.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. #66
Rebecca D. Martin
Describe an early experience where you learned that language has power.
I was an early reader and can’t remember a time I wasn’t enamored with books. My mother would take my little brother and me to the public library, and I remember pulling books from the shelves, opening them, and—magic after magic—being transported. Feeling transported. I think that’s one of the first and earliest realizations of language’s power: the power to instantly take the reader elsewhere, while at the same time deepening and enriching very real feelings.
What is a book you wish someone would write? That you want to write (or are writing)?
I want more bookish fantasy with strong heroines. More and more of it—and I want the characters to have disabilities. So I am, indeed, currently writing a book like that. Myth, wheelchairs, and books with powers.
Why did you submit this piece to Yellow Arrow Journal? Why this piece at this time to this place?
I wrote [“Girl on the Edge”] over a year ago, one year into learning that I am autistic. The photo and event I write about, that particular time in my tender, teenage life, keeps coming back to me. That young woman who was highly masked and afraid of what she was needs to be seen and held, because she is still present inside of me. Yellow Arrow Journal’s ELEVATE theme brought a final piece of understanding for me: though I didn’t understand why at the time, the songs of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers lifted me, kept me from sinking as low as I might have while I was in hiding from myself. Their song “Fugitive” is perfect.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
Get these thoughts on paper immediately so you don’t explode!
Rebecca D. Martin is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in the Curator, the Brevity blog, Isele, and Susurrus, among others. She is currently releasing her autism memoir in essays at rebeccadmartin.substack.com, where she also talks about nature, books, poetry, and teaching. She lives in central Virginia with her husband and daughters.
Yellow Arrow published Rebecca’s piece “Girl on the Edge” in ELEVATE, Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 1. You can also find her on Instagram @mrsmartinreadsbooks and Facebook @rebawrit.