.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #48
Diann Leo-Omine
What is the first book that made you cry?
I couldn’t tell you the first book that made me cry, but I was most recently moved by the cookbook Mister Jiu’s in Chinatown by chef Brandon Jew and writer Tienlon Ho. I haven’t yet cooked any of the recipes, but I felt my childhood and family life really spring to life from the history about San Francisco’s Chinatown and the Toisanese (Southern Chinese) diaspora. Even the choice to include the main collaborators’ Chinese names in their bios at the back nearly brought me to tears.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
What stories are begging to be told? Tell them.
What period of your life do you find you write about most often?
It’s been a mixed bag about my early 20s and false starts entering the “working world” during the Great Recession spliced up with growing up in San Francisco in the 1990s.
What is a good writing habit you have picked up?
This isn’t so much a personal habit so much as it is realizing the importance of building writing community. I’ve met a lot of inspiring creatives from my Rooted and Written fellowship but also from Food Media Lab (a conference held by San Francisco Cooking School where I met my collaborators for Lunchbox Moments Zine, featured in the Yellow Arrow blog in 2021) and Golden Trout (a local writers group based where I live in Sacramento).
Diann Leo-Omine (she/her) is a creative nonfiction writer born and raised in San Francisco (Ramaytush Ohlone land) and the colorfully boisterous Southern Chinese-Toisanese diaspora. Her creative nonfiction piece “The Hawk” was included in Yellow Arrow Journal PEREGRINE (Vol. VII, No. 2). We nominated “The Hawk” for a 2023 Pushcart Prize.
To combat the recent swell of hate crimes against Asian Americans, Diann cocurated and edited the charity food zine Lunchbox Moments. A grateful alum of Tin House and Rooted & Written, she is currently devising a manuscript centering her maternal grandmother.
You can find Diann reading part of the “Hawk” with other PEREGRINE authors in Fly to Me, Speak to Me: A PEREGRINE Reading on the Yellow Arrow YouTube Channel. Learn more about her on Instagram and Twitter @sweetleoomine or at her website sweetleoomine.com.