Yellow Arrow Publishing would like to introduce our director of author support, Patti Ross. Patti graduated from The Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts and The American University. She also holds a MS from Keller Graduate School of Management. After a brief career in the arts and freelance work with the Washington Times and the Rural America newspapers. Patti settled on a career in the corporate dot com arena gaining President’s Club recognition with multiple entities. Having traveled abroad and throughout the U.S., she chose to raise her two daughters in Columbia, Maryland. Thirty years later she is sharing her voice as local spoken word artist, “little pi.”
Her debut chapbook, St. Paul Street Provocations, was published in July 2021 by Yellow Arrow Publishing. Patti also hosts EC Poetry & Prose Open Mic at the Baltimore County Arts Guild’s Catonsville, Maryland, location. She is the founder of the online series First Fridays under the organizational umbrella of Maryland Writers Association of which she is a former board member. She also actively supports several Baltimore youth nonprofits as both board member and advisor. A lifelong advocate for the disenfranchised and homeless, Patti writes poems about the racially marginalized as well as society’s traumatization of the human spirit. Her poems are published in the Pen in Hand Journal, PoetryXHunger website, and Oyster River Pages: Composite Dreams Issue, Writing the Land: Foodways and Social Justice Anthology (2022), as well as other online zines.
Patti writes, “Nelson Mandela said it best, ‘. . . as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.’ This is what I hope for Yellow Arrow in 2023, that we may liberate as many writers as our pages can hold, and then some.”
Tell us a little something about yourself. I have been collecting fountain pens lately. I am enjoying the feel and historical relationship to writing that the pens remind [me of].
What do you love most about Baltimore? Baltimore has “charmed me.” I am originally from Washington, D.C., and the “grittiness” (if I may) of Baltimore reminds me of my D.C., my “chocolate city” of the 60s and 70s and 80s. I moved from Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside D.C. to Howard County in 2000 and since have enjoyed exploring Baltimore and discovering it’s nuances. Ten years ago, from 2011 to 2012, I lived at the corner of St. Paul and Lafayette streets, one block south of North Avenue. Because of my work in Montgomery County, I moved back to Howard County where I currently reside.
How did you get involved with Yellow Arrow and what do you do? I wrote a pleading email to Gwen [Van Velsor, Founder] about this little collection I had written and was using as my spoken-word pieces around town and the county. I was exploring being a performing poet. Gwen was gracious and shared my plea with Kapua [Iao, Editor-in-Chief], and they took a chance on me. I am forever grateful. The publication of my collection gave my speech legitimacy and audiences have paid attention to my challenges to them.
What are you working on currently? I have my own collective: EC Poetry & Prose, a nonprofit of about a dozen poets who regularly perform together throughout the region. I also am part owner in a micropress, Fallen Tree Press, that is committed to publishing poetry only and supporting other nonprofits through a donation of book proceeds.
What genre do you write (or read) the most and why? I read everything from poetry to nonfiction. I have only written poetry and essays (a few speeches). I am challenging myself this year with the writing of a children’s book. I wrote a poem, and a children’s book author suggested I use phrases within the poem to create an historical fiction children’s book—is there such a thing, lol! I also hope to put together another collection of poems about the women in my life both real and make believe.
What books are on the top of your to-be-read pile?
Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan
A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing by DaMaris B. Hill
Several chapbooks by friends such as Kathleen Hellen’s Meet Me at the Bottom
Hiram Larew’s Mud Ajar
The Maryland Writer’s Association’s recent publication of Pen in Hand
Who is your favorite writer and why? Audre Lorde, there is a haunting within her writing that makes the reader think deeply about women and their plight in the world and how a writer captures trauma and its lingering effects and how women go on existing with so many scars. One of my favorite poems if not my favorite is the “Poem for a Poet”; its opening words are “I think of a coffin’s quiet when I sit in the world of my car . . .” That is riveting, pulling you in immediately reminding you of life’s chance.
Who has inspired and/or supported you most in your writing journey? My daughters. They are women who have persevered beyond challenges with dignity beyond what I instilled in them. They inspire me everyday to recognize the “queen” in every woman both young [and old]. Amazingly, they have taken the ugliness of the world and what it has shown them and still have hope and [still] embody beauty in all they do.
What do you love most about writing? I enjoy the freedom of expression. I can write and I am free to say, feel, be how and what I want. No strings attached.
What advice do you have for new writers? Just do it! It is a cathartic process in which frees you from the lament of life and brings you joy . . . that’s if you let it.
What’s your vision for Yellow Arrow in 2023? Zeal, zest, and zing! A year of joy. A year of growth and vitality about writing and sharing our voices.
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Welcome to the team Patti! We are so excited to work with you this year. Patti is on our fundraising committee putting together Celebrating Creativity, Cherishing the Woman, an event on May 13, 5:30-7:30 pm at Ceremony Coffee Roasters at Cross Street Market. Get your ticket at yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/may2023fundraiser.
Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we SPARK and sparkle this year: purchase one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, join our newsletter, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or subscribe 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.