Dear Yellow Arrow Community,
It is hard to believe I have only been a part of this incredibly warm community of writers for just a few years when it often feels like I have always belonged here. This year, I had the great honor of representing Yellow Arrow Publishing at many conferences and literary festivals in Baltimore (and beyond!) and every Yellow Arrow writer and reader I meet tells me the same thing: Yellow Arrow made me feel like I belong here. Friends: you do belong here. We are so incredibly grateful to have you on this journey with us. Let’s take a moment to look back at all we have done in our 2023 Year in Review.
Each year we select a yearly value that embodies the energy we want to bring into our work, and this year, we selected SPARK. Yellow Arrow Vignette managing editor Siobhan McKenna reflected on what spark means to her and to Yellow Arrow when she introduced the focus for Vignette SPARK this summer:
“When an idea arrives, sparks are vital—they are the lifeblood for creativity. Yet, sparks sometimes fade when it comes to the nitty-gritty, the long hours that must be undertaken in order to have an idea come to fruition. It is then, within the drudgery of labor, when faced with self-doubt and fear (who even wants to hear what I have to say?), that it is essential to remember the spark that drove you to begin your journey.”
The words and stories we published this year all orbited around this idea of why we write, what stories we have to tell, and who is listening? I can tell you, Yellow Arrow community, we are listening. We love reading your submissions, and though the final selection process is often difficult, and we can’t publish everyone, know that your words stay with us. Vignette SPARK authors used the theme to take on a variety of forms of the word from literal to the meta, exploring the influences in their lives that have ignited their creative pursuits.
With Yellow Arrow Journal this year, we first explored the theme of KINDLING with guest editor Matilda Young. Our KINDLING cover artist and contributing poet Violeta Garza captured the theme of the issue perfectly: “I see kindling as the grouping of individual pieces that, with enough chemistry and action, create an explosion.” What a stunning metaphor she has articulated for just how we feel about the work we do here at Yellow Arrow! Then, our second release of Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. VIII, EMBLAZON, focused on life’s fleeting moments and how we make them last. Guest editor Leticia Priebe Rocha shared, “What is writing and creating if not an attempt to emblazon those moments on the page? And are we not all simply stumbling around, feverishly trying to emblazon ourselves onto this world?” We are so honored to emblazon and kindle the stories of our contributors onto the page in Yellow Arrow Journal. (P.S. If you don’t have copies of either issue yet or want to gift them to someone for the holidays, you can buy them at a discount of $25 here). We published 77 incredible writers in Yellow Arrow Journal and Yellow Arrow Vignette this year and are so happy to have had the chance to hear so many diverse, rich voices.
In addition to these creatives, we published three incredible poetry collections: Lifecyle of a Beautiful Woman by Ann Weil, Black girl magic & other elixirs by shantell hinton hill, and Swimming in Gilead by Cassie Premo Steele (you can share in the happiness of these three authors as they saw their books for the first time on YouTube!). We enjoyed meeting with these chapbook authors in a cohort this year to collaborate on how to share their stories. For the remainder of 2023, you can support Ann, shantell, and Cassie by purchasing a bundle of all three 2023 chapbooks for a discounted price. Note that we recently announced our 2024 chapbook authors and are eagerly looking ahead to their publications next year and can’t wait to support them.
With our Writers-in-Residence program, we are able to build community amongst local writers by offering access to our workshops, one-on-one meetings with team members, and more. We were also able to add a stipend and a gift card to Bird-in-Hand to our Writers-in-Residence program this year and were thrilled to have Kat Scott and Tramaine Suubi join us on their creative journeys this fall. Stay tuned for information about an in-person reading featuring their work in early 2024!
We were also (finally) able to get out and about in Baltimore and beyond this year! In March, board president Mickey Revenaugh and I took a trip to Seattle to check out the AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) conference for the first time, and wow, were we blown away by the presence of so many amazing small presses and writers! And beyond that, we were overcome with the feeling that we, the Yellow Arrow Publishing team, belong there, too. That we were finally able to really spark and sparkle. We are delighted to share that we’ve decided to attend AWP as official participants with a Yellow Arrow table in the book fair in February 2024. We hope to see writers from our community in Kansas City! We also spent a lot of time connecting further with our Baltimore-area community at the Washington Writers Conference, the Waverly Book Festival, The Lost Weekend Festival, and the Baltimore Writers Conference. It is truly inspiring to see the love for reading and writing so present across so many thriving local arts neighborhoods. Now that we can transition many of our programs from fully virtual to in person (hooray!), we are excited to solidify our Baltimore-area presence in 2024. Our roots are in Baltimore; Baltimore is where we belong, even if we are supporting writers beyond our region (which we love to do!). Stay tuned for exciting updates about how you will be able to engage with us locally. If you know a Baltimore creative who isn’t connected with us, please encourage them to subscribe to our newsletter for updates!
Finally, this year, we had a goal of expanding our workshops and are so thrilled that we were able to host a total of 39 workshops on craft writing topics! One workshop participant shared, “I enjoyed the instructor’s blend of reading poems for inspiration, sharing her unique thoughts on the subject, and allowing time for writing and sharing. I felt connected to the other workshop participants and appreciated the diversity of thought and writing styles represented.” We just released our 2024 winter workshop schedule which includes four incredible workshop series: Ekphrastic Poetry, Poetry is Life, The Written Womb, and Write Here Write Now. You can sign up for sessions one at a time or buy the full series at a discounted price. We also introduced the Gift of Writing Card so that you can prepay for workshops (or gift them!) and choose which ones to attend as your schedule allows. This is a great way to kick off the new year by honoring your writing intentions in our supportive community! Our writing workshops are accessible, affordable, and foster a sense of community and support among writers in all stages of their creative journey. No matter where you are on your writing path, we welcome you to our workshop community. You belong here, too.
We could never do this incredible work without our tremendous team that collaborates so diligently behind the scenes. Every single team member, whether volunteer, staff, workshop instructor, intern, guest editor, or board member, is focused on supporting and empowering women-identifying writers at every stage of their artistic journey. We are excited to be expanding our amazing team in 2024 and look forward to sharing more information about our new team members with our community in the coming months.
We are ever so grateful for your continued support of women-identifying writers. We always welcome donations that support our mission, especially as we wrap up the year and begin planning for 2024 (get ready for the release of our 2024 theme in January!). Donate today to support our 2024 initiatives!
Yellow Arrow depends on the support of those who value our work; your continued support means everything to us. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (staff@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@DonateYAP), or US mail (PO Box 65185, Baltimore, MD 21209). You can further support us by purchasing one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, joining our newsletter, following us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or subscribing to our YouTube channel.
Once again, thank you for supporting independent publishing and women writers. See you in the new year!
Warmest Wishes,
Annie Marhefka and the Yellow Arrow Publishing team