Cheryl King is an author who lives in Eureka Springs, Arkansas with her best friend and husband, Harland. Her first career was in publishing working as a proofreader for Doubleday and then later as an editor for a vanity press publishing firm. Life then intruded and sent her on a course where she would spend the next thirty years in corporate America in the telecommunications industry. It was a vital and exciting time with massive growth and explosive changes. She participated in the launch of some of today's most critical data networks and platforms. Through all the years she carried the dream of writing and decided to pursue her passion when she parted company with corporate employment. Her story 'Red Sky at Dawn', from the Rare Coins: A Collection of Short Stories book, was chosen for inclusion in the 2019 edition of eMerge Magazine, the online magazine of the Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs.

Write Now at The Writers' Colony

featuring Cheryl King

About Vicki Mayk in her own words: "I can still remember the first time I walked into a newsroom. I was 12 and it was early on a Sunday morning – probably one of the only times that it’s quiet in a place where the insanity of putting out a daily newspaper takes place. I was meeting one of the writers I admired, a dream come true for a kid from Pittsburgh who aspired to be a writer. It was a place where magic happened: Men and women wrote true stories about real people. I fell in love with writing those kinds of stories and my passion for it has never changed. First as a reporter on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Courier News in Bridgewater, N.J., and later as the editor of three university magazines, writing stories about real people, places and events has been my passion. And passion is where good storytelling begins. It’s never been “just the facts, ma’am.” During my career, I also worked for a large health-care network, writing stories about the people who deliver care and the patients who receive it. Later, as a content writer, I knew telling good stories – not writing ad copy – was the best way to build a brand in a compelling and memorable way. When I earned a Master of Fine Arts degree, I considered writing poetry or plays, but the pull of the true story remained strong and I focused on creative nonfiction. I started writing about my own life – and began helping to teach others how to write their stories. I’ve taught writing in a hospice bereavement program, adult education workshops and in a college class called “The Power of Story.” Growing Up On The Gridiron, my first nonfiction book, gave me a new opportunity to tell a true story with the kind of detail and depth I’ve always brought to my work. That’s my true story."

featuring Vicki Mayk

Jeremy Leon Hance is a writer and freelance environmental journalist, who also happens to cohabitate with mental illnesses. He has named his OCD Steve and his depression goes by the name of Malachi. He is the author of the memoir Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac. As a journalist, Hance cut his teeth at Mongabay, beginning in 2009 and working as a lead writer and editor for six years. For over three years he wrote the blog Radical Conservation on the Guardian. Today, he is a columnist for Mongabay, writing monthly articles under the banner Saving Life on Earth: Words on the Wild. As a journalist, he is passionate about wildlife conservation, climate change, forests, animal behavior, and indigenous people and many other topics. His works have appeared in Mongabay, the Guardian, HuffPost, Ensia, YaleE360, Sydney Morning Herald among others. A story on the Sumatran rhino was chosen for the 2019 edition of the Best American Science and Nature Writing. In pursuit of stories, Hance has traveled to over 30 countries on five continents. He considers himself ridiculously lucky to have spent time with singing rhinos, dinosaur mammals, and angry clownfish. Hance is a 2002 graduate of Macalester College with a major in English and minor in History as well as a 2009 graduate of St. John’s College’s Great Books Master’s Degree program. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife, daughter, and pooch. When not writing, he enjoys time with friends, cups of tea, long hikes, longer naps, even longer novels, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.

featuring Jeremy Leon Hance

Aaron East is a 2019 graduate of Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, where he majored in English and History. Originally hailing from Royse City, Texas, Aaron is now a graduate student of English at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. His research interests include Medieval literature and history, and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

featuring Aaron East

Emily and Raymond of Melonlight in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, are certified professional ballroom dance instructors. They have over 40 years of combined experience teaching, performing,  and inspiring couples to make dance a part of their relationships. It's not a hobby for Emily and Raymond, it is their passion and career that they take seriously. Oh, but they have tons of fun too! It’s Melonlight's mission to deliver inspiring quality content that has a lasting impact.

featuring Emily and Raymond of Melonlight

Cynthia Sample has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Vermont College and also holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas. Her writing credits include stories in SLAB, Numéro Cinq, Summerset Review, Sleet, Wichita Falls Review of Literature and Art, Between the Lines, and Love After 70. She was also a finalist in the New Letters Fiction Prize. Her stories have won first places in contests such as the Arkansas Writers’ Conference and the Ozark Writers’ Conference. Find out more about Cynthia at http://www.cynthiacsample.com/.

featuring Cynthia Sample

Jody Hobbs Hesler has written ever since she could hold a pencil. She lives and writes at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her work includes short stories, novels, feature articles, book reviews, essays, and other free-lance writing and editing.  Growing up, Jody split her time between suburban Richmond, Virginia, and the mountains outside Winchester, Virginia. Experiences of both regions flavor her writing.  Today, Jody teaches at Writer House in Charlottesville, Virginia and is offering an online course beginning September 19th, “Staying the Course.” It is designed for people with long-term writing goals, such as novels, memoirs, story collections, but it would also work for anyone who wants accountability and camaraderie for their writing discipline, even if they aren't shaping that discipline around a specific project. Find out more here: https://writerhouse.org/class/staying-the-course-2/2020-09-19/

Featuring Jody Hobbs Hesler

Morris McCorvey has been nominated to become the Poet Laureate of Oklahoma. What an insightful conversation.

featuring Morris McCorvey

In her eleventh year of teaching both American and women’s literature,  Wendy Whelan-Stewart is an associate professor of English at McNeese State  University, where she also directs the Master of Arts in English program. She has published articles on Margaret Atwood,  Sylvia Plath, H.D., and Gwendolyn Brooks and is working on her first book.

featuring Wendy Whelan-Stewart

Yermiyahu Ahron Taub is a poet, writer, and translator. His works of fiction are Beloved Comrades: a Novel in Stories (Quanah, Texas: Anaphora Literary Press, 2020) and Prodigal Children in the House of G-d: Stories (London; Cambridge; New York; Sharjah: Austin Macauley, 2018), winner of two CIPA EVVY Merit Awards (LGBTQ Fiction and Religious/Spiritual Fiction) and named a finalist for a Foreword INDIES Award (Religious (Adult Fiction)). He is the author of six books of poetry: A moyz tsvishn vakldike volkn-kratsers: geklibene Yidishe lider/A Mouse Among Tottering Skyscrapers: Selected Yiddish Poems (Tel Aviv: Bibliotek fun der haynttsaytiker Yidisher literatur/Library of Contemporary Yiddish Literature, 2017), The Education of a Daffodil/Di bildung fun a geln nartsis (Saarbrucken, Germany: Hadassa Word Press, 2017), Prayers of a Heretic/Tfiles fun an apikoyres   (Austin, Tex.: Plain View Press, 2013), Uncle Feygele (Austin, Tex.: Plain View Press, 2011), What Stillness Illuminated/Vos shtilkayt hot baloykhtn (West Lafayette, Ind.:Parlor Press, 2008), and The Insatiable Psalm(Hershey, Pa.: Wind River Press, 2005). Tsugreytndik zikh tsu tantsn: naye Yidishe lider/Preparing to Dance: New Yiddish songs is a CD of nine of his Yiddish poems set to music composed by Michał Górczyński and performed by Malerai–Goldstein–Masecki (Poznan, Poland: Multikulti Project, 2014). Learn more about Yermiyahu at https://yataubdotnet.wordpress.com/.

featuring Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate, a writer, teacher, and facilitator, and coach and consultant who explores how the spoken, written and sung word can help us live more vibrant lives. Founder of Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College, Caryn is the author or editor of over 20 books of poetry, fiction, memoir, non-fiction, and anthologies. A registered songwriter with BMI, her poetry and prose has been published widely. Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is a visionary. She bases her writing within communities for community empowerment. I cannot tell how strongly I feel that we are lucky to have her here for her significant and sustained contributions to the word arts. ~ Denise Low, 2007-09 Kansas Poet Laureate As a beloved workshop facilitator, she has led workshops since 1992 for adults in transition, people living with serious illness, and intergenerational and multi-cultural groups. She leads writing and singing retreats and performances with singer-songwriter Kelley Hunt through Brave Voice. She also offers writing, facilitation, and right livelihood coaching, and with Laura Packer, offers the Your Right Livelihood training. Caryn was born in Brooklyn, and grew up there and in Manalapan, N.J. until she headed west to study journalism at the University of Missouri, where she got a labor history degree instead. She continued west to Lawrence, Kansas, where she fell in love with the land, community, and her husband. Caryn received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, and she has trained in organizational development and group process, grassroots organizing, poetry therapy, and teaching yoga. She is the recipient of Kansas Arts Fellowship in Poetry, the Rocky Mountain National Park artist-in-residency, and other honors. Caryn lives in the country, just south of Lawrence, Kansas with her husband, bioregional writer Ken Lassman, two big dogs and a cat, and young adult children who visit to the delight of all the humans and animals.

featuring Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

David Haynes is the author of seven novels for adults and five books for younger readers.  He is an Associate Professor of English at  Southern Methodist University where he directs the creative writing program. He also teaches regularly in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for  Writers and has taught in the MFA Programs at the University of  Missouri-St. Louis, Hamline University, and at the Writer’s Center in  Bethesda, MD, and at the Writers’ Garret in Dallas. David received a fellowship from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and  several of his short stories have been read and recorded for the  National Public Radio series “Selected Shorts.” His sixth and most recent novel is The Full Matilda. He is also the author of a series for  children called “The West Seventh Wildcats.” For fifteen years David served as a teacher in urban schools, mostly teaching middle grades in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  He worked on numerous school reform efforts, including developing the influential Saturn  School of Tomorrow, where he served as Associate Teacher for Humanities. He has been involved in the work of the National Board for  Professional Teaching Standards, coordinating efforts of the nation’s  finest educators to develop standards in the fields of social studies,  vocational education, early childhood education and for teachers of students whose first language is not English.  He is currently a  director of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and is the Founder and Project Director for Kimbilio.

featuring David Haynes

Zoe Fawkes is a fantasy novelist, world traveler, feminist and shameless geek.

featuring Zoe Fawkes

LAURA PARKER CASTORO is a best-selling author with thirty-nine (39) books published in the U.S. Her work has also been published in fifteen (15) foreign languages. "Being a  writer is the best thing in the world.  You spend your days working with characters you've created, making them do and say things you think they should.  If you're lucky, they listen.  If you're even luckier, you get  paid." Laura began her career writing historical and contemporary romance as LAURA PARKER. Her first title was SILKS AND  SABERS (May 1980, Dell). She went on to write novels in other genres:  western, saga, romantic suspense, YA non-fiction, African American, and mainstream. Her most recent works include LOVE ON THE LINE, COUGAR  TALES Anthology, and a re-issue of ROSE OF THE MISTS. Other recent novels by LAURA CASTORO include humorous looks at the contemporary life, loves, and trials of women of "a certain age". These include A NEW LU  and ICING ON THE CAKE.  Both are available as ebooks.

featuring Laura Parker Castoro

Molly Sroges is a linguist-poet who teaches English as a Second Language at Green Forest High School. She has been published in Scibendi and performed poetry all over Arkansas, as well as representing Northwest Arkansas at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in Albuquerque and Dallas. She is the current host of the Ozark Poets and Writers  Collective, on the last Tuesday of the month in Fayetteville, and of Word Brews, on the second Thursday at Brews in Eureka Springs. She is also a co-host of the podcast Reading Circle Temple, which can be found at www.readingcircletemple.com.

featuring Molly Scroges

Since opening its doors to writers in 2000, The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow has made a lasting impact on the arts and literary communities providing uninterrupted residency time for novice and accomplished writers of all genres, including culinary, composers, and artists, without discrimination. Our podcast features some of the over 1,400 writers from 48 states and 12 countries who have stayed at The Writers' Colony, and it delves into their lives and what writing means to them.

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Write Now at The Writers' Colony

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