Follow your spark, your ember: Yellow Arrow Vignette BLAZE
Welcome to the fourth issue of Yellow Arrow Vignette, Yellow Arrow Publishing’s online creative nonfiction and poetry series. For this issue, we aligned with our 2025 yearly value BLAZE.
The heat of passion. The beginning of a flame. The way the wind takes a spark or an ember and carries it, igniting more fire (or change) elsewhere. The changing of seasons. Transformation. The concept of being in heat and the way our sexual desires can send out their own strong signals—a blaze of pheromones. A blaze of glory. And, of course, the temptation to burn it all down.
With that, here is the BLAZE issue of Yellow Arrow Vignette:
Vignette BLAZE continues to focus on sharing and augmenting the creative work of voices and themes that aren’t heard loudly enough, showcasing writers who live in or are otherwise connected to our home base of Baltimore. We want our readers to experience the spectrum of voices that Charm City offers.
Before diving into the pages and words of our incredible BLAZE authors, explore the ‘cover art’ for the issue on the landing page, “Manchada” by Clara Longo de Freitas. Longo de Freitas is an illustrator and writer. Her editorial artwork has been published at The Washington Post, The Hill, and NPR. She enjoys painting with acrylic and drawing with ink in her free time, especially rats and bats. Originally from Brazil, she has called Baltimore, Maryland, her home for three years, where she lives with her 9-year-old Brittany Spaniel. According to Longo de Freitas,
“The theme BLAZE suggested a release, the expansion of something ‘conspicuously brilliant.’ What happens after that initial spark? The one that leads to combustion, that jolts you and your surroundings into movement. BLAZE also suggests shedding light. I painted a woman radiating her insides out, revealing herself, albeit not completely graceful. She is burnt and hurt and bruised. But I doubt she regrets it. Because BLAZE is also about direction, and it doesn’t look like she will be going back.”
Discover more of Longo de Freitas’ work at claralongodefreitas.com. We hope you see the intensity burning in the cover art and through the poetry and creative nonfiction in BLAZE. Thank you to all the writers who followed the call and sent in their beautiful pieces. We were amazed by the breadth of our collection of submitters and hope that you have the opportunity to blaze your own path. And to the incredible creatives who let us include their work in BLAZE: Catarina Broccolino, Rebecca Brock, Trinity Chapree, Brianna Coleman, Tracy Dimond, Kat Flores, Kassie Foster, Thomasin LaMay, Clara Longo de Freitas, Kavitha Rath, Lillian Deja Snortland, Liz Swanson, Veracruz, Marceline White, and Kitty Yanson. Thank you for trusting us with your words.
And of course, thank you to the Yellow Arrow Vignette team, Catharine Robertson and Sophia Graney, along with the rest of the staff that worked on BLAZE: Kristen Caruso, Jill Earl, Jennifer M. Eyre, Meg Gamble, Kerry Graham, Kapua Iao, Nat Kaplan, Alexa Laharty, Anna Leonard, Annie Marhefka, Siobhan McKenna, Kait Quinn, and Mickey Revenaugh. Our staff diligently read through every submission, worked on edits, and contributed amazing feedback!
The reading for Vignette BLAZE is 6:00 p.m. Friday, September 5, at Bird in Hand. RSVP here. See all events from Bird in Hand.
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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 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.