“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” Helen Keller
By Brenna Ebner
Board and staff at Yellow Arrow Publishing would like to share with you our recently voted on, 2021 yearly value: EMERGE.
You may have several questions about what a yearly value is and why we feel EMERGE supports Yellow Arrow’s mission. As an organization, EMERGE embodies the hopes and plans we have for 2021, and is the next step in our journey after last year’s theme of REFUGE.
To us, a yearly value is another way to unify our organization. It should be a term or a phrase that helps form everything we do to uplift the voices of women writers, from publications we choose to publish, themes we choose for the journal as well as the authors that we accept, and workshops we schedule, to non-Yellow Arrow authors/organizations/events we promote. Everything.
REFUGE was chosen because it reflected the goal we set for 2020, to create a place, a shelter, for our organization and our authors. REFUGE was embodied by Yellow Arrow House, and while the physical dream did not last, we were able to find a REFUGE within our organization. And we survived. We EMERGED.
Looking back at our overall mission and goals as a publisher, we are reminded of the rigidity writers face as they work hard to put themselves on paper, how they are told to be a certain way and say certain things. While university courses, universal style guides, and other publishers tell writers what is right and wrong, we work to bend the norms, where finding one’s own way is acceptable and celebrated. We welcome the voices marginalized by old systems to step forward and EMERGE. And with this new value, we focus on and continue to maintain our mission to grow and develop as a publishing company.
In 2021, Yellow Arrow will continue to expand in many different ways, such as moving our presence more online with our blog posts or by broadening our communication and support of authors and staff. And we are thrilled to welcome new staff members and authors as we continue to grow and evolve. We hope to find more prosperity personally and as part of a larger community with the changing of the year and all the answers it brings to the uncertainty of 2020. This new year will be an opportunity for all of us to EMERGE after relying on the REFUGE we found in our friends, family, neighbors, and communities. After dealing with so much, from a pandemic to a global movement for racial justice, we are ready to no longer focus on finding sanctuary but becoming something more from it while still appreciating the role REFUGE played for us when we needed it.
And this is exactly what we mean by EMERGE. We look onward to what comes next with optimism and courage and invite others to do the same. We will move forward with new voices, perspectives, thoughts, and understandings with anyone who also is ready to rise. We hope to host new conversations about what has been overlooked or ignored and appreciate being able to see what we didn’t before. Hopefully what EMERGES with us this year will educate and enlighten each of us.
Brenna Ebner is a recent Towson University graduate and Editor-in-Chief of Grub Street Literary Magazine, volume 69. She has interned at both Mason Jar Press and Yellow Arrow Publishing and is looking forward to continuing to grow as an editor and establish herself in the publishing world.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts.
You can support us as we EMERGE in a variety of ways: purchase one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, join our newsletter, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (info@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@DonateYAP), or US mail (PO Box 12119, Baltimore, MD 21281). More than anything, messages of support through any one of our channels is greatly appreciated.