Callaloo Community Feature: Schyler Butler

Callaloo . • October 31, 2025

Callaloo Community Feature: Schyler Butler

Can you share about how your creative journey or background led you to Callaloo?

When I began writing professionally, I was encouraged to find Black literary journals. My mentor had been published in Callaloo years prior to our meeting, and of course, had a copy of the volume in which his work appeared. Holding that piece of history, knowing that within the well-loved cover was work written with the sole intention of engaging with African American and African Diaspora experiences, was everything. In my second year as a MFA Creative Writing student at The Ohio State University, I learned Callaloo was seeking readers and knew I'd be a fool not to apply. When the time is right, poems I've written will be printed within Callaloo, too.

Describe your experience being a reader for Callaloo:

Reading for Callaloo has been transformative. It’s clarified for me just how much power editors hold and why it’s essential to care deeply about excellence. So many people are writers, each at different stages of development, and while my first duty as a reader is to discern which submissions are strong enough for the Callaloo editors to consider for publication, it’s equally my duty to engage with each writer’s work as a beautiful, important offering, one worthy of gentle honesty.

What does being a part of Callaloo mean to you as a writer?

Being part of Callaloo means being in community with countless Black artists striving to create excellent work. It means joining and helping shape a legacy of triumph.

What inspired you to start writing in the first place?

Consciously, my love of reading. When I started gobbling up chapter books, I often thought, "Wow, this is amazing. I bet I can do this, too." Subconsciously, my mother, who loves reading; my biological father, who loves writing; and all my living family and ancestors who love and loved either / or.

Are there any upcoming projects or pieces you're working on that you'd like to share with our readers?

My debut poetry collection, Phantom Hue, is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press (Fall 2026)! It traces the inner life of a light-skinned Black woman reckoning with the inheritances of race, gender, history, and family. I am stupid excited. Silly excited. Externally, calm. This book is one of many gifts I will hand to the world.

Is there a quote that has guided you on your writing journey?

I don't remember where I found this—I am always writing notes wherever I can without context or attribution—but I have a bright pink sticky note with the words, "Put the work above all else, and trust the process." Writing is an act of faith. My journey meets the criteria tenfold.

Follow and Support Schyler’s Work

Instagram: @whistle_the_key

Website: schyler.journoportfolio.com

Interested in Becoming a Reader for Callaloo?

Click here to learn more about becoming a reader for Callaloo.

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Callaloo Contributor Feature: Tryphena Yeboah

By Callaloo . • December 19, 2025

Our next Contributor Feature comes from Tryphena Yeboah, whose work appears in Callaloo 43.2 . What inspired your piece in this issue? I wrote “Marriage”, well, during the first year of my marriage. I was surprised to see how differently my husband and I approach finances, how our upbringings have informed how we think about money and what’s worth purchasing, particularly in a season of new and small beginnings. We’re learning to live in the tension of scarcity and freedom. I think it’s much harder than it seems. A “Stone Room” was inspired by the days surrounding my wedding. I had travelled back home to Ghana for the ceremony and had to sleep in the room I’d spent so many of my teenage years in. It was strange to be back there. Everything was still the same after all those years, and yet, it felt like nothing had changed. Being back there brought back memories of the house, many of which were painful, but there was also a surprising sense of comfort in it. For the poem “Burn,” I was at a colleague’s house and just watched the fascination in their child’s eyes as he looked at a burning candle. He was curious and in awe he could almost touch it. I thought a lot about unending vigilance and care for children. Many of my older friends tell me that it never stops, not even when your child is a responsible adult living out of the house. I am deeply interested in that. In one word how would you describe your contribution to Callaloo 43.2? Honest. How did your creative journey or background lead you to this publication? I suppose none of these three poems would exist if I wasn’t in the habit of thinking and reflecting about my life and how I live my days. So, I’ll say the practice of journaling and reading over the years has taught me to not merely move through moments, even the most mundane ones, but to also interrogate my emotions and impressions of things, to sit still, to wade deeper, and to grow the kind of curiosity that has me questioning and wondering and imagining and looking beneath the surface of things. Tell us about a book or writer that influenced your work in this issue Rather than a book or writer, it was the simple and ordinary events that were happening in my life at the time that led to these poems. I love that writing invites me to pay attention to my life and the world around me. More About Tryphena: TRYPHENA YEBOAH is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing Director at Tennessee Wesleyan University. https://www.tryphenayeboah.com/

Callaloo Community Feature: Schyler Butler