.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. #69
Milan Harris
What period of your life do you find you write about most often?
I’m very interested in writing about the present. I often turn to my current situations, experiences, and interests to inform my writing. If it’s not about the present, it’s certainly about childhood. More than periods of life, I turn to a lot of similar themes, but they can also be molded by the situational and environmental contexts I exist in. I find myself writing a lot about death, grief, and liberation, but also about love and connection—I think all of those themes are constantly interacting with each other, and I’m constantly interacting with them.
What word do you find yourself using most often in your writing?
Oddly enough, I use a lot of words relating to the body like flesh, blood, and bone. Much of my writing tends to be visceral and imagery—heavy, and I usually connect the body and the physical realm to the ideas I write about.
Why did you submit “we been been immortal” to Yellow Arrow Journal? Why this piece at this time to this place?
I write a lot about grief because grief has followed me in many ways, for many years. In 2024, grief has been especially present, as over 200,000 Palestinians have been killed. For me, grieving death is both personal and communal, individualized and politicized. A lot of my writing recently has helped me to process the grief I’ve felt for loved ones passing, but, it’s also helped me to grieve communally—“we been been immortal” is a direct response to seeing the deaths of so many Black people in Baltimore and the world. Though I had a specific context of why I wrote this poem over a year and a half ago, I think it can connect to oppressed people all over the world. I think it says that we can grieve in the ways most authentic to us, love intimately and uniquely, and we will still be here. We will always be here, immortal, transcendent, and eternal.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
Mostly to get off my butt and stop procrastinating.
Formerly the director of an after-school program, Milan Harris now works as a researcher inequity-based education practices in Maryland. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, she has always been a lover of literature. She’s written for various online journals, but in 2020 she cofounded her own creative arts magazine, Amani Sol, with her best friend. They’re currently working on their third issue. When not writing, she can be found gardening, cooking, or doing yoga.
Yellow Arrow published Milan’s piece “we been been immortal” in Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 2, kitalo. You can also find her on Instagram @milanrougee_ and at her magazine’s website amanisolmag.com.