Yellow Arrow Journal is a biannual publication of creative nonfiction, poetry, and cover art by writers and artists who identify as women.

About Yellow Arrow Journal

Yellow Arrow Journal’s Vol. X, No. 2 issue (fall 2025) on KAIROS, guest edited by Darah Schillinger, is now available as a paperback and a PDF from the Yellow Arrow bookstore. You can also find KAIROS through most online distributors.

yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/yaj-kairos-release-time-memory-snapshots

KAIROS explores the aftermath and aftereffects of catalytic moments, forged from either small flash fires or conflagration. Kairos is a Greek word meaning an opportune and decisive moment. The cover of KAIROS features the collage “The Awakening Aperture.” According to the cover artist, Clara Garza, “The circle (inspired by the aperture of a camera, or the lens that captures a fleeting fragment of time) is composed of pieces of the diary of a fictional college student experiencing college life, from the day she is accepted to the school to her graduation. Her initial doubt is reflected by the moody outer rim of the circle, and as she opens herself to the brightness of college, she starts to appreciate her life more fully.” You can learn more about Clara in an interview with Darah at yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/spotlighting-clara-garza-yaj-kairos.

Darah Schillinger (she/her) is a writer based in Lexington Park, Maryland. Her poems have appeared in AVATAR Literary Magazine, Yellow Arrow Journal, Maryland Bards Poetry Review, Empyrean Magazine, Grub Street Magazine, and The Eunoia Review and on the Spillwords Press website. In October 2024, her poem, An elegy for the Pompeii woman the Internet wants to fuck, was named a finalist for the Montreal International Poetry Prize. Her first poetry chapbook, when the daffodils die, was released in July 2022 by Yellow Arrow Publishing. Her second collection, Still Warm, is a work in progress. Please show some love to Darah and hear from Darah herself about her focus of this issue: yellowarrowpublishing.com/news/become-unbecome-unveil-recover-guest-editor-yaj-x-02-schillinger.

The Yellow Arrow Journal issue UNFURL, Vol. X, No. 1 (spring 2025), is available in the Yellow Arrow bookstore and most other distributors, in Baltimore and beyond, along with past issues. Support the journal by ordering a discounted bundle of the 2025 (Vol. X: UNFURL and KAIROS) issues, for yourself, for your office, or as a gift. Bundles of volumes VIII (2023 KINDLING and EMBLAZON) and IX (2024 ELEVATE and kitalo) are also available. Learn more about our bundles at yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-bundle.

Meet the Guest Editors

Editorial statement

At Yellow Arrow Publishing, we pride ourselves on nontraditional publishing methods that align with our nontraditional publishing company. We seek to uplift underrepresented voices and to allow women-identifying writers to exist and be heard exactly as they are.

We believe that publishing is a vehicle for storytelling and that each storyteller should have the freedom to tell the truest version of their story. This means that we don’t focus on common style guides and norms and that we don’t change our authors’ voices into something they are not.

While we provide a basic copyedit of each journal issue, manuscript, and chapbook that we publish, we prioritize maintaining the unique voice and style of each of our authors. Instead of fixating on grammar perfection (though we will fix errant commas), we focus on the heart of each piece: we want the ideas, themes, and styles of our writers to shine.

We believe that every writer has a story to tell and that every story is worth telling.

We want every writer we publish to come out of the process feeling heard, valued, and needed.

We believe that your story matters. That you matter.

And we want you to be heard.

Kapua Iao, Editor-in-Chief

JOURNAL ISSUES: FROM JOURNEY (VOL. I) TO KAIROS (VOL. X)