“Yellow” by Amy Pence

Yellow (Red Hen Press 2026) is a multi-threaded transformation of the novel into an innovative form. Twelve-year-old Z learns about the world through the televised events of 1973 while the nation is taken by the Watergate hearings and Skylab’s launch into space. That summer she discovers an unclassified slime mold in her backyard which she believes is sentient and magical.

The story explores the impact of national events such as the Vietnam War, Hurricane Katrina, the Space Race, and an encounter with a serial killer on the development of a young artist’s psyche and imagination. She processes these events through a keen intellect with a creative bent. And this journey takes on a life of its own.

Pence uses overlapping story lines and at times, a journalistic style, to weave a spellbinding journey through wonder and despair to lead the reader to unpredictable levels of other-worldly hope and possibility. Z’s personal transformation from a kid in Louisiana with extraordinary depth is a unique take on the archetypal journey of the artist. She absorbs her world even as it evolves and transforms around and through her.

Through lyrical writing, Pence creates a spellbinding, mesmerizing narrative.

Amy Pence

Pence authored three books of poetry: The Decadent Lovely, Armor, Armour, and We Travel Towards It. Her hybrid book INCANDESCENT, with Emily Dickinson at its speculative center, won the Eyelands International Poetry Award.