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. #56
Laura Rockhold
What is the first book that made you cry? What book is on the top of your to-be-read pile?
As a child, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. As a mother while reading to my daughter, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and What The Road Said by Cleo Wade.
[In December, I read] All Souls by Saskia Hamilton for my reading group. On top of my personal list is The Search for the Genuine, a book of essays by Jim Harrison.
How did you first publish your writing and what was it?
I became dedicated to submitting my poetry in 2021 and first published poems in 2022. The first publication in 2022 included two poems, “One Story High” and “(I Cried For You) In The Rain.”
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
Yes.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently collaborating with a local artist on two different 2024 projects that combine poetry and visual art as an experience in the community. I am also participating with The Witness Project, a local group of writers engaged in projects that draw attention to ecological relationships between humans and nature and promote solutions to existing systemic racial and economic inequities in the Twin Cities. And I am seeking publication of my first collection of poetry and painting occasionally.
Laura Rockhold is a poet and visual artist living in Minnesota. She is the inventor of the golden root poetic form and 2022 recipient of the Bring Back The Prairies Award and Southern MN Poets Society Award. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and is published or forthcoming in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Cider Press Review, deLuge Journal, Scarlet: A Literary Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, The Hopper, Yellow Arrow Journal, and elsewhere. Find her at laurarockhold.com.
“LICHEN BLOOMS” was included in Yellow Arrow Journal PEREGRINE, Vol. VII, No. 2, Fall 2022 while “LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER” was included in Yellow Arrow Journal’s issue EMBLAZON, Vol. VIII, No. 2, Fall 2023. Laura participated in the readings for both publications, which can be found on the Yellow Arrow YouTube channel.