Meet a Staff Member: Dr. Tonee Mae Moll
Yellow Arrow Publishing is thrilled to introduce Dr. Tonee Mae Moll, Vignette Managing Editor for 2024’s Yellow Arrow Vignette AMPLIFY. Tonee Mae (she/they) is a queer and trans writer and educator who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a PhD in English from Morgan State University and an MFA in creative writing & publishing art from the University of Baltimore. Tonee Mae is an assistant professor of English at a community college in Maryland. Her debut memoir, Out of Step, won a 2018 Lambda Literary Award and the 2017 Non/Fiction Prize. It was also featured on the American Library Association’s annual list of notable LGBTQ+ books. Her latest poetry collection, You Cannot Save Here, won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. Tonee Mae’s poetry has also received the Adele V. Holden award for creative excellence and the Bill Knott Poetry Prize. It has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and Tonee Mae was recently a finalist for the Baker Artist Award in Literary Arts. She is a Gemini.
Submissions for Yellow Arrow Vignette AMPLIFY are open April 1-30 and will be shared in August, ending with the AMPLIFY reading in the fall. Unlike past issues, this issue of Vignette does not ask submitters to send in pieces on the theme of AMPLIFY; rather, staff at Yellow Arrow are using the idea (our 2024 yearly value) in house as a reminder to continue to share and amplify women-identifying voices. 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. And this summer, the 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. Better yet, we’re focusing on Baltimore itself and want to hear from all our women-identifying creatives currently from or lived in the area. Learn more about our focus, our guidelines, and how to submit at yellowarrowpublishing.com/vignette/submissions.
It’s been a joy getting to know Tonee Mae as we planned this year’s Vignette series. She says, “I was lying with my partner, exhausted after a long week, when I got the news that I’d be working with Yellow Arrow this year. I bolted up in bed as I read the email, told them the news, then immediately started crying. Big heavy sobs. That partner doesn’t work in writing, but they got it anyway—they could see how important it is for a women’s publication to select a trans woman for such a role. This should be normal by now, but it remains exceptional, and I’m excited to be part of a team that celebrates trans women and is making sure we’re not squeezed out of the conversation during a period of heightened transphobia, both in the U.S. and globally.”
Tell us a little something about yourself:
I am a queer and trans poet and essayist living in Baltimore. I have a couple of books, and they’ve won a couple of awards (including a Lambda Literary Award). I grew up loving D&D, punk rock, and in-line skating, and somehow, I’ve become an adult who loves poetry, Queer theory, and feminist epistemologies.
What do you love most about Baltimore?
I LOVE Baltimore. I tell people everywhere I go about how amazing this city is. It’s even on my dating profile. What I love most is the fact that the doors are wide open. Anyone can show up with any wild idea, find a scene that’s eager to have them, and start making something: music, literature, visual art, performance—whatever. Like, did you know that Baltimore is known for being a hub for puppetry? It’s also a town that is very Queer and very trans, and there, too, folks can just show up and there’s someone here with open arms. It’s not without its challenges, and it's a city that deserves better than we get sometimes—our lawmakers, our reputation, the attention our brilliant communities and artists receive—but those challenges are part of the atmosphere that make it what it is.
How did you get involved with Yellow Arrow? Why did you want to join the Yellow Arrow team?
I met founding editor Gwen Van Velsor years ago through the Baltimore literary scene, and I’ve been following Yellow Arrow since it began! For years I’ve watched all the cool stuff that has been developed, and this winter, when the posting for managing editor came across my social media, I felt for the first time like I was in an ideal space to get involved. I joined because I believe in the work that is being done to amplify and champion women’s writing, and I was eager to jump in!
What are you working on currently?
A year and a half out from my last book, I have three big writing projects, and they’re all sort of fighting for the “front burner.” Beyond my own writing though, I’m currently in the throes of helping to organize the 2024 CityLit Festival. The CityLit board supports the director, Carla Du Pree, in making all that festival’s many moving parts possible, and it’s a HUGE effort.
What genre do you write or read the most and why?
I’m sort of skeptical of the firm boundaries that are put around genre and that’s mostly because I write a bit of everything. Rather than thinking intentionally about genre, I try to just make interesting, emotionally honest things, and let an editor figure out how to categorize it. That being said, my MFA thesis (along with my first book) is labeled “creative nonfiction,” and my PhD dissertation (and second book) is categorized as poetry. I mostly write where those two waters meet, and I tell folks that I write lyrical work that tends to be true and is often about gender.
What book is on the top of your to-be-read pile?
I’m currently finishing up Stephanie Burt’s We Are Mermaids, and up next is the work of one of my colleagues, Susan Muaddi Darraj. She’s a Palestinian-American author whose latest novel, Behind You is The Sea, is getting some much-deserved national attention. I can’t wait to dig in.
Who is your favorite writer and why?
I think Toni Morrison is THE Great American Novelist. Her work—its beauty, its violence, its ugly, its honesty—tells the story of America otherwise erased or ignored by earlier writers, scholars, and historians. She is unparalleled.
Who has inspired and/or supported you most in your writing journey?
I’ve had incredible mentors and educators, particularly in my graduate education. Among the people who helped mold me as an artist are Kendra Kopelke, celeste doaks, Marion Winik, and Betsy Boyd. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention my writing workshop, a small group of friends who have been meeting monthly for nearly a decade; they played a big part in getting my first two books ready for the world!
What do you love most about writing?
Sometimes I remind my students that when we daydream of the magic in some of the fantasy worlds they read, we should be reminded that writing is the closest thing we have to it here. Writing is marks on a page (or screen) that have been cast down by someone who has studied their craft deeply for years, sometimes decades, that sit there until such a time that someone else reads it, and the feeling, meaning or idea that the creator left in those marks is passed to the reader, across distance and time. Those ideas that are passed on can create new possibilities in the reader’s mind: new worlds, new concepts of self, new optimisms, even new notions of “we.”
What advice do you have for new writers?
The writing is the thing. There are countless people who want to say, “I have this idea for a novel,” but it’s not the idea that makes a book. It’s showing up to write, to hone your craft, to gather and consider feedback, to revise—all the things it takes to actually finish a manuscript. An idea doesn’t make an author, work does.
What’s the most important thing you always keep near where you work?
Water. I’m sure I should say something cooler, but all of us should be hydrating more. (Check in: when was the last time you had a drink of water, reader?)
What’s your vision for Yellow Arrow in 2024?
I’m excited about this year’s value being AMPLIFY, and I hope we can make Vignette continue to do exactly that this year. Part of what this year’s theme means to me is remembering that the goal of publishers, journals, and literary organizations isn’t to speak for those who aren’t heard loudly enough, but to pass the mic and help amplify those people as they speak for themselves. That’s one thing that Vignette and Yellow Arrow can do: turn up the volume on the important words of women who don’t get heard often enough, loudly enough, frequently enough.
Baltimore creatives who identify as women: check out our call for Yellow Arrow AMPLIFY at yellowarrowpublishing.com/vignette/submissions—we would love to read what you write! Submissions are open through April 30.
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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 AMPLIFY 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, Instagram, or Twitter, 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.