Yellow Arrow Publishing is excited to announce that submissions for our next issue of Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 2 (fall 2024) is open August 1-31, exploring the concept griefulness, an intertwining of grief and gratitude. Guest editor, Tramaine Suubi contemplated about the term and how “it feels deeply resonant for our current times. My life, my very body, feels full of grief. As I tried to find home on 15 wildly different streets, in five cities, across four nations, on three continents, my body certainly kept the score. . . . In my present season of life, I am reclaiming darkness and blackness as spaces of goodness—as spaces of rest, reflection, and revival. . . . Grief and gratitude are often intertwined in my findings.”
This issue’s theme is kitalo
: an empathetic Luganda term of solidarity offered when someone experiences a spectrum of loss
: directly translates to “this/that is tragic” but is far richer than that
Our hope is that this issue gives women-identifying creatives a place where they can meditate on communal grief and communal gratitude. Here are some guiding questions about the theme:
1) In the midst of grief, how have others cared for you, how do you care for others, and how do you care for yourself? What are the most striking or profound examples you have experienced or witnessed?
2) If your grief were to take the form of an animal (remember, humans are animals, too), which animal (fictional, nonfictional, or extinct) would it be and how would this animal behave? Be as specific as possible. Feel free to defy logic and science; grief often can.
3) Have you ever immigrated to or emigrated from a different nation than your current nation of residence? What potential life paths and livelihoods did you leave behind as a result? Which ones do you still yearn for and why, if any?
4) Have you ever experienced a platonic break-up (real or imaginary friend)? If so, how do you specifically navigate or ignore the gaps left by lost friendship?
5) Who (fictional or nonfictional) is no longer present in your life, whom you would like to offer your deepest gratitude to?
Yellow Arrow Journal is looking for creative nonfiction, poetry, and cover art submissions by writers/artists who identify as women, on the theme of kitalo. Submissions can be in any language as long as an English translation accompanies it. For more information regarding journal submission guidelines, please visit yellowarrowpublishing.com/submissions. Please read our guidelines carefully before submitting. To learn more about our editorial views and how important your voice is in your story, read about the journal. This issue will be released in November 2024.
Kitalo’s guest editor, Tramaine Suubi (she/they) is a multilingual writer who was born in Kampala. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Their forthcoming debut is a full-length poetry collection titled phases, which will be published in January 2025. Their forthcoming second book is also a full-length poetry collection titled stages, which will be published in January 2026. Both books will be published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. Tramaine was one of our 2023 writers in residence and their poem "begin again" was included in Yellow Arrow Journal ELEVATE (IX/01). We appreciate all that she has done for Yellow Arrow and are excited to welcome Tramaine on this new venture.
The journal is just one of many ways that Yellow Arrow Publishing works to support and inspire women-identifying creatives through publication and access to the literary arts. Since its founding in 2016, Yellow Arrow has worked tirelessly to make an impact on the local and global community by advocating for writers who identify as women. Yellow Arrow proudly represents the voices of women from around the globe. Creating diversity in the literary world and providing a safe space is deeply important. Every writer has a story to tell, every story is worth telling.
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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.