Meet the 2025 Yellow Arrow Publishing Pushcart Prize Nominees
The Pushcart Prize honors the incredible work of authors published by small presses and has since 1976. And since then, thousands of writers have been featured in its annual collections—most of whom are new to the series. The Pushcart Prize is a wonderful opportunity for writers of short stories, poetry, and essays to jump further into the literary world and see their work gain recognition and appreciation.
The Prize represents an incredible opportunity for Yellow Arrow to further showcase and support our authors. Our staff is committed to letting our authors shine. Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling. We are so proud of everyone we publish at Yellow Arrow. Without further ado, let’s meet the 2025 Yellow Arrow Pushcart Prize Nominees!
Julie Alden Cullinane
“Ghost Ships”
from Ghosts Only I Can See
~ My ghost ships do not go gentle into that good night. My ghost ships are beautiful, they are all different shapes, colors, and sizes. They sail down the river of my life with full flags flying. ~
Julie Alden Cullinane is a Boston-based writer. She holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English, and her writing credits include poetry and short stories published in numerous literary magazines. Her common themes include womanhood, motherhood, and wonders of being human. In addition to her writing, Julie works as the vice president of human resources for a large behavioral health hospital, a role that offers her a rich perspective on the human experience, which she incorporates into her writing. She enjoys reading and writing in her free time and has a dedicated following on social media, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads, and Instagram. She also maintains an author’s website at julie.wildinkpages.com/poetry to engage with her readers.
Julie’s chapbook Ghosts Only I Can See was released in October 2024 and can be found in the Yellow Arrow bookstore.
Belinda J. Kein
“Elegy in Silver”
from Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. IX, No. 2, kitalo
~ . . . the silver lovingly shined, years of tarnish giving way to a luminous gleam, the only remaining darkness deep in the crevices that curled about the slow turn of the handle to reveal a swirling cornucopia of rotund fruits and trailing vines etched in sharp relief, rendered exactly as in my memory . . . ~
Belinda J. Kein is an expat New Yorker who resides in San Diego, California. A poet early on, she now brings her lyricism and love of the succinct to creative nonfiction, fiction, and hybrid shortform prose. Her work has appeared in The Belmont Story Review, Hippocampus Magazine, Vestal Review, The Fourth River, The Razor, Stanchion Zine’s Away From Home Anthology, 2022 Dime Stories anthology, Mom Egg Review, The New York Times, and The Spirit of Pregnancy anthology. Her work is forthcoming in the We’ve Got Some Things to Say anthology. She holds an MA in English from San Diego State University and an MFA in fiction from Queens University of Charlotte. She is currently working on a flash collection.
Belinda contributed her creative nonfiction piece, “Elegy in Silver” to Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. IX, No. 2, kitalo, which can be found in the Yellow Arrow bookstore.
Isabel Cristina Legarda
“Boondocks”
from Beyond the Galleons
~ When bundok became the boondocks
lost was the mountain as holy ground
in the civilized world
of “water cures” and massacres;
denied, the wisdom of the wilderness ~
Isabel Cristina Legarda was born in the Philippines and spent her early childhood there before moving to Bethesda, Maryland. She holds degrees in literature and bioethics and is currently a practicing physician in Boston, Massachusetts. She enjoys writing about women’s lived experience, cultural issues, and finding grace in a challenging world. Her work has appeared in America Magazine, Cleaver, The Dewdrop, The Lowestoft Chronicle, Ruminate, Sky Island Review, Smartish Pace, Qu, West Trestle Review, and others. Find Isabel on Instagram and Twitter @poetintheOR.
Isabel’s chapbook Beyond the Galleons was released in April 2024 and can be found in the Yellow Arrow bookstore.
Angelica Terso
“Anatomy of a Lumpia Girl”
from Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. IX, No. 1, ELEVATE
~ Right now, I’m made of 50% lumpia and 100% grateful. I know I’m 150% terrible at math. ~
Angelica Terso (she/her) is a Filipino American writer currently residing in Maryland. Her stories feature LGBT, Asian Americans, and other under-represented themes. Previously, her work has appeared in Atticus Review, The Raven Review, and others. When she’s not writing, reading, or daydreaming, she’s either hiking or rock climbing. You can find her on Instagram @angelicatersowrites.
Angelica contributed her piece “Anatomy of a Lumpia Girl” to Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. IX No. 1, ELEVATE, and can be found in the Yellow Arrow bookstore.
Candace Walsh
“Wild and frail and beautiful”
from Iridescent Pigeons
~ something flying fast
iridescent pigeons
cloudy future flocks
a peacock butterfly ~
Candace Walsh holds a PhD in creative writing (fiction) from Ohio University and an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College. She is a visiting assistant professor of English (creative writing and literature) at Ohio University. Her poetry chapbook, Iridescent Pigeons, was released by Yellow Arrow Publishing in July 2024. Recent publication credits include Trampset, California Quarterly, Sinister Wisdom, Vagabond City Lit, and HAD (poetry); March Danceness, New Limestone Review, and Pigeon Pages (creative nonfiction); and The Greensboro Review, Passengers Journal, and Leon Literary Review (fiction). Her craft and pedagogical essays and book reviews have appeared in Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, Brevity, Craft Literary, descant, and Fiction Writers Review. Her book Licking the Spoon: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Identity (Hachette/Seal Press) won the 2013 New Mexico-Arizona LGBT Book Award, and two of the essay anthologies she coedited were Lambda Literary Award finalists: Dear John, I Love Jane, and Greetings from Janeland. Find her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook; her website is candacewalsh.com.
Candace’s chapbook Iridescent Pigeons was released in July 2024 and can be found in the Yellow Arrow bookstore.
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