When Writing Holds Weight
Board and staff at Yellow Arrow Publishing would like to thank Michelle Lin, our marketing intern, for all of her hard work over the past few months. As an essential part of our marketing team, Michelle created marketing campaigns and promotional images, supported past and upcoming publications, and provided extra help wherever it was needed. You can see her words and her images on Yellow Arrow’s Facebook and Instagram. We are thrilled that Michelle will continue to put her spin and her charm on Yellow Arrow promotions after her internship ends.
From Jennifer N. Shannon, our Marketing Director: Michelle has been an invaluable part of the marketing team for Yellow Arrow Publishing essentially since I began. To be honest, without her, much of the success and growth within our social media presence and our newsletters would not have happened. Michelle’s work ethic and energy around Yellow Arrow’s mission, along with her desire to learn, is infectious and I don’t know what I’d do without her! I am so happy she wants to stay on after her internship is over. Thank you, Michelle, you are awesome!
Michelle graduates this spring 2021 from Towson University. She had previously worked as the Online Poetry Editor for volume 69 of Towson University’s Literary Magazine Grub Street. Michelle currently lives in Lutherville – Timonium, Maryland. During her free time, she enjoys reading and writing poetry, and playing guitar. To read her writing, follow her on Instagram @m.l_writes.
We would love for Michelle to explain why poetry means so much to her.
by Michelle Lin, from March 2021
I first started writing poetry consistently at the age of 16. Over the years, writing quickly became a coping mechanism as well as a hobby for me. It has influenced the way that I approach writing both academically and leisurely, where most of my pieces would often be written at really odd hours of the night while listening to music. Depending on the type of content that I was working on, the writing process, which includes prewriting and editing, could take up to three or more days. However, one thing that I did not entirely anticipate that would come out of my experience of writing poetry was how it would teach me to have confidence in who I am as an individual and how it can serve as a tool to help others feel seen and understood.
I’ve always looked at poetry as the language of the heart. It’s vulnerable, unfiltered, unpredictable, and yet incredibly powerful in how it helps a writer stay in tune with their headspace. When a writer chooses to share a piece with others it invites the reader to connect with them emotionally. This state of vulnerability was one that I once feared at first as a writer because I defined as a lesbian.
When I was growing up the topic of being LGBTQ+ wasn’t discussed that often within my household. Of course, there was the conversation of “What if we brought home a person of the same gender?” that would be brought up every once in a while, but the topic of being gay was never something that was spoken about in-depth. Even with the content that my siblings and I consumed as kids, whether this came in the form of literature, music, movies, or TV shows, LGBTQ+ representation was never really seen in the media we were exposed to. This ultimately led to this feeling of not belonging and isolation that haunted me throughout my coming out process, especially living within a community where there was an indirect implication that there is only one way to love, and that way was considered the “right” or “acceptable” way of loving. To deviate from the norm would put us in a position where the way we loved was viewed as “unnatural” or “weird.” I now see that part of the issue was the lack of narrative of seeing LGBTQ+ representation in my daily life growing up that kept me in the mindset that I didn’t quite fit in with others within my community.
I remember, the thought of sharing poetry related to the topic of being gay, in a poetry class in the beginning, was really terrifying to me. I was worried that people wouldn’t be able to connect with my poems if they knew how I identified. At the time, I had avoided using she/her pronouns in my writing if I could and I would often edit them out of my poems. When I realized what I was doing, I was sitting on my bed in my dorm room as a Freshman at Towson University. A few questions raced through my mind at the time and continued to circle around my head throughout the first half of my Sophomore year as well: When did I become so scared of being myself? If poetry is my go-to coping mechanism and my hobby, why did I feel the need to filter myself during the editing process?
Maybe it was the desire of wanting to belong that put me in that position. That I didn’t want to be different, even though our differences and experiences are what shape us to be the individuals that we are today. To overcome this hurdle, I started sharing my poems that covered being a lesbian on Instagram first, which taught me how to be more comfortable with who I am as a writer. Slowly the practice of writing openly LGBTQ+ poetry did carry over to the poems I would share in my poetry classes as well. As a writer, one of the reasons that I continue to write is not only to strengthen my voice as a poet but to also help the reader feel less alone if they are going through a similar situation. To see an LGBTQ+ writer being themselves in their creations not only acknowledges the existence of us as a community but it also opens up the opportunity for readers to recognize themselves in the pieces we create.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.