Click on the video above to hear about Cynthia Yancey’s publishing experience with Writer’s Relief!

Meet our featured client, Cynthia Yancey, who knows the prescription for publishing success. After working as a doctor for thirty years in places ranging from the Himalayas and the Andes to a clinic in Asheville, NC, Cynthia is now working with her mentor, Laura Hope-Gill, to write the stories of her life—and with Writer’s Relief to get them published! Her work has already appeared in Entropy and Streetlight Magazine.

Read on and watch the video to find out how Writer’s Relief has helped Cynthia become a published writer.

In Cynthia’s Own Words:

I am a practicing physician approaching the end of a public health career. Last year I joined the master’s writing program at a local university to have a forum for my writing. After taking a publishing class there, I signed up with Writer’s Relief.

My first submission, in August of last year, was a personal essay entitled “The Colcachicote” about my oldest son’s search for a father. My second submission, in October, was the first chapter of my memoir. As a stand-alone, I entitled it “A Doctor Finds Her Way.” My third submission was another personal essay, “Outstaring Darkness,” about one of the biggest losses of my life, the death of my fiancé.

As it turned out, just as I was about to give up on any acceptances ever, I got an e-mail on Christmas Day last year from Streetlight asking to publish the second of those essays in its spring journal. My team instructed me to do the Happy Dance, which I, of course, had already done up and down the stairs and all around my house as I was preparing the Christmas meal for my family. The second acceptance was the last of these three submissions and actually the first to be published. My best love story was published on Valentine’s Day this year in Entropy, which can be read daily online.

My spirit soared. Even though I was quite delightfully surprised by both of these acceptances, I was even more elated when the very first piece was finally, six months after its submission, accepted by The MacGuffin, which is a journal with both an online and a paper version. I had given up on my “Colcachicote,” yet it is to be published in MacGuffin’s winter quarter this year.

Now, during a long dry spell, I have only to remind myself of last year. Writing and publishing do not come quickly or easily. But when it all falls together, it feels as if a voice may indeed rise and finally be heard far and wide.

More About Cynthia

Cynthia’s work is forthcoming in The MacGuffin. She received the Suzanne S. Turner Unsung Heroine Award in 2011, which is an award for public service. She has written a children’s book titled Zak and Niki: A First Look at Rising Above Racism, which was published by Grateful Steps in 2015. Cynthia is currently studying in the Master’s of Writing Program at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Asheville, NC.