Yellow Arrow Publishing Blog
New Release: HOME
Like the rest of the world in this time of pandemic, the volunteers of Yellow Arrow Publishing are experiencing Home in a new way now. However, they have mustered all of their resilience showcased in the most recent issue of Yellow Arrow Journal to push forward with the release of the new issue, HOME. As stated by Ella Peary in Authors Publish, Yellow Arrow sees “creativity as an act of service and a path toward communal empathy.” This connection and empathy is needed now more than ever. The theme—originally intended to represent the organization’s move into its own offices at Yellow Arrow House—has become impactful and relevant beyond what YAP’s board and editors could have imagined. As a result, this issue has become a masterful piece of collaboration among strong women working to create, illustrate, and define “Home.”
As always, Yellow Arrow Journal supports and inspires women in the literary arts by featuring poetry and creative nonfiction from women writers as well as one art piece per issue to serve as its cover, but the HOME issue introduces several new developments that promise to make this the best issue yet. It’s no secret that YAJ is growing in popularity, and in size as well. After receiving around 300 submissions—a record high for the young journal—Editor-in-Chief Kapua Iao made the decision to extend the journal so its readers would not miss any of the engaging pieces and promising writers connected to YAJ for lack of space. With creative nonfiction, one of our authors, Roberta S. Kuriloff, takes the reader through the experience of literally and figuratively building her home in “Unearthing Home.” Poets such as Paula Bonnell, Ann Howells, Stephanie Kadel Taras, Hannah Rousselot, and Cynthia Gallaher have contributed some of the issue’s poems sure to inspire conversation and community. In exciting news, the journal will include a book review for the first time ever, opening with local writer Kara Panowitz’s review of Landing on Your Feet and Putting Down Roots: 21 Rituals to Transform Your Life and Interior Space by Sherry Burton Ways. Her review inspires energy and persistence in the current world, making this a promising addition to the journal’s lineup and a form sure to be included in future issues. The amazing writers mentioned here are only some of those included in the issue. HOME features women writers from all over the United States as well as Canada, Germany, and Pakistan.
Perfect-bound and PDF versions, as well as our annual subscription, are available at the YAP store. You can also search for Yellow Arrow Journal on any e-book device. Although Yellow Arrow traditionally produces a limited edition, hand-bound version of the journal in an effort to emphasize the humanness behind the writing, YAP trusts that this will shine through in the writing itself, despite the hand-binding process being on-hold for the moment.
YAP’s founder Gwen Van Velsor states in her introduction to the issue, “It is our mission to always bring hope and positivity to our publications and to our work. And now, more than ever, we offer this issue to you as a font of goodwill during a time when great healing must be our task.” Yellow Arrow would like to encourage its readers to support small businesses, literary magazines, and presses as we all struggle through this tough moment in history together. They hope they can count on your support and look forward to the day when their other programs can resume and allow everyone to gather again in creativity and community. Buy HOME and join us for a virtual reading on June 5th from 6 to 7PM featuring authors from the issue and hosted by writer-in-residence Stephanie Garon.
Art in the Time of Social Distancing
by Annie Marhefka, Highlantown Writer-in-Residence March/April 2020
Well, this is certainly not what (or how) I was expecting to write when I found out that I had been awarded the spring Highlandtown writing residency at Yellow Arrow Publishing. I had envisioned myself cozied up in the newly created writing studio on the second floor of the Yellow Arrow House, looking out the window at the corner of Conkling & Bank Streets, continuing work on my manuscript along with the requirements of the residency. My very first task was to write a blog post about the upcoming Art Walk in April – an art walk that is now going to be virtual, rather than a steady stream of local art-lovers strolling from one venue to the next.
I had plans to walk around to the Highlandtown businesses and introduce myself, inquire about what types of exhibits they would be sharing at the Art Walk, ask what artists they planned to feature, and learn how they intended to capture April’s theme of “collage.” Instead, on the weekend before the first COVID-19 cases in Baltimore had been confirmed, I nervously entered shops, awkwardly standing at least six feet away and giving a shy wave as I introduced myself from afar. There was a sense of nervousness and unease, a feeling that the doors were about to be shut, and I felt like I was wasting the shop owners’ time as they anxiously awaited what was to come, the events that would be cancelled, the customers that would not visit, the income they were to lose.
In the days since my introductions, those businesses have changed drastically – some have closed indefinitely. Some have transformed their business models. Off the Rox is no longer hosting wine tastings on-site, but is still open. DiPasquale’s, which used to be my go-to destination for Italian subs, is now one of the only places I can buy milk for my baby when the big chain stores have all sold out. Peak Performance’s gym is closed, while owner Paul Breen is finding ways to offer virtual fitness options for members. Similarly, Rust-n-Shine’s owners are looking for creative ways to stay in business – perhaps posting photos of vintage items available for curbside pickup. The Creative Alliance is no longer hosting shoulder-to-shoulder crowds for performances, but instead a series of “Sidewalk Serenades” where you can pay to have local musicians perform outside your home. I find myself at home on my laptop, searching the local businesses’ social media pages to find ways to support them from afar. This is not how I pictured Highlandtown opening its arms to me during my writing residency.
But I can’t allow myself to wallow in my disappointment of this residency not being all I had dreamed it to be. For many, entire livelihoods have been disrupted, even halted in their entirety, while my stay-at-home-mom gig has only slightly transformed. I used to pride myself on being the stay-at-home mom who never stayed at home. Now – I epitomize the term, as do all other Baltimore mothers. But for me, this change is not devastating, as it is for many who have lost their income, had surgeries cancelled, are terrified for elderly relatives whom they can’t even visit, have postponed weddings, or cancelled funeral services.
So I need to suck it up, and do what I’m supposed to be doing - writing about next month’s art walk theme, collage. As I go about my daily routine, I try to imagine what collages might line the walls of Highlandtown Gallery, the shelves of Y:Art, or the display racks in Night Owl Gallery. That’s the tricky thing about art – it is really difficult to see if you can’t go into the galleries. Imagine that!
Then, it occurs to me early on Thursday morning that my daily routine is now entirely comprised of collages, in the form of virtual video chats spread out across my day. What used to be in-person interactions have been reduced to collections of tiny square images of individuals quarantined in their homes, displayed on my laptop screen.
In the morning, my local moms-only workout group that used to meet up in Patterson Park is now a virtual workout led from the instructor’s living room. Each woman is in some six foot by six foot space of her choosing in her own abode, and the majority of us have kiddos climbing on our backs as we try to hold a plank. I’m using my daughter’s playroom and trying to avoid stepping on legos as I do jumping jacks. But there on my laptop screen are ten other isolated mamas, trying to get in some type of exercise in whatever form it may come, all reaching arms over head in unison, in tiny little squares, forming a perfectly in-sync montage.
Later in the afternoon, I’ll video chat my daughter’s grandparents so they can get a tiny glimpse of the little girl they are terrified will forget who they are by the time this is all over. My one-year-old doesn’t understand video chat; the side by side faces confuse her, and she mostly tries to grab the phone out of my hand, her tantrum of tears when I won’t let her hold it probably feeling like confirmation to my mother-in-law that she has, in fact, forgotten them.
Later that evening I’ll have a conference call with my peers to hold a virtual meeting for the non-profit board we serve on, and again we will be tiny squares of faces on a screen, comprising a larger picture. And to end the day, my husband and I will put our daughter to bed, pour some wine, and have a virtual toast with friends who have set up a live streaming session for Baltimore musicians who are suddenly out of work. They will name virtual bartenders, also now without income, for us to tip via Venmo as we imagine the familiar faces passing us a Natty Boh across the bar. They’ll strum their guitars to the requests that are coming in via the chat feature, and when we all send our collage of clapping and heart emojis at the end, they’ll give us a little bow to the camera and sign off.
I’m also spending my days building puzzles – a hobby that has suddenly become trendy but has been an obsession of mine for quite some time (so much so that my husband has jokingly suggested a monthly cap on the number of puzzles I order, as the storage shelves in our basement have now overflowed into wobbly stacks of boxed puzzle towers). These puzzles bring me great fulfillment – I love organizing the pieces, taking my time selecting just the right one to get me one step closer to this large collage.
Today, I’ve chosen a puzzle from Zwiebach Creations at the Highlandtown Gallery; I only have the border assembled so far, but it will be an image of a charcuterie display inside DiPasquale’s Marketplace. It feels a bit surreal to be living in this time, and as I piece the puzzle together, I am keenly aware that when this crisis is all over, we will all be piecing little bits of our lives back together. Unlike my puzzle, with a clear image on the front of the box to guide me, the image of what our world, our Baltimore, and our Highlandtown will look like is uncertain. My little perspective is one story that will combine with thousands of others; together these stories will develop into one big mosaic of what this crisis was, how it impacted us, how it changed us. We don’t know the ending yet. But we’ll build it anyway, together, and I have a feeling in the end, we will make one beautiful collage.
***
Annie Marhefka is a freelance writer, HR consultant, and mother residing in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her BA in Creative Writing from Washington College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and an MBA with a concentration in HR Management. Her career includes 15 years as an HR executive & COO overseeing all HR functions, operations, and communications for a leader in the education technology industry. Annie serves on the Board of Directors for St. Francis Neighborhood Center in Reservoir Hill, and is the Vice President of the board for The Barbara J. Dreyer Cares Foundation. She lives in Canton with her husband John and their daughter Elena. Her love of writing was shared with her late mother, who inspired her to write about the complexities and intimate nature of the mother/daughter relationship.
Annie is the Highlandtown Writer-in-Residence for March and April. The residency program is sponsored by Yellow Arrow Publishing, the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk, Highlandtown Arts, the Southeast CDC, and Highlandtown Main Street.
Meet the Instructor: Ann Quinn
We decided it was time to include Ann Quinn in our series about local writers. Ann, who became poetry editor for Yellow Arrow Journal in time for our latest issue, “Resilience,” taught the very first class in our new space, Yellow Arrow House. The students went home with a poem each, and another in progress, a fitting beginning for our new space. Ann has an MFA in poetry from Pacific Lutheran University, and has a chapbook of poetry, Final Deployment, published by Finishing Line Press.
We are thrilled to have Ann teach a series of classes for us—A Year in Poetry. Sign up for the year, or come as you can, the first Saturday of each month starting in March.
What do you like about Baltimore?
I actually live in Catonsville because: trees, but I love that Baltimore is planting more trees. And, fun fact, in high school, when I lived in Northern Virginia and played in a prep orchestra at Peabody, I had an intuition that I would live in Baltimore someday, and here I am, since 1994. I love that people in the area love Baltimore, and I love that the city is knowable: in one week I can spend time in Highlandtown, Sandtown, Cherry Hill, and Mt. Vernon—each so different but so much part of the whole, and so easy to get to. (Because I have a car—and that of course is one of Baltimore’s biggest challenges). I have recently become a rower--I row recreationally with the Baltimore Rowing Club. Being on the water is a whole other way to experience the city.
How did you get involved with Yellow Arrow?
I was looking online for local reading series when my book came out and I found YAP and got on the mailing list. When a poem I submitted for the journal was accepted and Gwen sent me a check, I was hooked. I love Yellow Arrow’s innovative ideas for involving community and their commitment to inclusivity and to nurturing women writers.
What do you love most about writing?
Those somewhat rare moments when it really takes you on its own journey, when you are being used to create something bigger than yourself. I also love the feeling of participation in a conversation that has been going on since we figured out how to tell stories and sing.
Who has inspired you most in your writing journey?
Probably Lia Purpura, with whom I took two classes at UMBC when I was getting into poetry (at age 50). She is a wonderful teacher and writer, and I try to emulate her style in my classes.
What are your classes like?
I like to challenge my students by giving them a lot of poetry to read and think about, and then come back and talk about—because we learn so much from one another. And I find that using masterful poems as models helps leapfrog the question of how to start a poem, what form to put it in. Often when you can start by copying from a model, your own poem takes over and almost writes itself. Of course we work on revision as well. I don’t workshop poems in every class—we’ll share bits and pieces of our writing in each class, but I find that we learn more by spending time discovering what is great about masterful poems before diving into discussing one another’s work.
You can read some of Ann’s work or order her book from her website, www.annquinn.net
2020 Highlandtown Writers-in-Residence
Meet the 2020 Highlandtown Writers-in-Residence!
This residency program is sponsored by Yellow Arrow Publishing, the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk, Highlandtown Arts, the Southeast CDC, and Highlandtown Main Street.
Yellow Arrow Publishing is based in Highlandtown and loves supporting our neighborhood events. A large tenant of our mission is to support other writers by providing opportunities to gain visibility in the community. This residency was created for those what want and need time to work on their writing, but aren’t able to leave home for weeks or months at a time.
You can meet them during the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk, furiously scribbling at Yellow Arrow House, or perhaps wandering around Highlandtown in an inspired daze.
2020 Highlandtown Writers-in-Residence
Annie Marhefka is a freelance writer, HR consultant, and mother residing in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her BA in Creative Writing from Washington College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and an MBA with a concentration in HR Management. Her career includes 15 years as an HR executive & COO overseeing all HR functions, operations, and communications for a leader in the education technology industry. Annie serves on the Board of Directors for St. Francis Neighborhood Center in Reservoir Hill, and is the Vice President of the board for The Barbara J. Dreyer Cares Foundation. She lives in Canton with her husband John and their daughter Elena. Her love of writing was shared with her late mother, who inspired her to write about the complexities and intimate nature of the mother/daughter relationship.
Annie will be the writer-in-residence for March and April.
India Kushner is a writer with a BA in Communications/Journalism from Goucher College. Fueled by tea, poetry, and her love of Harry Potter, India has always believed in the power of words to create positive change. She has previously published work at TheTempest.co and in The Corvus Review.
India will be the writer-in-residence for May and June.
Barbara Perez Marquez was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Manhattanville College. She writes short stories and fiction, usually using coming of age and LGBTQ themes in her work. During her career, she has also been an editor for several publications and projects. Her work was first featured in a student collection in the 7th grade, the same year she decided she wanted to be a writer. Since then, she's been featured in Manhattanville College's Graffiti and Tinta Extinta. Her latest work, The Cardboard Kingdom, is a graphic novel about a neighborhood of kids having a summer adventure and is out now from Knopf Books for Young Readers and Random House Children's Books. Book two, The Cardboard Kingdom: Roar of the Beast, is due out in 2021. Barbara lives in Baltimore, MD with her fiance and their dog, Eliot.
Barbara will be the writer-in-residence for September and October.
Stephanie Garon received dual science degrees from Cornell University, then attended Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Her environmental art has been exhibited internationally in London, Colombia, and South Korea, as well as across the United States. Her writing, a critical aspect of her artistic process, has been published in international literary journals and performed adjacent to her artwork. When she’s not in her studio, she’s jumping across river beds to comb through pine needles.
Stephanie will be the writer-in-residence for November and December.
We are RESILIENT!
It’s time to celebrate the launch of the latest Yellow Arrow Journal, RESILIENCE. As a Baltimore-based nonprofit, Yellow Arrow Publishing prides itself on supporting women writers and ensuring their voices are heard.
Yellow Arrow Journal features poetry and creative nonfiction from women writers as well as one art piece per issue to serve as its cover. The works included showcase feelings of optimism and hope and proudly represents voices of women from around the globe.
This issue features work by: Margie Deeb, Stephanie Garon, Haadia Hyder, Sandra Kacher, Kimberly Knowle-Zeller, Martha McLaughlin, Rissa Miller, Meesh Montoya, Sarah Nelson, Ariele Sieling, Gina Strauss, Taína, Claire Taylor, Naomi Thiers, and Gail Thomas
Cover art by: Megha Balooni
To purchase an issue or subscribe annually, visit the YAP store. Yellow Arrow Journal issues are also available on your eBook.
The journal is just one of many ways that Yellow Arrow Publishing works to support and inspire women through publication and access to the literary arts. Since founded in 2016, Yellow Arrow has worked tirelessly to make an impact on the community by hosting literary events and publishing local writers, because of the importance of sharing the underrepresented voices of women in literature. To Yellow Arrow Publishing, creating diversity in the literary world is deeply important work. Furthermore, creating space in which women can participate in the literary arts gives an opportunity for social change and the expansion of literary norms. The RESILIENCE issue, as with all Yellow Arrow projects, is about contributing to the voice of the community by sharing the voices of women in the hopes of creating a cultural ripple effect of empathy, compassion, and understanding. As it states on the Yellow Arrow website, “Expressing who we are and sharing our experiences, strength, and hope, deepens the understanding of the human condition, allowing us all to better empathize with one another.” You can be a part of this mission by subscribing to Yellow Arrow Journal. Each subscriber gets a limited edition hand-bound copy of the journal twice per year.
If you are in the Baltimore area, please come celebrate the launch of RESILIENCE at Yellow Arrow House on February 7th. Many of our contributors will be reading their work and discussing what resilience means to them. Full details on the event here.
Welcome to our home
We are thrilled to announce the opening of the Yellow Arrow House in January. Located in the heart of the Highlandtown Arts District, we look forward to bringing writing workshops, classes and events to the community.
Please join us on January 4th from 10am-12pm for a house warming and blessing of the space. We are welcoming donations at that time of new and used items to stock our location, see a complete list of needed items below.
If you aren’t able to make it, please consider contributing to our GoFundMe campaign.
Our number one goal is to provide support and encouragement for emerging women writers, and having a space will allow us to do this in more ways than we could ever imagine.
We are so excited about the growth and development of Yellow Arrow Publishing, and we are thrilled to have your support. See you there!
Donation list of items needed (new or use)
Anything yellow!
Desks
Lamps
Water cooler (with hot water function)
Coffee maker
Garbage cans
Cleaning supplies
Broom, Mop
Tablet for payment processing
Chairs
Tables for workshops
Mini fridge
Faux fireplace
Book shelves
Outdoor furniture
Meet our Editor-in-Chief
On November 1st we opened submissions for the Winter 2020 issue of the Yellow Arrow Journal. We wanted our readers to become better acquainted with the journal’s wonderful Editor-in-Chief, Kapua Iao. Currently Kapua resides in Montréal, Québec where she does freelance editing for a variety of archaeological journals and manuscripts. Each summer she takes up residence on Crete, Greece where she works for the Gournia Excavation Project. Kapua originally hails from O’ahu, Hawai’i and holds two M.A.’s—one in Art History from the University at Buffalo, SUNY and another in Museum Studies from the University of Toronto.
We asked Kapua a few questions about her role with us and her life outside of Yellow Arrow.
YAP: How did you get involved with Yellow Arrow?
KI: I was in the Art History Department at the University at Buffalo, SUNY with Gwen’s sister from 2003 to 2005. In 2005, her sister and I participated on the Galatas Survey Project in Crete, Greece. Gwen came to visit for a couple of weeks and ended up working with us! Since then, I’ve stayed in touch with Gwen throughout the years. When she released her Follow that Arrow memoir, I became aware of Yellow Arrow and followed that arrow. Timing worked out perfectly when she started to look for volunteers, and the rest is history!
YAP: What is your role within Yellow Arrow?
KI: I am Editor-in-Chief and am incredibly blessed to find myself in such a position. I largely focus on the Journal and manuscript submission/publication, but as we have a small staff, I also help with branding, the website, and editing/designing other zines/books we publish. We are all learning as we go.
YAP: Who is your favorite writer and why?
KI: I sadly don’t have a favorite writer at the moment. Generally, I love to read nonfiction or science fiction—very different genres! At the moment, I read a tremendous amount of archaeological publications and nonfiction/poetry daily and don’t spend my downtime reading. Growing up, I absolutely loved to soak in books so it would be great to get back to reading for fun.
YAP: Can you tell us a bit about the work you do in Greece?
KI: I started working on archaeological projects in Greece in 2005 and have spent every summer since then on the island of Crete. At the moment, I am Registrar and Project Organizer of the Gournia Excavation Project for the archaeological site of Gournia in east Crete. The site was first dug in the early 1900s by Harriet Boyd-Hawes, a pioneer archaeologist and someone to read about if you get the chance. As Registrar and Project Organizer, I care for all objects and bulk finds (ceramics, lithics, mudbrick, plaster, flora and faunal remains, and so forth), both intellectually and physically, ensure that all publishers (including myself!) have access to the information they need, and do general day-to-day logistics every summer we work.
YAP: What do you love most about the work you do there?
KI: Besides the intellectual aspect of working on an archaeological project, the village we work and live in, Pacheia Ammos, has become a second home to me, and the villagers (as well as the people I work with) are all part of my extended family. I have learned so much from everyone over the years.
YAP: As someone who has spent time living, working, and traveling all around the world, what is one of your favorite places on the planet and why?
KI: Everywhere I travel holds a special place in my heart for different reasons. At the same time, however, no other place will ever compare to Hawai’i as it holds my history, all of my childhood memories, my oldest friends, and much of my family. I still call Hawai’i home no matter where I am living or visiting and always will.
To find out more about Kapua and the rest our staff please visit our about page. For information on submitting to the Yellow Arrow Journal please click here. Finally, if you would like to know more about the Gournia Excavation Project you can find their website here.
Guest Post - The Outcast Woman
Hi Everyone,
Brad here – I’m a new volunteer here at Yellow Arrow. (Learn more about the rest of our staff here.) One of the things that has drawn me to YAP is the part of its mission that involves giving a voice to the voiceless. This attraction is, in part, because YAP’s mission dovetails with my own academic interests, which have most recently been focused on a modernist technique that I usually refer to as “textual exclusion.” Textual exclusion is the manner in which authors silence marginalized – often female – voices in their texts, rather than simply describing characters’ alienation and exclusion and letting the reader draw his or her own conclusions. For the last couple of years, I have worked pretty exclusively on exploring this technique in a single, almost forgotten Italian novel called L’esclusa.
L’esclusa translates in English most happily as “the outcast woman” – my own translation of the novel is called simply The Outcast. This is the earliest novel written by Luigi Pirandello, who completed a first draft in 1893. The novel was eventually serialized in 1901, then published as a stand-alone volume in 1908, and finally published in its definitive edition in 1927. You struggling authors out there know very well that it can take many years for projects to see the light of day, but The Outcast’s road to publication was particularly long, dark, and twisty. The funny thing is, Pirandello wrote many highly regarded novels and short story collections early in his career, and later, when he shifted his main literary output from literary fiction to drama, his work gained international recognition, inspired Absurdism and any number of other modernist movements, and he eventually won a Nobel Prize for works like Six Characters in Search of an Author and Henry IV. So why did this novel have such a hard time finding its way to publication?
The Outcast tells the story of Marta Ajala who, as our story begins, is a young wife who has been kicked out of her marital home by her husband, Rocco, after he has discovered her standing in their kitchen, reading a letter from a man he suspects is a potential suitor, Gregorio Alvignani. The strictures of 19th-century Sicilian village life being what they are, Rocco is compelled to “send her back” to her father’s house, despite her not having committed adultery, and indeed despite her being several months pregnant with their (Marta and Rocco’s) first child. This act puts into motion a series of events, including the death of her baby in childbirth, the loss of the family business and their home, and the death of her father, who agrees with Rocco’s decision and has retired from public life out of shame. She and her mother and sister are plunged into poverty. The people of the village, led by Rocco’s corrupt father, turn on her, and despite acing the national examination to become a teacher, she is not allowed to work for “moral” reasons. She flees to Palermo and starts a new life, but despite her ingenuity and drive, she encounters many of the same problems there. With nowhere left to turn, she is – irony of ironies – driven into the arms of Alvignani, who by that time has become a senator and is in a position to help her. In the end – spoilers ahead – Rocco has a change of heart as he and Marta sit vigil before his dying mother, who was kicked out of her home by Rocco’s father for reasons similar to those that compelled Rocco to send Marta packing. Rocco’s mother has, we come to learn, almost certainly committed suicide. In a final climactic scene, Rocco sees the error of his ways, and even though she is now pregnant with Alvignani’s child, he offers Marta his forgiveness, and the novel leaves us there, with what seems like something of a happy ending.
But it’s not a happy ending at all, and the deeper below the surface of the novel one gets, the clearer it is that Pirandello’s intentions are not to point us in that direction. Rocco has attempted a reconciliation more than once over the course of the novel, and whenever he has done so, Marta reminds anyone who will listen that it is not up to him to forgive her; she has not forgiven him (or her father, or the townspeople), and remains vehemently and consistently opposed to returning to her previous life, even if it means poverty and difficulty for her and what remains of her family. Of course, in that final scene, we don’t get to hear Marta’s response to Rocco, which is presumably why many critics have mistakenly reported that Marta and Rocco are reconciled at the end of the novel. In fact, we don’t get to hear Marta say a whole lot in the novel. She doesn’t even get to speak in earnest until Chapter 4 of The Outcast, at which point all of the major characters have discussed her situation at length, and her fate has been decided. Marta is young, capable, intelligent, and resourceful, but her patriarchal society does not recognize those qualities as being valuable in a woman, and as a result, they shut her out. Rather than just describe this exclusion, Pirandello opts to reinforce this point by what amounts to excluding her voice from the novel, at least at key points.
And this, I think, is why the novel had such a difficult road. It’s not because of the subject matter – there are plenty of late-nineteenth-century novels that take adultery as their theme, and plenty with wronged women and strong female protagonists. Pirandello is doing something different here. By excluding Marta’s voice, he makes a leap towards the modern by making us feel her absence. She is silenced. Her voice is lost, and, despite the novel’s faux-happy ending, that voice is not recovered. Indeed, the death of Rocco’s mother reinforces the potential tragedy of this loss of voice. Later, more outwardly experimental writers would use this sort of metatextuality to incredible effect – one can hardly imagine the masterpieces of high modernism and, for that matter, postmodernism, without it – but in the 1890s and 1900s, I’d like to suggest, the world just wasn’t quite ready for it yet.
Most novels try to uncover lost voices – to demonstrate oppression and exclusion – by telling. What I love about this novel and novels like it is that it does just the opposite; it shows us exclusion, and, in doing so, makes us as readers of the novel complicit in Marta’s silencing. That wasn’t easy for readers to understand a hundred years ago. But we’re catching up.
All the best,
Bradford A. Masoni
Notes on Notes: The Intersection of Music and Writing
The Yellow Arrow Publishing Buffalo in the Book Reading Series presents:
Notes on Notes: The Intersection of Music and Writing
Readings and Song Writing Workshop
Sunday, November 3, 2019
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Atomic Books
3620 Falls Road
Baltimore MD 21211
Join us as we celebrate the interplay between music and literature. The event begins with short readings by featured authors and song writers who all have literary ties to music. A brief panel discussion will be moderated by Kristina Gaddy, an award-winning writer who believes in the power of narrative nonfiction to bring stories from the past to life in order to inform the world we live in today. In 2018, Kristina received a Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Ruby's Artist Award for Well of Souls, a literary exploration of the little known history of the banjo in the Americas, its role as a a spiritual device in the hands of enslaved Africans, and the instrument's legacy in today’s culture and society.
The panel will also feature Zakiah Baker. Baker is a writer residing in Southern Maryland and the author of To Be Her. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. She has an interest in historic and generational perspectives of black girlhood and womanhood. As a singer and lover of music, Zakiah's work also has threads of sound and music. Although her work is inspired by true events, Zakiah decided to become a fiction writer because she finds great pleasure in allowing her imagination to take full control of her stories.
The audience will then engage in a workshop style songwriting exploration led by Talia Segal, in which participants will have the opportunity to write their own songs, all abilities welcome. Segal has been singing for as long as she can remember. When she was a little kid, she picked up a pencil, started writing, and hasn't stopped, since. She grew up a little, grabbed a guitar, and realized that she could combine her love of music, singing, and writing in exciting and gratifying ways. This led to several years of almost non-stop songwriting and touring around the country; playing coffee shops, college cafeterias, and farmers markets. In that time, she released 3 albums of original material. Segal has earned a degree in songwriting from Berklee College of Music, in Boston. Her original songs have won first place in the Hazel Dickens Songwriting Contest, and have been finalists in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, the Telluride Troubadour Songwriting Contest, the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriters' Showcase, and the Mid Atlantic Songwriting Contest. She's currently recording her fifth studio album, which is due for release next year.
The event will conclude with music by panelists.
Absolutely no experience necessary in order to participate, young adults and families welcome.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1156492387871665/
November 3, 2019, 6-7pm
Atomic Books
3620 Falls Road
Baltimore Md
21211
This event is brought to you by:
Free Fall Baltimore is presented by BGE, and is a program of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
RESILIENCE
Yellow Arrow Journal Announces New Theme
Submissions open November 1st and your voice is needed!
With the official start of Autumn, Yellow Arrow Publishing has turned its attention to production of the upcoming winter issue of the Yellow Arrow Journal with the announcement of its new theme: Resilience. As a Baltimore city-based nonprofit, YAP prides itself on supporting women writers and ensuring their voices are heard. This cannot happen, however, unless they have the work of women to share. Submissions will be open for “Resilience” from November 1st through November 30th.
The Yellow Arrow Journal features poetry and creative nonfiction from women writers as well as one art piece per issue to serve as its cover. The works included showcase feelings of optimism and hope. Creative nonfiction submissions must be between 500 and 5,000 words upon submission and only one submission per author is accepted per issue. Poetry, on the other hand, can be any length and five submissions per author are accepted for each issue provided they have all been compiled into one document for submission. Yellow Arrow proudly represents the voices of women from around the globe and accepts works in languages other than English as long as the author also provides an English translation for their piece. When it comes to the cover, the Yellow Arrow Journal excitedly welcomes paintings, drawings, prints, photos, graphic design, comics, and anything else related to the theme of “Resilience,” that women artists are able to dream up. As a special thanks, all contributors receive $10.00 USD and one free hard copy of the issue in which they are featured. More information regarding the submission guidelines and process can be found on the Yellow Arrow website at https://www.yellowarrowpublishing.com/submissions.
The journal is just one of many ways that Yellow Arrow Publishing works to support and inspire women through publication and access to the literary arts. Since being founded in 2016, they have worked tirelessly to make an impact on the community by hosting literary events and publishing local writers, because` they see the importance of sharing the underrepresented voices of women in literature. To Yellow Arrow Publishing, creating diversity in the literary world is deeply important work. Creating space in which women can participate in the literary arts gives opportunity for social change and the expanding of literary norms. The upcoming “Resilience” issue of the journal, as with all Yellow Arrow projects, is about contributing to the voice of the community by sharing the voices of women in the hopes of creating a cultural ripple effect of empathy, compassion, and understanding. As it states on the Yellow Arrow website, “Expressing who we are and sharing our experiences, strength, and hope, deepens the understanding of the human condition, allowing us all to better empathize with one another.” You can be a part of this mission by contributing to the Yellow Arrow Journal.
Writers in Real Life: Laura Hazan
Yellow Arrow is pleased to introduce our fall Writer-in-Residence, Laura Hazan. Laura is a librarian with the Enoch Pratt Free Library where she runs the weekly read and critique group, The Light Street Writers Exchange. She completed her first novel, Little Boxes, and is seeking representation for publication. She has a B.A. in communications from American University, a M.L.S. from the University of Maryland, and attended the “Your Novel Year” program at Arizona State University’s Piper Writing Center. In addition, her work has been published in Natural Bridge, Kirkwood Patch, Sauce Magazine, and Not A Pipe Publishing’s #yearofpublishingwomen anthology Strongly Worded Women. Laura is a resident of Baltimore and lives with her son, her husband, and their one-eyed dog, Boh.
We asked Laura a few questions as she prepares for the residency.
YAP: What do you love about Baltimore?
LH: Walking along the promenade around the harbor at sunset shows Baltimore at its best. I also love the history of literature and reading that makes up the fabric of Baltimore. There's Edgar Allen Poe, HL Menken, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Laura Lippman and so many others. Tying all those folks together is the Enoch Pratt Free Library - the first system in the US to have branch libraries.
YAP: Who has inspired you the most in your writing journey?
LH: I have favorite authors, as we all do; they're inspirational but they are not the first people to come to mind when I think about this question. Those who inspire me most are the folks at the opposite end of the spectrum from the famous writers. Those diligent writers who work at it everyday never knowing if anyone else will ever read their work. The newbies that attend a writing critique group for the first time and nervously share their stories or poems. The colleagues who generously offer to beta read a manuscript, or organize a workshop, or volunteer for a conference. Frankly, the writing community would not exist without the hard work and efforts of the thousands we will never know.
YAP: As you continue in your process of finding a publisher for your novel, do you have any advice to offer someone embarking on that venture?
LH: When you have completed your first manuscript you are a novelist - published or not - don't let anyone tell you differently. Prepare yourself for a mountain of rejections - it doesn't mean your work is no good it just means you haven't found the right agent/publisher that loves it as much as you do. Track those rejections on the spreadsheet you keep for your submissions and move on. Prepare yourself for days of self-doubt - every writer I know goes through impostor syndrome at least once. Myself, I've felt like an impostor on and off for years. Remember there are about 342 steps to getting your book from draft to published - it takes time, especially for the first novel, but keep at it.
We look forward to seeing Laura around Highlandtown this fall. Please check out her website for more on Laura: www.laurahazan.com
FREEDOM is here!
Cover art by Amber Sliter
We are delighted to announce the release of the latest issue of the Yellow Arrow Journal, FREEDOM. A talented group of women and identifying writers submitted their creative nonfiction and poetry for Vol. IV, No. 2 of our biannual literary journal. Below is more detailed information about each writer. You can purchase a hand-bound copy here, sign up for an annual subscription here, download a PDF version here, or look for it on your eReader.
Each copy is lovingly hand bound and printed in small batches.
Thank you for supporting independent publishing.
Editor-in-Chief
Kapua Iao
Editors
Meredith Eilola, Eleanor Hade, Alexa Laharty, Mindy Stokes, and Gwen Van Velsor
Contributors
Katherine Anderson Howell is a 2018 Pushcart Prize Nominee from Washington, D.C. A mother of two children and a recovering academic, she currently studies esthetics, skin care, and makeup at the Aveda Institute in Washington, D.C. and is the editor of Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide (2018). Her poems can be found in Stillwater Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly,e Account, Misfit Magazine, and Mojave He[art] Review among others. Other work is forthcoming in Whale Road Review. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/@genKatieOrgana.
Raga Ayyagari is an emerging poet who is inspired by nature, family history, and identity and enjoys learning from conversations with strangers. Her work has previously appeared in Stanford University’s Leland Quarterly Journal. She works as a public health research analyst in Washington, D.C. and enjoys both technical and creative writing.
Linda M. Crate’s work has been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has six published chapbooks: A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013), Less an A Man (The Camel Saloon - 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications - 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press - 2017), and splintered with terror (Scars Publications - 2018), more than bone music (Clare Songbirds Publishing - 2019), as well as one micro-chapbook Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project - 2018). She is also the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (2018).
Margie Deeb’s passion for beauty is the heartbeat of the art she creates and writes. She has published five books on color and beading, one of which the Library Journal voted the Best Craft How-To book of 2009. She has published countless print and digital articles on design and color and is a professional art director, graphic designer, illustrator, and color expert. She conducts design, color, and writing workshops for artists online and throughout the United States and Canada. Her art has been featured in galleries across the United States and in many books and publications.
Jenny Fraser is an artist from the east coast of Australia. She has a background in art and media education spanning over two decades. After completing her undergraduate degree, she taught art and film and media in high schools. In 2009, she then completed a Master of Indigenous Wellbeing at Gnibi, Southern Cross University. In 2017, she also graduated with a Creative Research PhD in ‘The Art of Healing and Decolonisation’ through Batchelor Institute in the Northern Territory. Her current focus is in native foods, body work, floral arts, and being able to use their raw energy to benefit healing and to help people to help themselves.
Betsy Housten is a Brooklyn-based queer writer and massage therapist. She earned her MFA at the University of New Orleans where she won three awards and served as Associate Poetry Editor of Bayou Magazine. Her work appears in Rogue Agent, The Hunger,Lunch, Bone & Ink Press, Longleaf Review, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and the Pushcart Prize. Find her at betsyhoustenwrites.com.
M. Kanani Milles is a Native Hawaiian writer who has been living and gardening in Connecticut and New Hampshire since 2003. She shares a small plot of land (stolen from the Quinnipiac) with her husband and two young daughters, a dozen chickens, two goats, and a hive of bees. She is writing her way to healing as her mind–body struggles to come to terms with a stage IV cancer diagnosis.
Ann Quinn is the author of the poetry chapbook Final Deployment (Finishing Line Press - 2018). Her poetry has appeared in a wide variety of publications including Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, Broadkill Review, Haibun Today, and Snapdragon, and is included in the anthology Red Sky: Poetry on the Global Epidemic of Violence Against Women. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and her poem “Three Years after my father’s Final Deployment to the Gulf of Tonkin” won the 2015 Bethesda Literary Arts Festival poetry contest, judged by Stanley Plumly. Ann is a graduate of the Pacific Lutheran University MFA program. She teaches reflective and creative writing and music and lives with her family in Catonsville, Maryland. Please visit online at www.annquinn.net.
Amber Sliter is an artist and activist living and creating in Buffalo, New York. Amber studied painting and art history at the University at Buffalo where she received several awards and scholarships. The Rumsey Scholarship funded participation on a Minoan archaeological dig in Crete, Greece. Her art explores natural and synthetic relationships, relating to her experience as a woman living in the Anthropocene era. Her work ranges between sculptural paintings, installations, and murals to activist prints and performances. Amber is currently apprenticing in a woman run woodworking shop.
Ashley Stimpson is a freelance writer based in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Longreads, Johns Hopkins Magazine, Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, and elsewhere. See more of her work at www.ashleystimpson.com.
Sarah Van Sciver is a freelance writer, artist, mother, personal chef, and a FEEL practitioner residing in Baltimore, Maryland. Her passion for writing stems from the healing and recovery from PTSD she has experienced through working with horses. She is currently working on a memoir about the healing effects horses have on humans who experience trauma. To find out more about Equine Experiential Learning, to view her artwork, and to read other essays, please visit https://untetheredmare.com/.
Nancy Wade is a Colorado native who has lived in Boulder since 2002. She earned a BA in Communications in 2000 and an MA in Spiritual Memoir in 2009. Her career includes 15 years in legal word processing and 20 years as an employment administrator in the Human Resources Department of a scientific research organization. Retired since 2015, she enjoys spending time with her husband, two grown children, two stepsons, and especially with her two lively grandsons, ages 6 and 9. In retirement, she has more time for reading and writing, mostly in the memoir genre.
Roz Weaver is a spoken word performer and internationally published poet living in England. She has been published in a number of journals, zines, and anthologies, including most recently with Snapdragon, Voice of Eve, and Cultivate. In 2018, her work was displayed at the annual Rape Crisis UK Conference, as well as being displayed and performed at two further exhibitions in London— ‘Th Sunlight Project’ and ‘Testimony,’ the latter as part of a conference hosted by UN Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson. More recently, her work has been on exhibit with London based ‘What You Saying?’ and performed at Leeds International Festival.
Matilda Young is a writer working for a civil rights nonprofit with an MFA in Poetry from the University of Maryland. She lives in Washington, D.C. with a poet, an environmental lawyer, and an angry ginger cat. She has been published in several journals, including Sakura Review, The Golden Key, and District Lit.
Literary Night: Hands-On Writing Activities for All
Join nonprofits Yellow Arrow Publishing and the Highlandtown Arts & Entertainment District and Highlandtown Main Street in celebrating local writers at Literary Night, our August 2nd takeover of the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk. From 5 to 9 PM, participate in hands-on writing activities and a scavenger hunt, and meet dozens of local authors, writers, and small presses spread throughout Highlandtown’s participating galleries, shops, and eateries! From 6 to 8 PM, join us for food and drinks as we listen to local writers read their work from our main stage at RoofTop Hot. Drinks and refreshments will be available throughout the art walk.
There is plenty of free and paid parking in Highlandtown, so come on down to 339 S Conkling Street in Baltimore from 5 to 9 PM and join us for a memorable night of literature.
Continue reading to learn more about the hands-on activities we have planned all evening.
FILIPPO’S RESTAURANT & LOUNGE FEATURING 2019 UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE MFA GRADUATES
418 S. Conkling St
Live entertainment and art. Drink specials available inside Filippo’s Lounge.
The University of Baltimore MFA grads will play mad libs made from sections of their books. They will also have a sketch book based on elements from their stories for people to doodle on when they stop by.
HIGHLANDTOWN GALLERY FEATURING ANN QUINN
248 S. Conkling St, Gallery A
Cool off this summer with a show celebrating “The Blues” and featuring work by Jason Tompkins, Sandi WIlson, Rae Hamilton, Ann Crostic and Deborah Ponder.
Join poet Ann Quinn (annquinn.net) at Highlandtown Gallery to help create an Ode to Highlandtown. We will use images from the gallery and from your own memories and impressions of the ‘hood to create a poem of praise to our own creative, diverse, historical, living, vibrant neighborhood. The finished poem will be posted on YellowArrowPublishing.com and shared with the world!
NIGHT OWL GALLERY FEATURING INK PRESS PRODUCTIONS
248 S. Conkling St, Gallery C
Ink Press Productions is a collaborative effort devoted to blurring the lines of writing, visual, and performance art in the Baltimore community and beyond. Established in 2012, IPP aims to connect through the production of handmade publications, DIY workshops, and other experimental events.
THE LAUGHING PINT FEATURING MOONLIT
3531 Gough St
$5 greyhound drink special & kitchen is open until 10:30pm.
Join MoonLit Founder Kris in creating unique 'plot bunnies' for when you need a burst of inspiration! Plus, create a community poem and learn more about upcoming fall workshops.
RUST-N-SHINE FEATURING JOCELYN BROADWICK AND H.L. BROOKS
410 S. Conkling St
In the spirit of creative collaboration, join Highlandtown's Mistress of Smut for a special Mad Libs edition of the "An Evening of Vintage Smut" reading series presented by Rust-N-Shine! In addition, make bookmarks with fantasy, romance, and erotica author H.L. Brooks.
ROLL ICE CREAM & COFFEE FEATURING TIMOTHY YOUNG
3222 Eastern Ave
See the new mural inside Roll Ice Cream & Coffee by José Vigo. Come experience the culinary art of rolled ice cream. All our ice cream is made to order right in front of you. We take it from liquid to solid in less than 3 minutes.
Aside from being the author/illustrator of 11 books including I Hate Picture Books!, If You Give the Puffin a Muffin, Do Not Open The Box! and I’m Going To Outer Space!, (a winner of the Family Choice Award), Timothy Young has also designed toys, worked in animation and built puppets for the Muppets. He has also illustrated books for other authors and has written and illustrated two creative drawing books. His newest picture book is the unusually titled untitled.
SNAKE HILL TAVERN FEATURING AKINOGA PRESS
418 S. Clinton St
Happy Hour until 7pm
Kitchen Open until 11pm
akinoga press is a baltimore-based micro-press that specializes in small editions of hand-bound chapbooks and is committed to publishing work that is quiet, small, odd, easily-missed, and 100% needs to be read.
Y:ART GALLERY & FINE GIFTS FEATURING JESSICA GREGG, VICTORIA KENNEDY AND LINES + STARS
Jessica Gregg, editor of Baltimore Style, invites art walk participants to pitch or bring her essays, as well as poetry, which will run online at BaltimoreStyle.com or possibly in the magazine itself.
The Lines + Stars/L+S Press table will present an "exquisite corpse" poem to which visitors will add throughout the day. Participants will receive the full poem via email after the First Friday festivities conclude.
IDEALS OF HIGHLANDTOWN FEATURING SHERRY BURTON WAYS
3319 Eastern Ave
Stop in for a refreshment and the unique wood furniture pieces at this home goods shop.
Sherry Burton Ways will conduct an interactive discussion including a worksheet for participants on Who Are You? A Self Examination & Your Relationship with Your Interior Space.
OFF THE ROX FEATURING RISSA MILLER
3232-A Eastern Ave
Make Word Clouds with author Rissa Miller. Pick up a free book from the giveaway table. Books for kids and adults alike while supplies last.
CREATIVE ALLIANCE FEATURING SE ANCHOR BRANCH OF ENOCH PRATT FREE LIBRARY
3134 Eastern Ave
Come visit librarians from the Southeast Anchor branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library to find out about their amazing line up of programs, offerings, and community services! You can also sign up for a library card or our summer reading program, which wraps on 8/14. Don't miss your chance to enter our prize raffle!
DOUBLE AND UP FEATURING THE BALTIMORE SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY
3514 Bank St
BSFS (normally located at at 3310 E Baltimore St, on the north side of the Highandtown Arts District) is setting up exhibitor tables at the Double and Up building.
Literary Night: Readings on the Main Stage
Join nonprofits Yellow Arrow Publishing and the Highlandtown Arts & Entertainment District and Highlandtown Main Street in celebrating local writers at the first ever Literary Night, our August 2 takeover of the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk. From 5 to 9 PM, participate in hands-on writing activities and a scavenger hunt, and meet dozens of local authors, writers, and small presses spread throughout Highlandtown’s participating galleries, shops, and eateries!
From 6 to 8 PM, join us for food and drinks as we listen to local writers read their work from our main stage at Rooftop Hot. Learn about each featured writer below.
There is plenty of free and paid parking in Highlandtown, so come on down to 339 S Conkling Street in Baltimore from 5 to 9 PM and join us for a memorable night of literature!
Jean P. Pula was raised in the Fell's Point neighborhood, living her entire life in Southeast Baltimore. She grew up in a lively and artistic household with her parents, 5 siblings, plus an aunt and uncle. Jean writes in her spare time, which never seems to be enough. She lives in the Canton neighborhood with her significant other, as well as an overly enthusiastic dog and a cat who rules with an iron paw.
Jean will emcee on the main stage in addition to sharing a reading of her own work.
Jessica Gregg is the editor of Baltimore Style magazine and also oversees Baltimore's Child and Washington Family magazines. She is a Baltimore booster, proud rowhouse dweller, the mother of two teenagers, and an avid poetry reader. Her poetry collection "News from this Lonesome City" will be published this year by Finishing Line Press.
Kerry Graham lives, teaches, writes and runs in East Baltimore. Her vignettes have appeared, or are forthcoming, in borrowed solace, The Citron Review, Crack the Spine, and Gravel. She is a regular contributor to Role Reboot, and runs a collaborative weekly newsletter called In This Together.
Born and raised in Gary, Indiana, Nikita C. Anderson holds an M.A. degree in English from Morgan State University, with a concentration in Screenwriting and Cinematic Storytelling and an MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. She currently resides in Baltimore, MD.
Sherry Burton Ways, an award winning Author, Speaker, Designer, Certified Design Psychology Coach, Certified Feng Shui Consultant, Certified Interior Color Consultant, Certified Interior Environment Coach, and Certified Color Therapist. Her mission is to use her creative gifts to inspire and educate people and organizations to create peaceful and productive interior environments.
Sherry is the author of the award winning, Amazon Best Selling book, Feel Good Spaces: A Guide to Decorating Your Home for the Body, Mind and Spirit (2012). The book also was a winner of the "How-To" Category at the 2013 National Green Book Festival. Ways has also contributed to two other books: The Art & Science of Loving Yourself: 'Cause Your Business Should Complete You, Not Deplete You, edited by Margo DeGange and Simply Color for Everyday Living, edited by Diantha Harris. www.sherryburtonways.com
Shunda Colvin is a southern fiction writer currently based in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her MFA from the University of Baltimore. When she’s not working as a web content editor, she’s planning her next road trip.
Bailey Drumm is an MFA graduate from the University of Baltimore’s Creative Writing and Publishing Arts program. She writes short stories, book reviews, and creative non-fiction. Her written work has been published in Grub Street, and artwork featured as the cover art of Welter. Bailey-Drumm.square.site
Marylou Fusco grew up in the wilds of New Jersey and knew she was a writer for nearly forever. She has her M.A in English from Temple University and has worked as a GED instructor, ghost tour guide and general assignment reporter. Her fiction has appeared in Carve, Swink, So to Speak, Rumble and Philadelphia Stories magazine. She lives with her family in Baltimore and is completing a novel.
Rissa Miller is a working artist living in Maryland. She loves early morning light filtering through stained glass, hot green tea in antique teacups, huge salads picked fresh from the garden and walks in the woods. She studied writing at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts and photojournalism at Western Kentucky University. Several years as an editor at the Baltimore Sun instilled her with a love of the city. She’s sure she can feel the pulse of Baltimore’s gritty telltale heart each time she walks the streets of Remington, Fells, Highlandtown and every other inch of Charm City. When she’s not writing, Rissa finds her way to local theater, loves baking vegan cupcakes, and as often as possible, gets lost in libraries. She works as Senior Editor for the Vegetarian Journal. Goodnight, Poet is her second chapbook.
Sara Palmer wrote her first poem in second grade. Since then, poetry has been a vehicle for self-expression, healing, and enjoyment. During her career as a psychologist, Sara specialized in helping people cope with physical disability, chronic illness, and caregiving. She co-authored three books published by the Johns Hopkins University Press Health Book series (Spinal Cord Injury: A Guide for Living; When Your Spouse Has a Stroke: Caring for Your Partner, Yourself and Your Relationship; and Just One of the Kids: Raising a Resilient Family When One of Your Children Has a Physical Disability), and is the solo author of another book in that series, Living with HHT: Understanding and Managing Your Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (2017). Now retired from psychology, Sara recently re-engaged in imaginative writing through classes offered by Yellow Arrow Publishing, the Writers’ Center and Everyman Theater. This is her first public poetry reading.
Eva Quintos Tennant is a DC/MD-based writer, photographer and creative director. The youngest daughter of Filipino-American parents, she is a graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of Maryland and earned her MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. She and her husband share their home with two rambunctious rescue collies and a lifetime collection of books. Her work has appeared in Welter, River River, and other publications. Pain of the Littlest Finger, her thesis short story collection, is available at eqtennant.com. Follow her on Twitter @picasandprose
Ali J. Varden is an author based in Maryland. She recently graduated with her Bachelors in English from the University of Montevallo and has since been internationally published for her short stories by Vine Leaves Press and Sigma Tau Delta. When she isn’t giving herself unrealistic deadlines for her first novel, she can usually be found either drinking way more coffee than is good for her, telling her anxious cat everything’s going to be okay, or getting lost in bookstores with her husband. If you’d like to learn more about her upcoming YA Fantasy novel, Anomalous, visit her website at www.alijvarden.com and sign up for her newsletter! Or visit her on Twitter (@AJVarden) and Instagram (@VardenWrites).
b.a.w. lives, writes, and designs in Baltimore City where she tries her best and minds her business. Her writing is inspired by black women, bizarre news headlines, and early 2000s TV dramedies. When not writing about dead bodies, she’s partial to reading modern romance novels and listening to podcasts. No matter where she is, when it is, or what she’s doing, there’s a 99.9% chance that she is tired. You can follow her online at bawthewriter.com.
Tracy Dimond co-curates Ink Press Productions. A 2016 Baker Artist Award finalist, she is the author of four chapbooks, including: TO TRACY LIKE / TO LIKE / LIKE, I WANT YOUR TAN, Grind My Bones Into Glitter, Then Swim Through The Shimmer, and Sorry I Wrote So Many Sad Poems Today. She collaborated with Amanda McCormick on the performance, DID YOU COVER UP? a blend of I WANT YOUR TAN and Amanda McCormick’s & THE GREEN. She works in library events. She holds her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore.
Amanda McCormick is an experiential performer & writer whose work has appeared in a variety of forms & mediums over the past decade. She is the founder of Ink Press Productions in Baltimore where she explores publishing as its own artistic medium and means to connect. She received her MFA from University of Baltimore where she now teaches. Amanda is the author of several books including & THE GREEN, a feminist retelling of growth and loss, taken from the source text Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, and AMANDA, a project of poetry that deals with the physical, experienced, and internalized selfhood of the artist-human who navigates society and the natural world in a slant framework of love and existence.
Literary Night: Authors, Small Presses, and Literary Organizations
Join nonprofits Yellow Arrow Publishing and the Highlandtown Arts & Entertainment District and Highlandtown Main Street in celebrating local writers at Literary Night, our August 2nd takeover of the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk. From 5 to 9 PM, participate in hands-on writing activities and a scavenger hunt, and meet dozens of local authors, writers, and small presses spread throughout Highlandtown’s participating galleries, shops, and eateries! From 6 to 8 PM, join us for food and drinks as we listen to local writers read their work from our main stage at RoofTop Hot. Drinks and refreshments will be available throughout the art walk.
Be sure to find Yellow Arrow’s Writer-in-Residence for August, Jessica Gregg, at her table, and join us as she performs her work on our main stage.
There is plenty of free and paid parking in Highlandtown, so come on down to 339 S Conkling Street in Baltimore from 5 to 9 PM and join us for a memorable night of literature.
Continue reading to learn more about the venues, authors, and organizations participating in our very first Highlandtown Literary Night!
Filippo’s Restaurant & Lounge featuring 2019 University of Baltimore MFA graduates
418 S. Conkling St
Live entertainment and art. Drink specials available inside Filippo’s Lounge.
Born and raised in Gary, Indiana, Nikita C. Anderson holds an M.A. degree in English from Morgan State University, with a concentration in Screenwriting and Cinematic Storytelling and an MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. She currently resides in Baltimore, MD.
Shunda Colvin is a southern fiction writer currently based in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her MFA from the University of Baltimore. When she’s not working as a web content editor, she’s planning her next road trip.
Bailey Drumm is an MFA graduate from the University of Baltimore’s Creative Writing and Publishing Arts program. She writes short stories, book reviews, and creative non-fiction. Her written work has been published in Grub Street, and artwork featured as the cover art of Welter. Bailey-Drumm.square.site
Eva Quintos Tennant is a DC/MD-based writer, photographer and creative director. The youngest daughter of Filipino-American parents, she is a graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of Maryland and earned her MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. She and her husband share their home with two rambunctious rescue collies and a lifetime collection of books. Her work has appeared in Welter, River River, and other publications. Pain of the Littlest Finger, her thesis short story collection, is available at eqtennant.com. Follow her on Twitter @picasandprose
b.a.w. lives, writes, and designs in Baltimore City where she tries her best and minds her business. Her writing is inspired by black women, bizarre news headlines, and early 2000s TV dramedies. When not writing about dead bodies, she’s partial to reading modern romance novels and listening to podcasts. No matter where she is, when it is, or what she’s doing, there’s a 99.9% chance that she is tired. You can follow her online at bawthewriter.com.
Highlandtown Gallery featuring Ann Quinn
248 S. Conkling St, Gallery A
Cool off this summer with a show celebrating “The Blues” and featuring work by Jason Tompkins, Sandi WIlson, Rae Hamilton, Ann Crostic and Deborah Ponder.
Live music and sangria.
Ann Quinn, M. Mus. and M.F.A. in creative writing. Ann leads writing groups for all ages. She has found that writing is an amazing way to access inner wisdom and memory, and has developed ways to help others in that process, while creating a warm sharing environment. Her work is published in Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, Broadkill Review, and other journals and is included in the anthology Red Sky: Poetry on the Global Epidemic of Violence Against Women. Ann lives in Catonsville, Maryland with her family where she teaches reflective and creative writing and music and plays clarinet with the Columbia Orchestra. Her chapbook, Final Deployment, is published by Finishing Line Press. Please visit online at www.annquinn.net.
Night Owl Gallery featuring Ink Press Productions
248 S. Conkling St, Gallery C
Ink Press Productions is a collaborative effort devoted to blurring the lines of writing, visual, and performance art in the Baltimore community and beyond. Established in 2012, IPP aims to connect through the production of handmade publications, DIY workshops, and other experimental events.
The Laughing Pint featuring MoonLit
3531 Gough St
$5 greyhound drink special & kitchen is open until 10:30pm.
MoonLit is a small, artist run organization that aims to creatively connect community through low-cost and accessible literary programming in DC, Baltimore, and Virginia. Learn more at moonlitdc.com.
Rust-N-Shine featuring Jocelyn Broadwick and H.L. Brooks
410 S. Conkling St
Jocelyn Broadwick is a writer, editor, and college professor living and working in downtown Baltimore. Her essays and flash nonfiction have appeared in The Aerie, Paradigm Literary Magazine, Seltzer, Writers & Words, and the Yellow Arrow Journal. She's also been a featured blogger for Neither Liberal Nor Arts and The Baltimore Sun's #MDreads Community Network and a guest podcast host on Return 2 Sender. Currently, she is working on a memoir of unexpected freefall after her marriage and a collection of essays in which she desperately tries to grow up before turning 30. Jocelyn earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College. Find her reading vintage smut during Highlandtown’s First Friday Art Walks and online at www.jocelynbroadwick.com.
H.L. Brooks writes contemporary fairy tale re-tellings with dashes of eroticism and romance. She places an emphasis on strong female characters of various ages and body types. She also likes to tackle social and political issues since the fantasy format lends itself as a perfect platform. H.L. also has published an adult coloring book and is currently working on her third book in the Red August series. An additional non-fiction work is in development in the form of a photography and body-image focused book, The Goddess Next Door.
Roll Ice Cream & Coffee featuring Timothy Young
3222 Eastern Ave
See the new mural inside Roll Ice Cream & Coffee by José Vigo. Come experience the culinary art of rolled ice cream. All our ice cream is made to order right in front of you. We take it from liquid to solid in less than 3 minutes.
Aside from being the author/illustrator of 11 books including I Hate Picture Books!, If You Give the Puffin a Muffin, Do Not Open The Box! and I’m Going To Outer Space!, (a winner of the Family Choice Award), Timothy Young has also designed toys, worked in animation and built puppets for the Muppets. He has also illustrated books for other authors and has written and illustrated two creative drawing books. His newest picture book is the unusually titled untitled.
His career highlights include being the Head Model-Maker for the Penny cartoons on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, designing and building Muppets for Jim Henson Productions and sculpting the very first Simpsons character toys. He has been the design director for two toy companies and worked under contract with dozens of others. He had a brand new toy out recently, the inflatable pool toy The Chicken Fight Game.
Snake Hill Tavern featuring akinoga press
418 S. Clinton St
Happy Hour until 7pm
Kitchen Open until 11pm
akinoga press is a baltimore-based micro-press that specializes in small editions of hand-bound chapbooks and is committed to publishing work that is quiet, small, odd, easily-missed, and 100% needs to be read.
Y:ART Gallery & Fine Gifts featuring Jessica Gregg, Victoria Kennedy, Charita Cole Brown and Lines + Stars
3402 Gough St
Jessica Gregg is the editor of Baltimore Style magazine and also oversees Baltimore's Child and Washington Family magazines. She is a Baltimore booster, proud rowhouse dweller, the mother of two teenagers, and an avid poetry reader. Her poetry collection "News from this Lonesome City" will be published this year by Finishing Line Press. Jessica is also the summer Yellow Arrow writer-in-residence for the Highlandtown Art Walk.
Victoria Kennedy writes about the complexity, resilience, and beauty of Black love. In Where Love Goes (2016) she explores the dynamics of love across the Diaspora. Included in this is The Uninvited Guest a short story which has been adapted into an eponymous stage play. Her debut novel, Sometimes Love, was published in 2017 by Brown Girls Books. She is the founder of Zora’s Den, a sisterhood of Black women writers who gather virtually and in real life to provide support, encouragement, and fellowship within the local and global communities. In Our Own Words is their monthly reading series. Victoria holds an MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts and her second novel Don’t Walk Away, was released in March 2019.
Since 2006, the literary journal Lines + Stars -- which operates jointly out of Baltimore and Washington, DC -- has published seasonal issues featuring poetry, short prose, and book reviews. Through L+S Press, our book-publishing arm, we host the annual Mid-Atlantic Chapbook Series, which publishes an emerging poet’s first chapbook-length collection. L+S Press also publishes best-of anthologies, broadsides, and other projects. Find out more: www.linesandstars.com.
Charita Cole Brown was diagnosed with a severe form of bipolar disorder while finishing her final semester as an English major at Wesleyan University. Doctors predicted she would never lead a “normal” life. Despite that prognosis and because she sought treatment, Charita went on to marry, raise a family, earn a master’s degree in teaching and enjoy a fulfilling career in education. Her powerful story is chronicled in her debut book, Defying the Verdict: My Bipolar Life (Curbside Splendor Publishing, June 2018).
Ideals of Highlandtown featuring Sherry Burton Ways
3319 Eastern Ave
Stop in for a refreshment and the unique wood furniture pieces at this home goods shop.
Sherry Burton Ways, an award winning Author, Speaker, Designer, Certified Design Psychology Coach, Certified Feng Shui Consultant, Certified Interior Color Consultant, Certified Interior Environment Coach, and Certified Color Therapist. Her mission is to use her creative gifts to inspire and educate people and organizations to create peaceful and productive interior environments.
Sherry is the author of the award winning, Amazon Best Selling book, Feel Good Spaces: A Guide to Decorating Your Home for the Body, Mind and Spirit (2012). The book also was a winner of the "How-To" Category at the 2013 National Green Book Festival. Ways has also contributed to two other books: The Art & Science of Loving Yourself: 'Cause Your Business Should Complete You, Not Deplete You, edited by Margo DeGange and Simply Color for Everyday Living, edited by Diantha Harris. www.sherryburtonways.com
Off the Rox featuring Rissa Miller
3232-A Eastern Ave
Make Word Clouds with author Rissa Miller. Pick up a free book from the giveaway table. Books for kids and adults alike while supplies last.
Rissa Miller is a working artist living in Maryland. She loves early morning light filtering through stained glass, hot green tea in antique teacups, huge salads picked fresh from the garden and walks in the woods. She studied writing at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts and photojournalism at Western Kentucky University. Several years as an editor at the Baltimore Sun instilled her with a love of the city. She’s sure she can feel the pulse of Baltimore’s gritty telltale heart each time she walks the streets of Remington, Fells, Highlandtown and every other inch of Charm City. When she’s not writing, Rissa finds her way to local theater, loves baking vegan cupcakes, and as often as possible, gets lost in libraries. She works as Senior Editor for the Vegetarian Journal. Goodnight, Poet is her second chapbook.
Creative Alliance featuring the Southeast Anchor Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library
3134 Eastern Ave
Come visit librarians from the Southeast Anchor branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library to find out about their amazing line up of programs, offerings, and community services! You can also sign up for a library card or our summer reading program, which wraps on 8/14. Don't miss your chance to enter our prize raffle!
DOUBLE AND UP FEATURING THE BALTIMORE SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY
3514 Bank St
BSFS (normally located at at 3310 E Baltimore St, on the north side of the Highandtown Arts District) is setting up exhibitor tables at the Double and Up building.
Writers in Real Life: Jessica Gregg
Jessica Gregg is the Yellow Arrow writer-in-residence for the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk during the months of July, August and September. Jessica grew up in the Baltimore area, listening to her family’s stories of the city’s street car days. She and her children lived in Bozeman, Montana, before returning to Baltimore more than a decade ago.
Most of her career since then has been spent in education, and much of her poetry has been informed by the time she spent working at Sisters Academy of Baltimore, a middle school for girls from Southwest Baltimore. Three years ago, she left education and returned to her first career, journalism, and currently oversees three magazines, one of which is Baltimore Style.
In the fall of 2017, she decided to take a prose poetry class through Johns Hopkins University’s Odyssey program as a way to keep writing after spending work days editing. After the class, she entered a contest for women poets that was sponsored by Finishing Line Press. She did not win the contest, but the press chose to publish her manuscript News from This Lonesome City, which will be released this summer.
Poetry is Jessica’s way of documenting the moments and stories in life that are most meaningful to her. It’s also a chance to play with words in a way that the day job doesn’t always provide.
Jessica hopes to use her residency to work on a new collection of poems and to teach a workshop or two for the community.
Jessica will be giving a reading in addition to a book signing at Literary Night on August 2nd. Find her circulating the art walk in July, August and September.
The Beauty of Letter Writing
Yellow Arrow Publishing presents:
Buffalo in the Book
An Interactive Reading Series
Our quarterly reading series seeks to push the limits of current literary norms. Through the exploration of various themes, our featured writers will engage in panel discussions after presenting their work. Attendees are invited to participate in the exploration of the theme through various interactive art forms.
The Beauty of Letter Writing
May 2, 2019, 5:30-7:30pm
Enoch Pratt Free Library, SE Anchor Branch
Featuring Ann Quinn, Gina Strauss, and Maria Goodson
FREE
Join us as we explore letter writing as its own literary art form. When writing a letter, the author never expects to see the piece of writing again. Yet, so many letters throughout history have gained literary significance. In this series, we look to explore this impermanent written form. Attendees will have the opportunity to create their own stationary and letters.
For over 25 years, Gina Andreone Strauss has worked as a teacher and advisor in a variety of educational settings. Her advanced degrees in counseling and healing arts add a unique dimension to her teaching style and interaction with students and their families. Gina is an advocate for conscious parenting and is mindful of how our children serve as mirrors to us. She believes that much can be learned from life's experiences and recognizes the wealth of positive thought that can be gleaned from small day-to-day moments. Her oldest daughter's 13th birthday inspired her to craft her first book, Letters to My Teenage Daughter: We've Got You. You can follow Gina's current writing at www.ginastrauss.blog.
Ann Quinn’s poetry was selected by Stanley Plumly as first place winner in the 2015 Bethesda Literary Arts Festival poetry contest, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work is published in Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, Broadkill Review, and other journals and is included in the anthology Red Sky: Poetry on the Global Epidemic of Violence Against Women. Ann lives in Catonsville with her family where she teaches reflective and creative writing and music and plays clarinet with the Columbia Orchestra. Her degrees are in music performance; she fell in love with poetry in mid-life. Her chapbook, Final Deployment, is published by Finishing Line Press. Please visit online at www.annquinn.net.
Maria C. Goodson is a writer who spends her time telling people where they should volunteer in Baltimore City, running a reading series called Writers & Words, and creating art out of pipe cleaners anytime she is given the opportunity. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford Brookes University, not the Oxford University, but another school literally up the street. She enjoys writing anxiety haikus, holiday card stories, and villanelles about love and connection. Learn more at mariacgoodson.com.
Whitney Pipkin as been writing about food, farms and the environment as a freelance journalist since moving to Northern Virginia in 2012 after starting her career at newspapers in the Pacific Northwest. She is a staff writer at the Chesapeake Bay Journal, covering the nation's largest estuary and getting to know its historic places in the process. Her freelance work appears nationally in The Washington Post, NPR, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine and Civil Eats and in regional publications such as Virginia Living and Northern Virginia Magazine, and she serves as a periodic guest editor for Edible DC magazine. A 2018 writer-in-residence at the historic Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House in Alexandria, Pipkin has started dabbling in personal writing projects as well and had her first Christian essay published in Deeply Rooted magazine this year. She lives with her husband, 4-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son and mischievous dog in Springfield, Va.
Writers in Real Life: Kerry Graham
We are happy to welcome Kerry as our first Writer-in-Residence. You can find Kerry at the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk in April, May, and June and hear her read her work at Yellow Arrow's August 2nd reading.
Kerry spent the first few years of her life in Baltimore, but was raised in Baltimore County. After going to college in Southern Maryland, attending grad school in England, and being a full-time volunteer in Nigeria, she moved to Baltimore in 2009. She lived in Pigtown for two years, but has been in the Patterson Park area since then. Almost three years ago, she bought a house in Highlandtown/Patterson Park, and couldn't be happier about being part of this neighborhood.
About her experience in Baltimore, she writes, "Sometimes, I describe myself as being hopefully devoted to Baltimore. My entire professional career, I’ve served some of Baltimore’s most marginalized populations: the HIV+, homeless, and its youth. While I have the fortune of being able to enjoy much of Baltimore’s charm, I care about hundreds of people who have been traumatized by Baltimore. I recognize that to be in this position–someone who gets to experience some of the best of Baltimore, but also understands the depths of its worst–is relatively uncommon, which is why I am committed to writing, and story sharing, and using language as a way to unite those who might otherwise never have found one another. I believe I would have been a writer regardless of where I live, but Baltimore has made my writing meaningful."
Kerry’s vignettes have appeared, or are forthcoming, in borrowed solace, The Citron Review, Crack the Spine, and Gravel. She is a regular contributor to Role Reboot, and runs a collaborative weekly newsletter called In This Together.
from gravelmag.com
Promise Him Pencils
Kerry Graham
I cannot tell which day I mark him absent, again, is the one I know he will not be back. He stops coming to class—mine, and apparently algebra, and biology—but still comes to school. In the halls, he holds his back straighter than he ever did in my room; his eyes shine brighter. Here, it does not matter that he never has paper. Pencils. Whenever we pass each other by the stairwell, he stops laughing long enough to vow, “Ima be there tomorrow!” The next day, I tell myself: he meant it at the time.
Soon, he stops coming to school, but I still see him sometimes. Now, instead of by the stairs, I pass him on the street, wondering how far he is from home. The sun shines on him here.
In my car, even with just glimpses of him, I am reminded of how he would look in the hallway. Every time I see him, it is at the same corner, too far—and too late—for me to promise him pencils. Driving past, I know all the reasons he will not realize I am there. I shout anyway.
This morning, the streets only trickle with traffic, and I can tell that today is the one he will see me. Again, I shout his name. Watching him grin at me as he lifts his hand above his head to wave, I want to press the brakes on my car. On time.
Meet the Highlandtown Writers-in-Residence
We are pleased to introduce the inaugural cohort of writers-in-residence for the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk. The art walk season extends from April until December and these three talented writers will immerse themselves in all things Highlandtown during their three month residencies. Be sure to seek them out while browsing the venues during the art walk.
Kerry Graham, April - June
Kerry Graham lives, teaches, writes and runs in East Baltimore. Her vignettes have appeared, or are forthcoming, in borrowed solace, The Citron Review, Crack the Spine, and Gravel. She is a regular contributor to Role Reboot, and runs a collaborative weekly newsletter called In This Together.
Jessica Gregg, July - September
Jessica Gregg is the editor of Baltimore Style magazine and also oversees Baltimore's Child and Washington Family magazines. She is a Baltimore booster, proud rowhouse dweller, the mother of two teenagers, and an avid poetry reader. Her poetry collection "News from this Lonesome City" will be published this year by Finishing Line Press.
Laura Hazan, October - December
Laura Hazan is a librarian with the Enoch Pratt Free Library where she runs the bimonthly Light Street Writers Exchange. She completed her first novel, Little Boxes, and is seeking representation for publication. She attended the “Your Novel Year” program at Arizona State University’s Piper Writing Center where she was instructed and mentored by best-selling novelists Michael Stackpole and Jean Rabe, among others. In addition, her work has been published in Natural Bridge, Kirkwood Patch, Sauce Magazine, and Not A Pipe Publishing #yearofpublishingwomen anthology Strongly Worded Women available at Amazon.com and other booksellers. Laura is a resident of Baltimore and lives with her son, her husband and their one-eyed dog, Boh.
Writers in Real Life: Ariele Sieling
Yellow Arrow Publishing friend and board member Ariele Sieling has a book launch coming up on March 28, so we wanted to introduce her and her work to you. Ariele is a prolific author of science fiction, kids books, and urban fantasy (13 books so far), and has short stories published in a number of journals, anthologies, and magazines. She has become a go-to expert in self-publishing and uses Patreon to help readers find her and support her work.
We sat down with her and asked a couple of questions of local interest, starting with: what do you like most about Baltimore so far?
She replied: “We moved here about two years ago. I think my favorite part of Baltimore so far is honestly the people. Of all the places I've lived, the people we've met here have been the most friendly, welcoming, and helpful, which makes it much easier to make such a significant adjustment from a small New England town to a large city.”
How did you get involved with Yellow Arrow Publishing, and what has that been like for you?
“I met Gwen at a craft fair and she asked me if I would like to help her run a reading series. I had been thinking about getting involved in doing volunteer work again, so I figured it was a good opportunity and perfect timing. We ran the reading series together last year and it was extremely successful, and then we started a workshop series. Now I'm the vice president of the board, and super excited about watching the organization grow!”
Tell us about your book. How did you come up with idea?
“My most recent book, being released on March 28th, is called Tentacles and Teeth. It is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi filled with monsters. I’ve always been intrigued by apocalyptic stories—specifically the idea of an empty world mixed with the desperate need for survival—and I’ve always wanted to write one. But I felt that a lot of post-apocalyptic stories have already been told and told again—zombies, flood, nuclear war, environmental collapse, aliens. I wanted to write something a little different. So after mulling it over in the back of my mind for quite a while, I realized I hadn’t ever read or watched something with monsters. And that’s where I started.”
What the day-to-day writing life look like for you?
“I am a full time writer. I split my time 50/50 between doing freelance writing (mostly web copy, copy editing, and independent publishing consulting) and writing and marketing my own work. On an average day, I get up and work out or go for a walk, then sit down and do three or four hours for my clients, have lunch, and then switch over to my own stuff and spend another three or four hours writing or marketing. And of course, I fit in all of my volunteer work for Yellow Arrow too!”
What do you think is the best thing about being an author?
“I love telling stories. I’ve always indulged in stories, reading, making them up, imaginary friends—and now I love the fact that I get to tell them all day every day.”
We love telling stories, too—and sharing stories and supporting women telling their own stories. Thank you so much, Ariele, for your time. We are looking forward to checking out your work, and we appreciate all the hard work you do for Yellow Arrow!
We’re so happy to have Ariele as part of the Yellow Arrow team. Click here to order a copy of her newest book, Tentacles and Teeth! You can also visit her website to learn more about all the work she’s doing.
The book will be live on March 28th, and Ariele will be going live on Facebook that night on her author page at: https://www.facebook.com/arielejsieling/
Other ways to find Ariele online: