Today we’d like to introduce you to Arriel Vinson.
Hi Arriel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I studied journalism at IU Bloomington for undergrad and was sure that I’d be a reporter for the New York Times. But the summer before my senior year of college, everything changed. I did an internship in New York City that focused on getting marginalized voices in the newsroom. And during that, I realized that journalism wasn’t what I wanted to do at all. I had fallen in love with creative writing. I went to poetry slams. I wrote my own poetry and read authors and poets I had never read before. I felt really free in New York and finally, I told myself that I couldn’t graduate and go work as a journalist. So after that summer, I took a fiction writing workshop and just tried to hone my writing so I could apply for MFA programs.
From there, I got into two of the three programs I applied for. I spent two years in upstate New York at Sarah Lawrence College figuring out what kind of writer I wanted to be. I studied fiction instead of poetry, thinking it might be more practical (haha). But I also spent my time volunteering, working part-time jobs, applying for literary fellowships, publishing my work, and learning what I wanted to do after I got my Master’s degree. I tried to teach myself everything I could about publishing so I could work in the publishing industry once I graduated.
After graduating, I got my first full-time job in the publishing industry at a literary nonprofit. It was the first time I had to figure out how to prioritize my writing–so I wrote on lunch breaks. I wrote on the train in New York. I I tried it all. But I finally saw one of my friends–who’s from the same town as me–get a book deal and I was like oh, I can do this.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, I had no choice but to focus on my manuscript at that point. I drafted and drafted and drafted and revised and revised and revised. Then, three different people sent me an application to the Reese’s Book Club LitUp Fellowship–a fellowship that focuses on women and non-binary writers with a full manuscript. I didn’t plan on applying at all until the third person sent it. I took it as a sign and applied. I was admitted to the program as part of the first cohort, and that’s what prepared me to query to find a literary agent.
My agent and I honed Under the Neon Lights for about a year. Once we both thought it was ready, we sold the book to a publisher in an auction. Now, I’m here. I’m a few weeks out from publication, which was June 3rd, and I still can’t believe it’s real.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the main struggles was learning how to prioritize my writing once I graduated from my master’s program. It’s really easy when you’re in a program to situate your writing in your day-to-day life, to wake up and write or to make time in the evening. Back then I only had a few part-time jobs that were mostly administrative. But once you work full-time and once you care about the work you’re doing, it becomes even more difficult to write. You use all of your brain space during the day and then you have to get home and feed yourself and settle in, all while juggling a social life, keeping a home. and keeping your health. It took me years to take the Under the Neon Lights seriously. But I had to learn discipline. I had to learn how to say no to social plans or to random things I wanted to do. I had to learn what was standing in the way of me finishing my book. And I think it’s a continuous learning curve. At every stage of my life, there are new things that I have to say no to or things I realize I’m prioritizing that I can’t even if I would like to.
I also think that it is difficult to put out a book as a Black woman. It doesn’t matter the genre. It doesn’t matter the time. There will always be books that more readers will gravitate toward because they aren’t focused on themes of race, and that’s something I can’t control. So I try to work on what I can control, which is getting in front of the readers who want this book. Which is connecting with authors who care about the same kind of work. Which is talking to booksellers and librarians who want to platform books about Black girls.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a Young Adult author who writes about being young, black, and in search of freedom. I specialize in writing stories about Black girlhood, specifically focusing on telling stories about girls who are from the hood, who grew up with different family structures, who are just trying to find joy and love and self-worth. Before I wrote my novel Under the Neon Lights, which is considered a romance, most people knew me for my poetry. I pride myself in writing lyrically but also writing honestly and in a way that’s accessible to most readers. And “honestly” doesn’t mean that I’m writing about myself all the time, it just means that I am honest about my perception. I am honest about the outcomes of certain scenarios. I am honest about the world we live in.
Under the Neon Lights is a YA novel-in-verse, or novel told in poems, that follows Jaelyn, a 16-year-old Black girl who falls in love at the skating rink but it closes due to gentrification. It explores themes such as first love, female friendship, complicated family dynamics, and building community. I enjoy writing about community in all of its ways. I enjoy writing about what it means to love others. But I don’t think that’s what makes me stand out. And I don’t think I need to stand out for that. There are so many authors, especially Black authors, who are writing in the same tradition. Who I believe I fall in the writing lineage with. Who are writing about love and writing better possibilities for Black people but specifically Black teens.
I believe that every story can have a hopeful ending—not a happy one, but a hopeful one. An ending where Black people still have agency, where we have love, where we have joy, despite or because of everything that we have gone through or will go through. My stories set out to imagine and reimagine what freedom is and what freedom can be for everyone.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
I have learned that being an author means you have to tell yourself or remind yourself that you love the story you’re writing and that it’s an important or impactful. There are so many awards or recognitions or lists that Under the Neon Lights might not get or make. But every time I see a review from a reader, or every time someone tells me that they love the book, it reminds me of why I wrote it in the first place. So, I have learned to decenter the recognition. I’m glad when I get certain honors, of course, but it can’t be my only focus.
Pricing:
- Under the Neon Lights hardcover – $19.99
- Under the Neon Lights audiobook – $15
- Under the Neon Lights ebook – $10.99
Contact Info:
- Website: https://arriwrites.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arriwrites/
- Twitter: https://x.com/arriwrites
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@arriwrites25
