Meet the 2026 Yellow Arrow Publishing Best of the Net Nominees
Best of the Net recognizes the work of writers published online by independent presses. The project was started in 2006 by Sundress Publications to create a community among the online literary magazines, journals, and self-publishing platforms. The award represents an incredible opportunity for Yellow Arrow Publishing to further showcase and support our authors. Our staff is committed to letting our authors’ shine. Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling.
Here are our Best of the Net 2026 nominees from Yellow Arrow Vignette AMPLIFY. Best of the Net announces the winners in January.
Barbara Westwood Diehl
“Wish You Were Here”
poetry
If you look closely, you will see a distant ship
slipping over the horizon, pulling the city with it.
Barbara Westwood Diehl is senior editor of The Baltimore Review. Her fiction and poetry appear in a variety of journals, including Quiddity, Potomac Review (Best of the 50), SmokeLong Quarterly, Gargoyle, Superstition Review, Thrush Poetry Journal, Atticus Review, The MacGuffin, The Shore, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Raleigh Review, Ponder, Fractured Lit, South Florida Poetry Journal, Poetry South, Painted Bride Quarterly, Five South, Allium, Split Rock Review, Blink-Ink, Switch, Unbroken, Bacopa Review, and Free State Review.
Tracy Dimond
“IT WORKS, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT”
poetry
I’ve never felt so womanly
Since having a hysterectomy
A hollowed-out Barbie
The aesthetic without the danger
Tracy Dimond is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Emotion Industry (Barrelhouse). A 2016 Baker Artist Award finalist, she is also the author of four chapbooks, including: TO TRACY LIKE / TO LIKE / LIKE (akinoga press) and Sorry I Wrote So Many Sad Poems Today (Ink Press), winner of Baltimore City Paper’s Best Chapbook. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Smartish Pace, Lines + Stars, Washington Writers Publishing House, and other places. She blogs about chronic illness, creativity, and movement at poetsthatsweat.com.
Katherine Fallon
“ON THE NTH ANNIVERSARY OF YOUR DEATH”
poetry
My wife looks stricken when I unbox my grief, knowing there was never anything she could do, and even less now it’s been long enough you’ve lost your meat, could have skeletonized six times over.
Katherine Fallon is the founding editor of Whittle Micro-Press and the author of the chapbooks Zero Sum (Bottlecap Press), The Book on Fractures (Ghost City Press), The Toothmakers’ Daughters (Finishing Line Press), and Demoted Planet (Headmistress Press), which was the finalist for the Georgia Author of the Year Award. A Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net finalist, her work has appeared in AGNI, Colorado Review, Nimrod, Meridian, Passages North, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. You can find her online at katherinefallon.com or whittlemicropress.com and on Instagram @ghostelephants.
My-Azia Johnson
“Crisis in the Club”
creative nonfiction
All this self-analyzing drowns out the DJ’s mix as the chaos rages inside me.
My-Azia Johnson (they/them) cherishes the unique sources of intimacy found in themself and within their beloveds. A community caretaker with a fiery passion for transformative justice, My-Azia uplifts the Black, queer, mentally ill, and gender-expansive perspective. From their journey through the ex-vangelic to ethical slut pipeline, they share stories of breakthroughs and breakdowns experienced along the way. They’re confident that pleasure is a liberatory pathway to radical change and they see their work as a satirical conversation with the dark-spirited cunni-linguists who agree. Their lens draws from a burgeoning understanding of pleasure activism, biomimicry, decolonization, and somatic wisdom.
Anne Slesinki
“I am not her mother”
poetry
We play our parts until it is time to go home:
a girl fainting into the water,
a mother smiling, and an ocean.
Anna Slesinski is a Baltimore City poet and artist. After receiving her high school diploma from the Baltimore School for the Arts, with a visual arts major, Anna studied creative writing and studio art at Goucher College. She received her BA in creative writing from Goucher in 2006, followed by an MFA in creative writing and publishing arts at the University of Baltimore in 2015. Her thesis, a book of poetry titled Eating the Sun, was published in May 2015. Her work has been previously published in Welter Literary Journal and by the Baltimore Ekphrasis Project.
Laura Taber
“Undressing”
poetry
First, I’ll remove my wedding ring
(The ghost of it, since I don’t wear it anymore)
Laura Taber is a mom of two who was born, raised, and currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland. She has a BS from Vanderbilt University and works in marketing for retail and tech brands. She enjoys journaling, drawing, hiking, exploring Baltimore, and spending time with her family. She recently shared her angsty adolescent poetry on stage at Mortified in Baltimore. Through her writing, Laura aspires to capture and share a raw and honest view of the human experience.
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