Restorative Writing with Raychelle Heath

Take a meditative moment with your writing through this restorative writing course. During each session we will begin with a centering and freewriting, explore inspirational texts, and use visualization and generative prompts to move our writing. We’ll also end with a group share and check out. By the end of the session, you will have had a chance to open up your page and allow the words to flow. And, hopefully, you can take away a sense of calm going forward with your work.

https://www.yellowarrowpublishing.com/workshop-sign-up/restorative-writing-fall-2024

When: 8:00 pm-9:00 pm EST

September 26, October 24, November 21

$25 each session, $55 for three session bundle, or $65 for three session bundle + bonus 1/2 hour session focused on meditation and reflective writing

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.

THREE SESSION BUNDLE: If you sign up for all three sessions, in addition to a discount, you will also receive a meditation cards and a Yellow Arrow notebook!

THREE SESSION BUNDLE + BONUS: If you sign up for the first three sessions + bonus, in addition to a discount, you will also receive a meditation card, a Yellow Arrow notebook, and a bonus 1/2 hour session focused on meditation and reflective writing.

Where: Zoom (link provided after registration)

Class Size: 15 participants maximum

About the instructor:

Raychelle Heath is a poet, artist, teacher, yoga and meditation instructor, podcaster, and traveler. She holds a BA in languages and an MFA in poetry. She uses her writing and podcast to tell the multifaceted stories of black women in the world. She also explores her experiences with the culturally rich communities that she has encountered in her travels. She has been published by Travel Noire, Yellow Arrow Journal, The Brazen Collective, and Community Building Art Works. She also holds yoga certifications from Kripalu Yoga, Yoga Nidra, and Mind Body Meditation. She is currently director of curriculum and coaching for the Unicorn Authors Club.

Join us for a free community event for creatives! Poetry & Prose in the Park, hosted by Yellow Arrow Publishing, is a space for creatives to gather in one of Baltimore’s public parks to connect with other creatives and share in a creative exercise. Led by Kerry Graham & Annie Marhefka, creatives will have the opportunity to share about their creative goals, respond to a writing prompt, and share their reflections (or words) with the group. 

For our September 20 session, meet us at 1:00 pm at Canton Waterfront Park. Look for the yellow blanket! 

Bring something to write with/on, and if you’d like, a coffee, tea, or snack item for nourishment while you write.

Questions? Email admin@yellowarrowpublishing.com.

RSVP here.

Poetry is Life

$35 each session or $20 for all 4 sessions (September-December)

In each class we will read and discuss new poets and old favorites who have written gems on our monthly theme. 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. Those who commit to the full four sessions will receive the added benefit of an extra workshop session for 30 minutes after the class, to have a new poem workshopped each month. Participants will also have the opportunity to share work with their cohort and the instructor between sessions. This workshop is co-ed.

https://www.yellowarrowpublishing.com/workshop-sign-up/2024-poetry-life-fall

When: 11:00 am-1:00 pm (1:30 pm for full-time students) EST

September 14, October 12, November 9, December 14

You are strongly encouraged to register for the full 4 sessions which provides an extra workshop session for 30 minutes after the class. However, you are invited to attend one session at a time as you are available.

Cost: $35 each session or $120 for all 4 sessions (September - December)

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.

Ghosts Only I Can See by Julie Alden Cullinane is now available as a paperback (you can order multiple copies at a discount here). Ghosts Only I Can See by Julie Alden Cullinane peeks back in time to Cullinane’s younger self and the ghosts through time that until now, only she could see. It focuses not on literal ghosts, but the ghosts—the shells—of her former self.

With this hauntingly woven collection of creative nonfiction and poetry, Cullinane shares these ghosts and the painful, powerful, and wonderful experiences that made her the woman she is today. Cullinane is a neurodivergent poet, author, and mom in Boston. After raising a family and working for many years as a young mom, she was able to return to her graduate studies later in life and earned her master’s in 2021. Under the guidance of many amazing and supportive female professors, Cullinane began submitting her work for publication.

Her latest work, Ghosts Only I Can See, wields Cullinane’s story to encourage readers to look into the past, present, and future of all women’s lives. Growing up with many resilient and strong women, Cullinane was an avid spectator of their lives, their passions, and their trauma as she found her own way through the world. As she got older and decided to grasp her ghosts even closer, Cullinane truly began to understand the tender weaving of women’s lives and their multitude of shared experiences—both of which often remain invisible today because of collective shame, individual shame, and the pressures of perfection in society. The desire to make visible the invisible underlies Ghosts Only I Can See.

Cover photography by Cullinane and cover design and interior images by Alexa Laharty. Cullinane states, “The photos came out beautifully, capturing isolation and Americana vibes with an old western feel but also modern. I couldn’t be happier with the image I selected. Right down to the sunglasses. I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.”

You can learn more about Cullinane in a conversation between the author and Melissa Nunez, Yellow Arrow interviewer, at yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/specters-interview-julie-alden-cullinane.

Order your copy of Ghosts Only I Can See from Yellow Arrow Publishing at yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/ghosts-only-i-can-see-paperback and find out more about Cullinane and follow her publication news at julie.wildinkpages.com/poetry or on Instagram or Threads @HerLoudMind and Twitter of BlueSky @AldenCullinane. Ghosts Only I Can See will be released in October 2024.

Thank you for supporting independent publishing.

Yellow Arrow Publishing is delighted to release the next issue in our online series, Yellow Arrow Vignette AMPLIFY. For our third issue we chose the theme of AMPLIFY, our 2024 yearly value, though we did not ask submitters to send in pieces on theme; rather, staff at Yellow Arrow used the idea in-house as a reminder to continue to share and amplify women-identifying voices. With that, here is the AMPLIFY issue of Yellow Arrow Vignette:

yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/vignette-release-shine-line-bright-amplify-2024

With Vignette AMPLIFY, we wanted to return to some of the earliest goals of Yellow Arrow: circulating and augmenting the creative work of voices and themes that aren’t heard loudly enough. And as part of the return to our roots, we wanted to showcase writers who live in or are otherwise connected to our home base of Baltimore. We want our readers to experience the spectrum of voices that Charm City offers. Enjoy the issue!

Learn more about AMPLIFY from Vignette Managing Editor Dr. Tonee Mae Moll at yellowarrowpublishing.com/calendar/yellow-arrow-vignette-amplify-2024-subs-open.

Yellow Arrow Vignette was created by Siobhan McKenna. Through Yellow Arrow Vignette we hope to continue and expand our mission of creating a space where writers who identify as women have a place where their voices are amplified and create ripples of empathy and resilience. We landed on “vignette” because literary vignettes are known to be pieces of writing that depict brief, but highly detailed moments in time. Through the Yellow Arrow Vignette we look forward to sharing vibrant and poignant glimpses into the lives of our writers and hope that these stories, when viewed as a collective, will tell an expansive and inclusive narrative.

If you have any questions, please email them to submissions@yellowarrowpublishing.com.

Join us for a free community event for creatives! Poetry & Prose in the Park, hosted by Yellow Arrow Publishing, is a space for creatives to gather in one of Baltimore’s public parks to connect with other creatives and share in a creative exercise. Led by Kerry Graham & Annie Marhefka, creatives will have the opportunity to share about their creative goals, respond to a writing prompt, and share their reflections (or words) with the group. 

For our August 2 session, meet us at 1:00 pm near the Observatory at Patterson Park (near intersection of Patterson Park Ave & Pratt). Look for the yellow blanket! 

Bring something to write with/on, and if you’d like, a coffee, tea, or snack item for nourishment while you write.

Questions? Email admin@yellowarrowpublishing.com.

RSVP here.

Yellow Arrow Publishing is excited to announce that submissions for our next issue of Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 2 (fall 2024) is open August 1-31, exploring the concept griefulness, an intertwining of grief and gratitude.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/yaj-ix-02-submissions-open-kitalo

This issue’s theme is kitalo

: an empathetic Luganda term of solidarity offered when someone experiences a spectrum of loss

: directly translates to “this/that is tragic” but is far richer than that

Our hope is that this issue gives women-identifying creatives a place where they can meditate on communal grief and communal gratitude. Here are some guiding questions about the theme:

1) In the midst of grief, how have others cared for you, how do you care for others, and how do you care for yourself? What are the most striking or profound examples you have experienced or witnessed?

2) If your grief were to take the form of an animal (remember, humans are animals, too), which animal (fictional, nonfictional, or extinct) would it be and how would this animal behave? Be as specific as possible. Feel free to defy logic and science; grief often can.

3) Have you ever immigrated to or emigrated from a different nation than your current nation of residence? What potential life paths and livelihoods did you leave behind as a result? Which ones do you still yearn for and why, if any?

4) Have you ever experienced a platonic break-up (real or imaginary friend)? If so, how do you specifically navigate or ignore the gaps left by lost friendship?

5) Who (fictional or nonfictional) is no longer present in your life, whom you would like to offer your deepest gratitude to?

For more information regarding journal submission guidelines, visit yellowarrowpublishing.com/submissions. Please read our guidelines carefully before submitting. To learn more about our editorial views and how important your voice is in your story, read About the Journal. This issue will be released in November 2024. To learn more about kitalo’s guest editor, Tramaine Suubi, visit yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/fullness-grief-guest-editor-yaj-ix-02-suubi.

Thank you for supporting independent publishing.

Yellow Arrow is excited to announce the theme for our next issue

Kitalo explores the concept griefulness, an intertwining of grief and gratitude. Guest editor, Tramaine Suubi contemplated about this in their introductory blog:

“This term was created by my psychologist, and it feels deeply resonant for our current times. My life, my very body, feels full of grief. As I tried to find home on 15 wildly different streets, in five cities, across four nations, on three continents, my body certainly kept the score. . . . In my present season of life, I am reclaiming darkness and blackness as spaces of goodness—as spaces of rest, reflection, and revival. . . . Grief and gratitude are often intertwined in my findings.”

Tramaine Suubi (she/they) is a multilingual writer who was born in Kampala. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her forthcoming debut is a full-length poetry collection titled phases, which will be published in January 2025. Her forthcoming second book is also a full-length poetry collection titled stages, which will be published in January 2026. Both books will be published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. Tramaine was one of our 2023 writers in residence and her poem "begin again" was included in Yellow Arrow Journal ELEVATE (IX/01). We appreciate all that she has done for Yellow Arrow and are excited to welcome Tramaine on this new venture.

To learn more about our submissions guidelines, visit yellowarrowpublishing.com/submissions. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.

Yellow Arrow Publishing would like to announce the next guest editor for Yellow Arrow Journal, Tramaine Suubi. Tramaine will oversee the creation of our Vol. IX, No. 2 issue (fall 2024).

yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/fullness-grief-guest-editor-yaj-ix-02-suubi

Mark your calendar! The theme will be released next week. Submissions open August 1 and the issue will be released in November. Tramaine Suubi (she/they) is a multilingual writer who was born in Kampala. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her forthcoming debut is a full-length poetry collection titled phases, which will be published in January 2025. Her forthcoming second book is also a full-length poetry collection titled stages, which will be published in January 2026. Both books will be published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. Tramaine was one of our 2023 writers in residence and her poem "begin again" was included in Yellow Arrow Journal ELEVATE (IX/01). We appreciate all that she has done for Yellow Arrow and are excited to welcome Tramaine on this new venture.

Iridescent Pigeons by Candace Walsh is available as a paperback or PDF (you can preorder multiple copies at a discount here). Candace’s poems in Iridescent Pigeons, her debut chapbook, serve as a restoration project by articulating the everyday unsaid of love, not just in romantic contexts, but as a friend, sister, daughter, dog parent, wildflower admirer, and mother. Amid free verse, Candace’s use of archaic poetic forms (the Sapphic stanza, ode, curtal sonnet, and cento) and homages to Virginia Woolf, William Wordsworth, and Gerard Manley Hopkins claims literary legacies that have historically excluded women and queer writers.

https://www.yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/iridescent-pigeons-release-candace-walsh

This wry celebration of good, bad, ugly, thirsty, reverent, compassionate, unrequited, and fully granted love rouses new lexicons of connection and belonging. As poet J. Allyn Rosser observes of Candace, “Her poems—intensely, warily—celebrate familial, platonic, and romantic bonds, even as they ponder vestiges of the trauma love can leave behind.”

Candace is a queer poet, fiction writer, and essayist with Cuban and Greek ancestry and New York and New Mexico roots. She currently calls pastoral southeast Ohio home, where she lives in an old farmhouse with her wife, their two dogs, hundreds of books, and every kitchen and camping gadget you didn’t know you needed (most recent addition: cherry pitter). Iridescent Pigeons is for the black sheep, the eldest daughters, the overly ardent friends, the dissociated, the dispossessed, the ones surprised by love, and the eschewers of received wisdom. The unashamed divorcees, the lost cousins, the off-season travelers, and the cockamamie schemers. The late-in-life lesbians, those called “precocious” and “old souls” as children, the truth-blurters, and the ruminators. The Heathers with two mommies and the exvangelical pantheists, the brash empaths, and the shy extroverts. The family archivists, the stationery collectors, and the forgetful overcommitters. The underestimated and the overcompensators, and all those hungry for the everyday unsaid.

The cover art was created by Anna Chotlos, and cover design was by Laura M. André. Candace stated that she “wanted a pigeon with the right attitude, which [Anna] captured beautifully. The cover pigeon does not have low self-esteem. It is rocking its iridescent neck feathers and looking out at the world with intention. I love it and I love the journey it took us [Anna, Laura, and Candace] on together.”

You can find out more about Candace and follow her publication news on her website candacewalsh.com and Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @candacewalsh. You can learn more about Candace in a conversation between the author and Melissa Nunez, Yellow Arrow interviewer.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/humble-glorious-interview-candace-walsh

Make sure you preorder your copy today.

Join us on June 26 at 8pm EST for a reading from Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 1 on ELEVATE, guest edited by Jennifer N. Shannon!

Yellow Arrow Journal ELEVATE, Vol. IX, No. 1 was released last month and we're looking forward to sharing our contributors' words through a celebratory reading on June 26. 

We wanted to use ELEVATE as a platform for women-identifying authors to embrace and amplify their voices and authentic selves. With this issue, we wanted our authors to reach higher — move forward — live proudly. We think those included within the pages and on the cover did just that.

Guest editor Jennifer N. Shannon shared her reflections on the creation of ELEVATE recently in our blog; check it out to see more of what goes on behind the scenes of a Yellow Arrow Journal issue. We will be hosting a live reading from ELEVATE via ZOOM.

Date: June 26

Time: 8:00 pm-9:00 pm EST

Where: Zoom

RSVP here.

Grab your copy of ELEVATE before the reading here!

Write Here Right Now is partnering with the Creative Alliance to offer in-person writing workshops this spring!

Creative Alliance is a Baltimore-based community of artists from various and diverse backgrounds. They work to support artists and promote Baltimore! And, for the months of April, May, and June; they will be hosting Write Here Right Now at their facility. 

Write Here Right Now is a monthly Yellow Arrow writing session hosted by Kerry Graham where writers will be exploring specific topics by reading works of poetry, prose, or visual art. This is a space for creativity, regardless if you’re a beginner or experienced writer!  

Register here!

Cost: 

$18 for a single session

Iridescent Pigeons by Candace Walsh is now available for preorder as a paperback (you can preorder multiple copies at a discount here). Candace’s poems in Iridescent Pigeons, her debut chapbook, serve as a restoration project by articulating the everyday unsaid of love, not just in romantic contexts, but as a friend, sister, daughter, dog parent, wildflower admirer, and mother. Amid free verse, Candace’s use of archaic poetic forms (the Sapphic stanza, ode, curtal sonnet, and cento) and homages to Virginia Woolf, William Wordsworth, and Gerard Manley Hopkins claims literary legacies that have historically excluded women and queer writers.

This wry celebration of good, bad, ugly, thirsty, reverent, compassionate, unrequited, and fully granted love rouses new lexicons of connection and belonging. As poet J. Allyn Rosser observes of Candace, “Her poems—intensely, warily—celebrate familial, platonic, and romantic bonds, even as they ponder vestiges of the trauma love can leave behind.”

Candace is a queer poet, fiction writer, and essayist with Cuban and Greek ancestry and New York and New Mexico roots. She currently calls pastoral southeast Ohio home, where she lives in an old farmhouse with her wife, their two dogs, hundreds of books, and every kitchen and camping gadget you didn’t know you needed (most recent addition: cherry pitter). Iridescent Pigeons is for the black sheep, the eldest daughters, the overly ardent friends, the dissociated, the dispossessed, the ones surprised by love, and the eschewers of received wisdom. The unashamed divorcees, the lost cousins, the off-season travelers, and the cockamamie schemers. The late-in-life lesbians, those called “precocious” and “old souls” as children, the truth-blurters, and the ruminators. The Heathers with two mommies and the exvangelical pantheists, the brash empaths, and the shy extroverts. The family archivists, the stationery collectors, and the forgetful overcommitters. The underestimated and the overcompensators, and all those hungry for the everyday unsaid.

The cover art was created by Anna Chotlos, and cover design was by Laura M. André. Candace stated that she “wanted a pigeon with the right attitude, which [Anna] captured beautifully. The cover pigeon does not have low self-esteem. It is rocking its iridescent neck feathers and looking out at the world with intention. I love it and I love the journey it took us [Anna, Laura, and Candace] on together.”

You can find out more about Candace and follow her publication news on her website candacewalsh.com and Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @candacewalsh. You can learn more about Candace in a conversation between the author and Melissa Nunez, Yellow Arrow interviewer.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/humble-glorious-interview-candace-walsh

Iridescent Pigeons comes out in July 2024; make sure you preorder your copy today.

From June 1 to 30, 2024, Yellow Arrow Publishing will accept submissions of poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid chapbooks by authors who identify as women from around the world. For more information, see yellowarrowpublishing.com/cbsubmissions. You will be asked to submit through the YAP Chapbook Submissions Form.

Please note that as a small press we produce a limited number of publications each year. We pour our hearts and souls into each submission and each Yellow Arrow publication and thank everyone for their interest and inquiries.

Learn more about our guidelines and check out our FAQs at yellowarrowpublishing.com/cbsubmissions. Please read the guidelines completely before submitting.

Write Here Right Now is partnering with the Creative Alliance to offer in-person writing workshops this spring!

Creative Alliance is a Baltimore-based community of artists from various and diverse backgrounds. They work to support artists and promote Baltimore! And, for the months of April, May, and June; they will be hosting Write Here Right Now at their facility. 

Write Here Right Now is a monthly Yellow Arrow writing session hosted by Kerry Graham where writers will be exploring specific topics by reading works of poetry, prose, or visual art.

Register here!

Cost: 

$18 for a single session

It’s official! Yellow Arrow Journal’s issue on ELEVATE (Vol. IX, No. 1), guest edited by Jennifer N. Shannon, has been released and is available.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/yaj-elevate-release-extraordinary-moments

Get your copy of ELEVATE at yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-elevate-paperback.

The cover image (cover design by Alexa Laharty) by Lizzie Brown, acrylic on canvas, is titled “As I Am.” According to Lizzie, her painting “depicts a woman embracing her flaws and scars, represented by a gold-filled crack down her back,” inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi. “As I Am” is an incredible “reminder that our imperfections make us beautiful, and our scars tell a story of what we’ve overcome.” Thank you Lizzie for creating such a wonderful artwork and for letting us share it.

We wanted to use ELEVATE as a platform for women-identifying authors to embrace and amplify their voices and authentic selves. With this issue, we wanted our authors to reach higher — move forward — live proudly. We think those included within the pages and on the cover did just that.

Lizzie Brown is a Richmond-based artist and owner of From The Core Art Studio. She is a Virginia Commonwealth University alumna with a dual degree in painting and art education, and a minor in art history. Lizzie has been displaying her work in galleries and spaces throughout the southeastern states, Washington, D.C., and Maryland, vending at pop-up markets in surrounding areas and leading art experiences and camps for youth. Lizzie’s connection to creating and teaching are a form of ministry. She creates colorful portraits depicting the beauty, resilience, and vibrancy of African American men, women, and children.

ELEVATE is available to order from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. Wholesale copies (discounted copies in lots of 5) can also be purchased.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-elevate-paperback

Both issues of Vol. IX (spring and fall) are available as a Yellow Arrow Journal Bundle at a discount; bundles of volumes VII (2022) and VIII (2023) are also available.

Poetry is Life

$35 each session or $175 for all 6 sessions (January-June)

In each class we will read and discuss new poets and old favorites who have written gems on our monthly theme. 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. Those who commit to the full six sessions will receive the added benefit of an extra workshop session for 30 minutes after the class, to have a new poem workshopped each month. Participants will also have the opportunity to share work with their cohort and the instructor between sessions. This workshop is co-ed.

https://www.yellowarrowpublishing.com/workshop-sign-up/2024-poetry-life

When: 11:00 am-1:00 pm (1:30 pm for full-time students) EST

January 6, February 3, March 2, April 6, May 4, June 1

You are strongly encouraged to register for the full 6 sessions which provides an extra workshop session for 30 minutes after the class. However, you are invited to attend one session at a time as you are available.

Cost: $35 each session or $175 for all 6 sessions (January - June)

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.

It’s official! Here is the cover of Yellow Arrow Journal’s issue on ELEVATE (Vol. IX, No. 1), guest edited by Jennifer N. Shannon. The issue will be released on May 7. Reserve your copy today.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-elevate-paperback

Reserve your copy of ELEVATE at yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-elevate-paperback.

The cover image (cover design by Alexa Laharty) by Lizzie Brown, acrylic on canvas, is titled “As I Am.” According to Lizzie, her painting “depicts a woman embracing her flaws and scars, represented by a gold-filled crack down her back,” inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi. “As I Am” is an incredible “reminder that our imperfections make us beautiful, and our scars tell a story of what we’ve overcome.” Thank you Lizzie for creating such a wonderful artwork and for letting us share it.

We wanted to use ELEVATE as a platform for women-identifying authors to embrace and amplify their voices and authentic selves. With this issue, we wanted our authors to reach higher — move forward — live proudly. We think those included within the pages and on the cover did just that.

Lizzie Brown is a Richmond-based artist and owner of From The Core Art Studio. She is a Virginia Commonwealth University alumna with a dual degree in painting and art education, and a minor in art history. Lizzie has been displaying her work in galleries and spaces throughout the southeastern states, Washington, D.C., and Maryland, vending at pop-up markets in surrounding areas and leading art experiences and camps for youth. Lizzie’s connection to creating and teaching are a form of ministry. She creates colorful portraits depicting the beauty, resilience, and vibrancy of African American men, women, and children.

ELEVATE is available for preorder from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. Wholesale copies (discounted copies in lots of 5) can also be purchased. The issue will be released on May 7. Reserve your copy today.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-elevate-paperback

Both issues of Vol. IX (spring and fall) are available as a Yellow Arrow Journal Bundle at a discount; bundles of volumes VII (2022) and VIII (2023) are also available.

We’re excited to announce that we will be attending the CityLit Festival on April 20th!  

The CityLit Festival is a celebration of literature where many writers come together and interact. There will be panels, readings, informational sessions, and craft intensives by professional writers, editors, and publishers. And, it’s completely free! 

Yellow Arrow will have a table there where you can stop by and chat with staff, purchase some books, or grab some swag.

We hope to see you there! 

Write Here Right Now is partnering with the Creative Alliance to offer in-person writing workshops this spring!

Creative Alliance is a Baltimore-based community of artists from various and diverse backgrounds. They work to support artists and promote Baltimore! And, for the months of April, May, and June; they will be hosting Write Here Right Now at their facility. 

Write Here Right Now is a monthly Yellow Arrow writing session hosted by Kerry Graham where writers will be exploring specific topics by reading works of poetry, prose, or visual art.

Register now!

$18 per session

https://creativealliance.org/event/write-here-write-now-yellow-arrow-publishing/ 

Yellow Arrow Publishing is thrilled to introduce Yellow Arrow author Isabel Cristina Legarda and the cover of her chapbook, Beyond the Galleons. Reserve your copy today (wholesale copies are also available for a discount).

yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/beyond-the-galleons-paperback

Beyond the Galleons is a meditation on Filipino experiences of colonization, ancestral connection, alienation, and the ghosts that haunt people living in geographic or psychological diasporas. Isabel juxtaposes historic moments from the days of Spanish and American colonial rule with threads of real women’s lived experiences to raise awareness of multicultural histories that might be less known or talked about.

Isabel was born in the Philippines and spent her childhood there before moving to Bethesda, Maryland. She holds degrees in literature and bioethics and is currently a practicing physician in Boston, Massachusetts. Beyond the Galleons first looks at the complicated interactions between Filipino natives and their colonial subjugators, shifting from Spanish to American imperialism, and culminating in imagined individual voices descended from those who lived through these histories. Tagalog, baybayin, Spanish, and English weave together to help tell a sometimes forgotten, sometimes ignored history. Isabel’s poems contemplate longing, resilience, and the need to hold on to memory while moving forward beyond pain.

About the cover, Isabel said, “I am in awe of what [Yellow Arrow creative director] Alexa Laharty produced and absolutely love the cover. With no visual art ability or aptitude, I had only vague ideas as to what a fitting design would be, and she brought together images that really capture the themes of historic memory and cartography, literal and figurative, that I try to explore in many of the poems.”

Find Isabel on Instagram and Twitter @poetintheOR or learn more about her at her website ilegarda.com. You can learn more about Isabel in a conversation between the author and Melissa Nunez, Yellow Arrow interviewer.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/dwelling-possibility-interview-isabel-cristina-legarda

Make sure you order your copy today.

Poetry is Life

$35 each session or $175 for all 6 sessions (January-June)

In each class we will read and discuss new poets and old favorites who have written gems on our monthly theme. 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. Those who commit to the full six sessions will receive the added benefit of an extra workshop session for 30 minutes after the class, to have a new poem workshopped each month. Participants will also have the opportunity to share work with their cohort and the instructor between sessions. This workshop is co-ed.

https://www.yellowarrowpublishing.com/workshop-sign-up/2024-poetry-life

When: 11:00 am-1:00 pm (1:30 pm for full-time students) EST

January 6, February 3, March 2, April 6, May 4, June 1

You are strongly encouraged to register for the full 6 sessions which provides an extra workshop session for 30 minutes after the class. However, you are invited to attend one session at a time as you are available.

Cost: $35 each session or $175 for all 6 sessions (January - June)

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.

Are you ready for Yellow Arrow Vignette AMPLIFY? If you a woman-identifying creative from or connected to the Baltimore area, then this one is for you. Submissions are open April 1 to 30, learn more about the guidelines for Vignette AMPLIFY and the alterations we made this year at yellowarrowpublishing.com/vignette/submissions.

The Vignette AMPLIFY Submissions form will be available April 1.

When we think of the word amplify, most of us think of the way the word has been used since around the 1910s, specifically in reference to sound. However, prior to the popularization of radio technology in that decade, the word was used more generally to mean increasing in size, amount, importance, or intensity. We want that to be at the heart of how we apply this year’s value to Vignette: we’re here making it bigger. We’re here to showcase our authors to a bigger audience, to increase the conversations around our published creative works and their themes, and to increase the understanding that our audience has about these works, their writers, and the issues that matter most to them.

With Vignette AMPLIFY, we want to return to some of the earliest goals of Yellow Arrow: sharing and amplifying the creative work of voices and themes that aren’t heard loudly enough. This summer’s Vignette series is dedicated to emphasizing those women who aren’t often heard enough, and the stories, essays, poems, themes, and topics that are too often missed. And as part of the return to our roots: we want to hear from writers who live in or are otherwise connected to our home base of Baltimore.

Baltimore is a big, diverse, beautiful city, and we want to see its diversity represented in Vignette AMPLIFY. From Highlandtown (our starting point!) to Hampden, Pigtown to the Black Arts District, we want our readers to experience the spectrum of voices that Charm City offers. If you currently live, grew up in, or recently lived in the Baltimore area and are a creative who identifies as a woman, read the guidelines below carefully before submitting.

Now in its third summer, Yellow Arrow is delighted to continue its online creative nonfiction and poetry series, Yellow Arrow Vignette. We began Vignette to further expand our mission of creating a space for writers who identify as women, giving them room to have their voices heard and to ripple out in waves of empathy and resilience. We landed on “vignette” because literary vignettes are known to be pieces of writing that depict brief but highly detailed moments in time. Through Yellow Arrow Vignette, we share vibrant and poignant glimpses into our writers’ lives; when viewed as a collective, we hope these stories tell an expansive and inclusive narrative.

We’ve been making some exciting, behind-the-scenes updates to Vignette this year! One such change is that Vignette AMPLIFY will be curated and created by Vignette managing editor Dr. Tonee Mae Moll and Vignette assistant Isabelle Anderson. Tonee Mae (she/they) is joining the team this spring and summer from Baltimore, the place where our story started and the focus of AMPLIFY. She holds a PhD in English from Morgan State University and an MFA in creative writing and publishing art from University of Baltimore. Tonee has worked for a number of literary organizations and publications throughout the region, including Mason Jar Press, Washington Writers Publishing House, The Sable Quill, Welter Literary Journal, CityLit Project, and more. She is the author of two books, Out of Step: a Memoir (Mad Creek Books, 2018) and You Cannot Save Here (Washington Writer’s Publishing House, 2022), and the former cohost of the literary podcast Lit!Pop!Bang!

Isabelle (she/her) is a poet and fiction writer, also from Baltimore. She recently graduated with a BA in English from Washington College where she was a finalist for the Sophie Kerr Prize and the recipient of The Pfister Poetry Prize through the Academy of American Poets. When she is not reading or writing, she can be found on a nature walk, checking the trees for good spots to hide golf pencils à la Mary Oliver.

Submissions are open April 1 to 30, learn more about the guidelines for Vignette AMPLIFY and the alterations we made this year at yellowarrowpublishing.com/vignette/submissions. The Vignette AMPLIFY Submissions form will be available April 1.