Her View Friday
Yellow Arrow Publishing supports women-identifying writers from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes us stronger. Women’s voices have historically been underrepresented in literature, and we aim to elevate those voices and stories through our programs, publications, and support.
Part of our mission in supporting and uplifting women writers is to promote the Yellow Arrow community’s individual accomplishments. We’d like to further expand that support and promotion outside of our Yellow Arrow publications. Twice a month, we’d like to give a shout out to those within the Yellow Arrow community who recently published:
single-author publications
single pieces in journals, anthologies, etc., as well as prizes/awards, book reviews, and podcasts/interviews
You can support our authors by reading this blog and their work, sharing their news, and commenting below or on the blog. Congratulations to all the included authors. We are so proud of you!
Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling.
Author: Michele Evans
Michele Evans, a fifth-generation Washingtonian (D.C.) and high school English teacher, is the author of purl. Poems in this debut collection from Finishing Line Press have found homes in places like ASP Bulletin, Maryland Literary Review, Mid-Atlantic Review, Yellow Arrow Journal, and elsewhere. Despite always wearing the color black, she loves blueberries, blue hydrangeas, blues musicians, and Blue Mountain coffee. She lives online at WordSmithie.com and on Instagram @awordsmithie.
Where are you from: Washington D.C.
What describes your main writing space: Bright and airy; safe; coffee and coconut.
Tell us about your publication: Released by Finishing Line Press on February 14, 2025, purl, a collection of poems, reimagines feminine forces from Homer’s Odyssey and transplants them to modern, urban landscapes. This poignant debut, inspired by the poetry of Phillis Wheatley Peters, amplifies a chorus of the marginalized: queens and maidens, mothers and daughters, wives and mistresses, goddesses and slaves. With each page turn, readers are invited to celebrate the resilience of women bound by those universal traumas threaded through literature and life.
Why this book? Why now? How did it happen? This book is my COVID baby. I was teaching the Odyssey in my English 9 honors class when schools shut down during the pandemic. With a bit more time on my hands, I decided to reclaim my writing voice. I took a few virtual workshops with Moira Egan that summer and penned ten poems. By the time I returned to school the next year (virtually), I had made a list of other women from the epic poem I wanted to write about. My very first published poem ever was accepted by Tangled Locks in December 2022. It is so fitting that the beautiful blue queen on my first book cover wears a crown of tangled locks.
What is your writing goal for the year? I have a draft of a novel that has not been touched in over a year because I have been preoccupied with purl as well as februaries, a finalist manuscript in 2024. At some point this year, I would like to take a course or a trip (a residency or retreat) and find my way back to the story. I also want to make a dent in my “to be read” pile.
What advice do you have for new writers? Someone with a book that needs a home? Write often. Read often. Build relationships with other writers. Find a writing community or an accountability partner, or both. Be patient with the publishing process.
Author: Laurel Maxwell
Laurel Maxwell is a poet from Santa Cruz, California, whose work is inspired by life’s mundane and the natural world. Her work has appeared at baseballballard, coffecontrails, phren-z, Verse-Virtual, Tulip Tree Review, and Yellow Arrow Vignette SPARK. Her creative fiction was a finalist for the Women on Writing Flash Fiction Contest. Her piece, A Still Life, was nominated for Best of the Net by Yellow Arrow Publishing. She has a chapbook forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2025. When not writing Laurel enjoys putting her feet in the sand, reading, traveling, and trying not to make too much of a mess baking in a too small kitchen. She works in education.
Where are you from: Santa Cruz, California
What describes your main writing space: cluttered, sunlit, safe.
Tell us about your publication: Released by Finishing Line Press on February 14, 2025, All the Pretty Things Are Dying includes poems that speak to environmental loss, longing for the heart’s desires to be seen and recognized, beauty in life’s everyday moments, and questions that reach into the soul. Many poems rely on close observation of the natural world in order to make sense of our place in the universe and grapple with how to exist while living within a constant state of change and uncertainty.
Why this book? Why now? How did it happen? This book was a long process. I submitted All the Pretty Things Are Dying to a chapbook competition held by Finishing Line Press. It was the second time I had submitted this manuscript for consideration. I worked to put poems together which had a connective bond—in this instance loss and nature. Although I didn’t win the competition, Finishing Line Press wanted to publish my manuscript. It was took two years from acceptance to publication.
What is your writing goal for the year? My writing goal for the year is to keep up a daily writing practice and find ways to continue to experiment with form.
What advice do you have for new writers? Someone with a book that needs a home? My advice for new writers would be to have patience and tenacity. Rejections hurt, but it is a way to regroup and continue to edit work. Look for publishers who align with who you are as a writer.
Yellow Arrow (past and present) board, staff, interns, authors, residents, and instructors alike! Got a publication coming out? Let us help celebrate for you in Her View Friday.
Single-author publications: here.
Single pieces as well as prizes/awards, book reviews, and podcasts/interviews: here.
Please read the instructions on each form carefully; we look forward to congratulating you!
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women-identifying writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we BLAZE a path for women-identifying creatives this year by purchasing one of our publications or a workshop from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, for yourself or as a gift, joining our newsletter, following us on Facebook or Instagram, or subscribing to our YouTube channel. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (staff@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@yellowarrowpublishing), or US mail (PO Box 65185, Baltimore, Maryland 21209). More than anything, messages of support through any one of our channels are greatly appreciated.