Yellow Arrow Vignette LUMINATE submissions are open from May 15 to June 15 and will align with the 2026 Yellow Arrow yearly value LUMINATE. Learn more about our submissions guidelines at yellowarrowpublishing.com/vignette/submissions.

LUMINATE is elemental, existential. Without a light source, there is only darkness. This is why we want to shine a neon light onto Baltimore creatives this year.

: to be shaken, electrified into vivid color

: to blare with welcome

: to embrace and celebrate the self that has been contained for too long

: to buzz with audacity

: to seep into darkness

: to call others like you to find their home

Now in its fifth season, Yellow Arrow Vignette is an online creative nonfiction and poetry series developed to better feature women-identifying writers specifically in the Baltimore area and share their voices beyond Yellow Arrow Journal and our single-author publications.

This year’s guest editor for LUMINATE is Zoë Huettl (she/her). Zoë is a poet and educator from Chicago, Illinois, and a current MFA student at the University of Baltimore. When not crafting or writing, she can be found haunting local alleys with her dog, Harper. The Vignette team, led by Sydney Alexander, look forward to working with Zoë for the next few months.

Yellow Arrow Vignette LUMINATE is looking for poetry, creative nonfiction, and cover art by creatives who identify as women with a connection to the Baltimore area. We look forward to embracing and celebrating the voices of creatives connected to our home base of Baltimore, Maryland.

Here are some guiding questions about the topic and theme:

• What do you show others that invites them to express themselves?

• How do you create a community that is vibrant, resilient, and resisting the dark?

• How do you celebrate the aspects of self that are luminous in yourself and in those around you?

• If there was a neon sign above you, what would it say? To what are you open to, and do you stay open late?

Please read our guidelines carefully and review past editions of Vignette before submitting. This issue will be released in August 2026.

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