Yellow Arrow Vignette Luminate 2026 Submissions are Now Open!
Welcome to the first day of open submissions for Yellow Arrow Vignette LUMINATE! Now in its fifth season, Yellow Arrow Vignette is an online series developed to better feature women-identifying creatives and share their voices beyond Yellow Arrow Journal and our single-author publications. This year, submissions for Vignette are open from May 15 to June 15 and will align with the 2026 Yellow Arrow yearly value Luminate.
If you currently live, grew up in, or recently lived in the Baltimore area and are a creative who identifies as a woman, read the guidelines at yellowarrowpublishing.com/vignette/submissions and submit through our Yellow Arrow Vignette LUMINATE form.
This year, we are excited to work with a new team on Vignette. Sydney Alexander, publications fellow, will be our Vignette Managing Editor, working directly with this year’s guest editor, Zoë Huettl (she/her). Sydney grew up in the Baltimore area and graduated from Middlebury College with a joint degree in English and geography. At Yellow Arrow Publishing, she previously served as an intern, an editorial associate, and a reader. She has also worked at New England Review and Galiot Press. Zoë is a poet and educator from Chicago, Illinois, and a current MFA student at the University of Baltimore. When not crafting or writing, she can be found haunting local alleys with her dog, Harper.
LUMINATE is elemental, existential. Without a light source, there is only darkness. This is why we want to shine a neon light onto Baltimore creatives this year.
: to be shaken, electrified into vivid color
: to blare with welcome
: to embrace and celebrate the self that has been contained for too long
: to buzz with audacity
: to seep into darkness
: to call others like you to find their home
Below, you can read more about Zoë’s interpretation of LUMINATE and how she is excited to see what other Baltimore creatives are welcoming and celebrating in their artistic lives.
I moved to Baltimore in August of 2025, itching to belong to a new place, anxious to see who I could become here. The heat shocked me and fogged my glasses, curling my hair further and further. As I settled in, I was looking for where to belong, and I found the bright, infectious welcome of the queer and artistic communities.
As I begin my work as the guest editor of Yellow Arrow Vignette LUMINATE, I am inspired by the places, people, and events that shone under their own vibrant power and beckoned me. I think of my classmates and colleagues and their warm conversations, of the coffee shop around the corner where I pour over thin poetry volumes, of the spell-binding tension of a crowd waiting for the band’s entrance. I think of my first, tender friendships, chatting over metal water bottles and scattered notebooks. The people I’ve met in Baltimore glow with their passions, their identities, their experiences, and their joy. In their light, I have found my own spark.
I ask you, creatives, to consider how you burn:
What do you show others that invites them to express themselves?
How do you create a community that is vibrant, resilient, and resisting the dark?
How do you celebrate the aspects of self that are luminous in yourself and in those around you?
If there was a neon sign above you, what would it say? To what are you open to, and do you stay open late?
We are writing in a political climate that is increasingly divisive, hostile, and antihuman. In our work and in our communities, we can embody our values brightly and show others that they belong. We can resist the encroaching forces that tell us to shrink, to hide, to dim ourselves. I can’t wait to read what you send in.
For Yellow Arrow Vignette LUMINATE, we’re looking for creative nonfiction, poetry, and cover art by creatives who identify as women and have a connection to the Baltimore area. For more about what this means and for information on how to submit, please visit yellowarrowpublishing.com/vignette/submissions and submit your piece using our Yellow Arrow Vignette LUMINATE form. If you have any questions, send them to submissions@yellowarrowpublishing.com. The online issue will be released in August.
We look forward to reading the submissions for Yellow Arrow Vignette LUMINATE and sharing stories with you. Since its founding in 2016, Yellow Arrow has worked tirelessly to make an impact on the local and global community by advocating for writers who identify as women. Yellow Arrow proudly represents the voices of women from around the globe. Creating diversity in the literary world and providing a safe space is deeply important. Every writer has a story to tell and every story is worth telling.
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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 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.