Yellow Arrow Publishing is excited to announce that submissions for our next issue of Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VI, No. 2 (fall 2021) is open September 1–30 addressing the topic of “belonging-ness,” exploring what it means to belong or un-belong, our nearness or distance (intimacy or alienation) from others and ourselves. This issue’s theme will be: 

Anfractuous

: full of windings and intricate turnings

: things that twist and turn but do not break

How has your “belonging-ness” been shaped by your own personal life journey? Have you taken any sharp unpredictable turns, or has it been a slower accumulation or a shedding? 

Is it necessary to “belong” to be happy? How has your sense of who you are been a process of “un-belonging”? 

How have your circumstances (the land you live in or don’t live in/your family history) or your conscious choices (your chosen family/career/passions) tempered or shaped your understanding of your own belonging? 

Please read our guidelines carefully before submitting. To learn more about our editorial views and how important your voice is in your story, read About the Journal. This issue will be released in November 2021.

Please welcome this issue’s guest editor: Keshni Naicker Washington. Keshni considers her creative endeavors a means of lighting signal fires for others. Born and raised in an apartheid segregated neighborhood in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, she now also calls Washington, D.C. home. And after nine years here has finally gotten used to Orion being the right way up in the night sky. Her stories are influenced by her evolving definition of home and the tides of political and social change that moves us all. She is an alumnus of VONA and TIN HOUSE writing workshops. Connect with her at keshniwashington.com and on Instagram @knwauthor. You can learn more about Keshni through her Vol. V, No. 3 (Re)Formation piece “Alien,” her Yellow Arrow Journal .W.o.W. #20.