Words in the Garden with DW McKinney and Laura Matson Hahn

“Words in the Garden” is a weekly literary reading series from the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow (WCDH) and the Eureka Springs Carnegie Library.  Every Wednesday through the summer at 4:30 pm, a local and/or visiting WCDH writer-in-residence will present a reading and Q&A under the tent in the Eureka Springs Carnegie Library Garden at 188 Spring Street (south of the Carnegie Library Gardens Building). The readings are free and open to all. Wednesday, August 11, will feature writer-in-residence and winner of the 2021 “My Time” fellowship DW McKinney and local writer Laura Matson Hahn.

DW McKinney is a work from home mother of two, ages 2 and 5. She is a widely published award-winning writer, journalist, and serves as the Senior Nonfiction Columns Editor for Raising Mothers.  Born in California, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Dominican University of California and a Master of Arts in Anthropology from Texas State University. She now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Learn more about McKinney at dwmckinney.com. While in residency at WCDH, McKinney will be working on an essay collection composed of her travelogues as creative mediums and educational directives. The collection will include her anthropological observations and interviews from her time living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, her travels in Brazil, Greece, Ecuador, and across the United States. Her essays will incorporate discussion on racial discourse, history, and mental health, as well as Americana and culture.

Laura Matson Hahn was born in Chicago, raised in Northern New Jersey, educated in Rhode Island and Michigan, lived in Pennsylvania, and recently moved to Arkansas.  She received a Master’s in Communications and spent 30 years working in communications, cutting her teeth on the then new cable TV industry, and moving into corporate communications. Her attention then turned to crafting her novel, The Heart Code, an homage to bohemian culture inspired by her life-long commitment to the philosophy of living according to the heart’s voice and wisdom.  Later, she shared her gifts with students of creative writing and performance of literature, two of her deepest joys.  Upon relocating to Beaver Lake in 2018, she and her husband dove into the country life raising guinea hens and dogs, developing their 3 acres, and participating in community activities.