This installment of Artist Spotlight brings us Yvette Young, a musician with a uniquely brilliant compositional and playing style. Yvette is the guitarist and primary writer for Covet, a California-based math rock band. Covet’s intricate riffs create vivid soundscapes that transport listeners to another place, while her acoustic and vocal solo work contains darker, more personal themes.
 
In addition to being acquainted with a number of other instruments (including piano, violin, harp, and banjo), Yvette is also a skilled visual artist. She designs album covers, accepts art commissions, and paints custom guitars (including her own Strandberg).
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In this interview, Yvette shares with us her experiences growing up as an artist in an area that emphasizes STEM, the therapeutic effects of music in her life, the roles teachers have played in her growth, her experiences being an Asian woman in music, and the projects she has been working on recently.

GKA likes badass things. This includes poetry, short fiction, food, dogs, playlists, random quotes found from the internet... but most importantly we love badass people. And who could be more badass than the two amazingly talented, hardworking, and inspirational editors that lead the GKA's prose and poetry team? It's been a long time coming, so without further ado, here are some of the coolest people in the entire (GKA) world: Lisa and Andy. AKA, our genre editors.

Keep reading to find out more about them, their relationship to writing, what they look for when evaluating pieces, and more!

Name: Emelia Bleker 
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Favorite Poets: Brendan Constantine, Elaina M. Ellis, Adrienne Rich, Sierra DeMulder, Meggie Royer, Louise Gluck... the list could go on for days!
Proudest accomplishment: Publishing my first book this past year!
Unusual hobbies: I'm an extreme pacifist who has been training as a boxer since I was 12 years old, if that counts! I also craft like nobody's business. 
If you could be any animal, what would it be and why? I would like to say I would be a fox, but realistically speaking I would probably be one of those pandas that likes to sleep a lot.

​Sometimes, when you have pages of homework and essays to craft, leaving behind reality and entering the realm of poetry and imagination can seem both heavenly and a near impossible venture. I can completely relate to people who search in vain for topics to write about—some deep, metaphorical prompt that will fire off the entire writing piece. Yes, they are extremely elusive to catch, especially when you’re searching so hard that you sometimes forget why you’re even looking for substance to write about. Well… here I’m going to tell you a little bit about how I go about searching for material to write about, and how I overcome the horrible affliction that is a writer’s block.