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. #43
Hana Worku
Describe an early experience where you learned that language has power.
Somewhere in second grade I realized that other students at the school weren’t saying the same Pledge of Allegiance that we said in my classroom. It looked the same from the outside. Students would stand up, face the flag, hold up a hand, and spit out a bunch of words in sing song recitation. However, it was only in our classroom where students said, “I pledge allegiance to the world and every living thing. One world. One planet. With peace, freedom, and justice for all.”
It was only after a lunchtime discussion with second graders from other classrooms that I understood that my teacher, Ms. Peters, wasn’t following the rules. She wasn’t doing what everyone else was doing. With a few small changes, she had changed the entire meaning. Knowing this made me really think about the words we were reciting and what they actually meant.
What is a good writing habit you have picked up?
The idea of the bone pile or the compost—a place you can just jot ideas or throw stuff that you aren’t sure what to do with or you don’t want to delete but you need to remove. Later you go through the bones/compost and find new growth. It works well for someone like me, I often get distracted, while in the middle of writing, by shiny new ideas or old, nascent memories. This practice gives me a place to put that stuff.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
You have to write to know what you want to say and why.
Hana Worku is a writer, software developer, and organizer interested in how things are put together. Yellow Arrow Journal PEREGRINE (Vol. VII, No. 2) includes her poem “Still Loading.” You can find Hana on Instagram and Twitter @hanawulu.