.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. #59
Rashna Wadia
What word do you find yourself using most often in your writing?
“Body.” I’m fascinated by the word’s complexity. Lately, I’ve been writing about our bodies' relationship to time and aging. I'm interested in understanding how history, topography, and language shape what we experience in our bodies.
If you didn’t write, what would you do?
I would dance. I love how music inspires freedom in my body so that I can move the way I want depending on my emotions. I wouldn’t follow any structure, steps, or routines; I would just move to the music and my mood.
If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be and why?
Lucy Maude Montgomery. At a young age, I fell in love with Lucy’s writing and felt a deep connection to her characters. In college, I traveled with a group of friends to Prince Edward Island for the first time and it was just as magical as Lucy had described in her novels. I’ve returned several times since then and now it’s one of my happy places. I imagine the two of us listening to the ocean, sipping tea together, and chatting like old friends.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
I am worthy.
Rashna Wadia is an empath and Parsi poet living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She offers creative writing workshops for children and is the poetry editor for the Fahmidan Journal. Currently, she’s working on her first book length poetry collection and a chapbook on womanhood and aging. Her work examines political, social, and spiritual fragmentation in our society and what it means to belong amidst othering. She wants her poems to be the hug, the welcoming embrace, the validation we all need when we feel excluded. Her work has received support from VONA/Voices, Open Mouth, and Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshops. You can find her poems in Catamaran, Whale Road Review, Terrain.org, Tinderbox, Yellow Arrow Journal, Salt Hill Journal, and elsewhere.
Her poem “Open Spaces” was included in Yellow Arrow Journal ANFRACTUOUS, Vol. VI, No. 2, Fall 2021. You can find Rashna reading her poem with other ANFRACTUOUS authors in An Exploration of Belonging: The Anfractuous Reading on the Yellow Arrow YouTube Channel.
Learn more about Rashna by reaching out to her at writersgarden4kids@gmail.com.