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. #16
J.L. Lapinel
What period of your life do you find you write about most often?
I feel compelled to write about my adolescence and early 20s. I was born and raised in Manhattan but spent weekends and summers on a small family farm [Blackamora, described in HOME]. I am only now aware of the strange ingredients of my amalgamated upbringing. There is enough distance from it now to explore the landscape and harvest new understanding.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
It tells me to quiet down, listen, and take notes.
What word do you find yourself using most often in your writing?
There are certainly cycles when a word will continue to present itself in more than one work. More than words, however, are dominant images. Feet are in a lot of my poems. They are often a physical manifestation of choices, particularly those leading to change or a new direction.
Explore Blackamora with J.L. in Yellow Arrow Journal’s Vol. V, No. 2 issue HOME and dive into “A Wolverine Hiding Ribbons Under the Bed,” published in Issue 18 (June 2020) of Rabid Oak.
J.L., a Latinx writer, educator, and MFA candidate at UMass Amherst, can be found on Twitter.