst political turmoil, something I come back to again and again in recent months. Fun fact, when I was in the 11th grade I had my Lembas bread recipe (Elvish bread from Lord of the Rings) published in a local cookbook in Bahrain where I was living at the time!
What word do you find yourself using most often in your writing?
Warmth.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
I am guided: just stay focused.
Elyse Welles is a multicultural author and sacred poet. An initiated priestess holding an MA with a focus in spiritual studies, she is a teacher of the lost Earth priestess arts of the Mediterranean where she hails from. She hosts the Magick Kitchen Podcast, a top 20 show in the U.S., as well as the Seeking Numina Podcast and the Cosmic Theater Mystery School Podcast. She is an author, featured in several anthologies. Her first book, Sacred Wild: An Invitation to Connect with Spirits of the Land, releases with Llewellyn in fall 2025, and her paranormal mystery novel, What the Water Remembers, releases in September 2025. Elyse is currently writing her third book, a nonfiction work diving deeper into intentional, spiritual connection with nature. It builds on the themes introduced in Sacred Wild.
She writes regularly for Witchology and Witch Way Magazine and is the Greece correspondent for Wild Hunt. She has spoken at several conferences including Hekatefest and the Ancestral Magic Summit. She runs Seeking Numina, facilitating pilgrimages at Greece’s sacred sites, and teaches earth-based spirituality. Learn more about it at seekingnumina.com or find Elyse on Instagram @seekingnumina.
Yellow Arrow published her poems “Bougainvillea Bright” in Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VII, No. 1, UpSpring and “Zeitgeist” in Yellow Arrow Vignette SPARK.
.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #67
Sara streeter
Why did you submit this piece to Yellow Arrow Journal? Why this piece at this time to this place?
(This is a GREAT question!) I’ve been impressed with so much of what Yellow Arrow does and publishes, and I wanted to be a part of the community. When I learned about the theme of this issue, kitalo, I knew I had to submit. This story has been in-process for years and the [submissions] call was a push for me to finally get it right. I also live in Silver Spring, which is not far from Baltimore!
What is the first book that made you cry or laugh out loud?
I found a first edition of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” when I was young and read it cover to cover. Francie felt like a friend to me.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Observe everything. Don’t skim over details.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
It tells me I’m a badass. And that I have something important to share with the world.
Sara Streeter, or 한혜숙 Hea Sook Han (she/her), is a transracially adopted Korean-American, interior designer, biological mother of two, and writer. Since starting her writing journey in 2021, she has been published in Longleaf Review, Hippocampus Magazine, Peatsmoke Journal, and other fantastic places. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and Best Micro Fiction. Visit her at sarajstreeter.com.
Yellow Arrow published Sara’s piece “Bitter / Sweet” in Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. IX, No. 2, kitalo. You can also find her on Instagram @_streetstreet_ .