We are seeking collective wisdom

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”   Maya Angelou

Earlier this month, we canceled our Home Sweet Home reading out of respect for the grief and suffering in our midst and in recognition of protests and community activities planned for that night. As part of the Highlandtown Art Walk and launch of our latest literary journal, our reading was meant to be built around the theme of HOME. Sadly, our shared home, our country, is torn apart by racism, violence, and injustice. The Yellow Arrow Publishing family wants to express our outrage at the killing of George Floyd by the police and our solidarity with the racial justice protest movement sweeping the country. We know that for some, America can be a hostile, dangerous place rather than the peaceful home we desire, based on ideals of liberty and justice. We are committed to continuing our mission to provide a safe and welcoming place for all self-identifying women and promoting opportunities for their voices to be heard.

The Yellow Arrow family welcomes women of all colors and backgrounds to be part of our community of volunteers, writers and readers, instructors and students. Our intent is to foster diversity in all of our work in order to create richer experiences and space to learn and grow from each other. Women writers have many obstacles to overcome to get their work published and all deserve to have their voices heard.

We’ve been working since 2016 to lift up women’s voices. While we made it a priority to reach out to writers of all backgrounds, we must admit we haven’t been systematically intentional about this. For example, we don’t have a way of collecting data on the racial or ethnic background of our writers or staff. We assumed that diversity would naturally work itself out. We were wrong. We do know that our organization is majority white. We realize that Yellow Arrow House, while intended to be a place of refuge, has largely become a white space. And we know that most people who submit their work to us for consideration are majority white. 

We are actively working on ways to challenge ourselves to change, both in the short and long term. The Yellow Arrow Publishing family would love your feedback and input on how we, as a publishing company, can better involve and support all women. If you would like to add your collective wisdom, please send us an email at info@yellowarrowpublishing.com with your thoughts on how we can ensure Yellow Arrow House becomes the home we hoped for.

Thank you for your support of our mission.

The team at Yellow Arrow Publishing