2026 Yearly Value: Yellow Arrow as Your Light Source
Dear Yellow Arrow Community,
Perhaps because I just had a birthday, I am feeling a vibrational affinity for things that are old, rare, and essential.
That’s what “luminate” is, according to my etymological sources.
Before the world threw an “il” in front to create a new word doing triple duty – lighting whole rooms, making things clear, illustrating tales of God – luminate had the singular job of communicating the workings of candles and lanterns and torches. To luminate means to be a source of light, to emit light, and sometimes to reflect it.
Luminate is elemental, existential: Without a light source, there is only darkness.
Luminate is also rarely heard these days, its use having peaked sometime in the early 19th century. And yet its light endures, shining on despite everything. Which may be exactly why it appealed to the Yellow Arrow Publishing family.
As we have every year for the past six, the Yellow Arrow staff, Board and creative community put heads together in the waning weeks of the old year to choose an annual value for the new one ahead. Our yearly value provides a thematic framework for the journals and chapbooks we publish and for the workshops and other programming we offer. Throughout the year we find ourselves returning over and over again to the value, whether we need a refrain for our victory songs or a cry to rally us through tougher times. In choosing the value, we reflect the vibe we imagine for the year ahead—both what the world will be like and what we will most likely need to respond.
Our first yearly value was REFUGE, reflecting the shelter Yellow Arrow offered in the pandemic year 2020. In 2021 we chose EMERGE as we all came blinking out into the light. We started 2022 eyes-wide-open with AWAKEN, then lit the fuse for 2023 with SPARK. In 2024, we raised up our community with AMPLIFY, and by 2025 we were ready to BLAZE a path with everyone.
It turns out we needed all the fire we could muster over this past year, as we saw artistic institutions attacked all around us. Disastrous cuts to arts and humanities funding cascaded quickly down closer to home; while standing up for our sisters of color, our trans sisters, our neurodiverse sisters, all suddenly seemed fraught with danger. With BLAZE to guide us, Yellow Arrow quickly adjusted to new budget realities while steadfastly refusing to waver on core beliefs.
And we endured, glow intact. And we are ready to hit the ground running in 2026 to light the way for woman-identifying creatives. We are thrilled to publish four chapbooks by incredible authors (read about them here), continue our Yellow Arrow Vignette online series, and release two more issues of Yellow Arrow Journal (stay tuned to meet the guest editor and to hear the theme of the first issue later this month!). We will also continue to offer a host of online workshops with our first workshop for the spring, Poetry is Life, with open enrollment (learn about our other spring classes, opening soon, at yellowarrowpublishing.com/workshop-schedule)! Our Yellow Arrow Collective and Invitation to Write course will also be available this year for those looking for a safe writing community.
2026 marks the 10th anniversary of Yellow Arrow’s founding. As we look out over the year ahead, we have no illusions that this birthday will be all frosting and confetti. The challenges we survived in 2025 are all still very much present and in some cases redoubling. We know that our steadfast commitment to elevating the voices of all creatives identifying as women makes us a target and that there’s a delicate but essential balance required of being an arts organization in times of economic reckoning.
That’s why the Yellow Arrow community must remain a steady source of light in 2026. We cannot waver or dim. Together, we shall LUMINATE.
Sincerely,
Mickey Revenaugh
Board President
Yellow Arrow Publishing
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We are ever so grateful for your continued support of women-identifying writers. We need your support now more than ever. We welcome donations that support our mission, especially as we kick off our 2026 programs and publications. Donate today to support our 2026 initiatives!
Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women-identifying writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we LUMINATE 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 and 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.