Meet the 2025 Yellow Arrow Publishing Writers-in-Residence
Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling. Since 2019, Yellow Arrow Publishing has been proud to offer a residency program that enables us to support, uplift, and amplify the voices of women-identifying writers residing in the Baltimore area. We continue to evolve the program and are delighted to share our 2025 writers-in-residence with our community.
First, a note of thanks: As our programs and community continue to grow, we consider our team tremendously fortunate to have once again received such a diverse and talented group of applicants. We are reminded and in awe of the passion and storytelling that surrounds and charms us—our deepest gratitude to all those who applied or took this opportunity to learn more about Yellow Arrow. We encourage you to stay engaged with us and continue sharing your stories.
For 2025, we are thrilled that The Ivy Bookshop, Bird in Hand Coffee & Books, and Backwater Books are partnering with us to provide an inspiring location from which our writers can work at their craft. Each of these beautiful bookstores shares our belief that women’s voices deserve to be fostered, nurtured, and amplified, and we are so thankful for their support.
This year, Yellow Arrow selected three extraordinary women writers for the residency program. Each writer demonstrated not only a unique talent but a genuine desire to immerse themselves within the Baltimore writing community. The passion, heart, and deep love for their craft are truly infectious.
Please join us in congratulating our 2025 writers-in-residence: Mali Collins, Hannah Fenster, and Lillian Snortland. We at Yellow Arrow are proud and honored to have you!
Mali D. Collins (she/her) is a doula, writer, and assistant professor of African American studies at American University. Her first monograph, Scrap Theory: Reproductive Injustice in the Black Feminist Imagination, was published earlier this year by Ohio State University Press. Her other academic work can be found in American Quarterly, Souls, and The Black Scholar. She has written for popular outlets such as Rewire News, AfroPunk, and The Root and has creative work published by SALT: Contemporary Art + Feminism and the HAUNT Journal of Art. During her residency, she’ll be working on her experimental and free form poetry collection which explores the themes of kinship, care, ancestry, and relationships through the prism of the restless self (un)made through the markers of gender and Blackness in our contemporary moment. Find her on Instagram and Threads @protectblackmotherhood and on Twitter/X @dr_reprojustice.
Hannah Fenster (she/her) is a writer, movement artist, and bookseller based in Baltimore, where she is the events manager with The Ivy Bookshop and Bird in Hand Coffee & Books. Since 2019, she’s performed and designed immersive theater with Submersive Productions, which transforms spaces around Baltimore into audience-centered, connective experiences. She writes on performance for The Hopkins Review and serves as a managing editor with 3Cents Magazine. Her work appears in The Lacanian Review, The Urban Activist, Lumina Journal, Entropy Magazine, and elsewhere. Before becoming a bookseller, she taught writing at Goucher College, her alma mater. Find her on Instagram @hwindow21.
Lillian Snortland’s (she/her) poetry, essays, features, creative nonfiction, and short stories have appeared in Postscript Magazine, OUCH! Magazine, Goucher Magazine, Yellow Arrow Journal, and Amplify Arts publications, as well as been performed at Voxel Theater and exhibited at the Temporary Arts Centre in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Her essay “The Tragedies of Ecstasy” was nominated for a 2025 Pushcart Prize through After the Art Literary Magazine. Her work moves within the intersection of internal social anxiety and external visceral transformation, often situated in surreal liminal spaces and featuring the permeability of the physical body. She loves collaborating with killer teams in any creative medium, including film writing/production (having participated in the Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project and the Maryland 72 Film Fest), tabletop role play, and musical jams. Originally from Eugene, Oregon, Snortland graduated from Carleton College with a BA in Classical studies and a minor in French/Francophone studies, and has an MFA in nonfiction from Goucher College. She enjoys lounging in parks, zooming via public transit to Baltimore cultural events, and hosting thematic parties in her apartment. Find her on Instagram @chaimihai.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women-identifying writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we BLAZE a path for women-identifying creatives this year by purchasing one of our publications or a workshop from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, for yourself or as a gift, joining our newsletter, following us on Facebook or Instagram, or subscribing to our YouTube channel. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (staff@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@yellowarrowpublishing), or US mail (PO Box 65185, Baltimore, Maryland 21209). More than anything, messages of support through any one of our channels are greatly appreciated.
