Let's Celebrate the Good Stuff!

Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow Alumni and Friends’ 2021 Accomplishments and Awards

The mission of the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow (WCDH) is to nurture writers of all backgrounds, genres, and levels of experience in a supportive environment that builds community, stimulates new thinking, energizes creative expression, and optimizes productivity. It is with great pride that we celebrate the diverse literary work our writers produced in 2021 and their many awards. Please join us in congratulating the following WCDH alumni and friends on their newly published work and recently received accolades.

Books published in 2021 include the following:

January - Out of the Delta II, a memoir by Eureka Springs artist and author Zeek Taylor

January - Trump Sonnets Volume 5, Trump Sonnets Volume 6, and Trump Sonnets Volume 7 by Ken Waldman, published by Ridgeway Press

February – Shellback, a poetry memoir by Jeanne-Marie Ostermann. Kirkus Reviews named it one of the top 100 Indie Books of 2021.

February – “Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Pink Floyd” by K. A. Laity et al

March - Frances of the Wider Fields, poetry by Laura Van Prooyen

March - Leftovers and Gravy, a poetry collection by Ken Waldman, published by Cyberwit.net of India

April - Going to Trinidad: A Doctor, a Colorado Town, and Stories from an Unlikely Gender Crossroads, nonfiction by Martin J. Smith

May – Rabbit in the Moon, a cultural memoir by Heather Diamond

May – Dice on a Deadly Sea, a cozy mystery by Eureka Springs author Jane Elzey

May - Soda Fountain Blues, historical coming-of-age fiction by Lonnie Whitaker

June – What’s Done in Darkness, a thriller by Laura McHugh

June – Sonya Vann DeLoach’s poem/microessay "Garden of Delight" was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: I'm Speaking Now: Black Women Share Their Truth in 101 Stories of Love, Courage and Hope.

June – The Guardians of Eureka Springs, young adult adventure by WCDH Board Member Woody Barlow

July – Goldenrod: Poems by Maggie Smith

August - The Broken Places, poetry by Sandy Coomer, published by Saddle Road Press

September – Here We Go Loop de Loop, humorous fiction by William Jack Sibley

September - Trump Sonnets Volume 8 by Ken Waldman was published by Ridgeway Press

October – Cherie Claire published the seventh book in her mystery series, “Ghost Fever.” The first book in the series, “A Ghost of a Chance,” was developed over two visits at Dairy Hollow.

October – Eureka Springs author Ruth Mitchell released an audio version of Beyond: A Tale of Discovery on the Other Side of Life. Vocals were done by San Francisco opera singer Hannah Fuerst.

November - The Paper Demon & Other Stories, fiction by Rosaleen Bertolino

November - Isosceles: A Collection of Short Stories, fiction by Sherri C. Perry

November – Polyvagal Theory and the Developing Child, nonfiction by George Thompson

Accolades include the following:

Claire Ackroyd’s book Murder in the Maple Woods was a finalist for a 2021 Maine Literary Award. She said, “I would never have got it to the goal line without my week at Dairy Hollow - still one of the best weeks of my life!”

Wendy Taylor Carlisle won the Philip H. McMath Award, for her book of poetry, The Mercy of Traffic.

Amanda Churchill learned she was awarded the James D. Houston Memorial Scholarship from Community of Writers in Squaw Valley during her 2021 residency. She is also a 2021 Writers' League of Texas Fellow.

John Dorroh had 65 poems published in 2021 in journals including Feral, Spillwords, Stone Poetry Journal, and Willawaw Journal.

Sean Fitzgibbon won an MAAA Artists 360 award.

Diane Gottlieb’s piece “Heavenly Bodies in Seven Parts” was chosen as the nonfiction winner of Tiferet’s 2021 Writing Contest.

Jeremy Hance was named a fellow at Knight Science Journalism at MIT, joining a cadre great science writers. His book Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac won a Silver award in Memoir & Personal Journey for Nautilus Book Awards.

Tyrone Jaeger, WCDH alumnus and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Hendrix College, received grant funding for AV Arkansas: Citizen Storytellers, an online project featuring audio and video stories about colorful Arkansawyers.

Nathan Jerp’s workshop proposal "The Books or the Minds? How Theatre Can Teach Us About Where Science Lives" was accepted at the Theatre About Science conference in Coimbra, Portugal in November 2021.

Laurie Marshall’s flash story, "Being Married to Blake" was selected for publication in the 2021 Bath Flash Fiction Award anthology. Her story, "Some Things You'll Do When You Would Rather Be Happy" was the winner of the 2021 Lascaux Flash Fiction Prize.

Jeanne-Marie Osterman’s chapbook, All Animals Want the Same Things, won first place in the Slipstream Press annual chapbook competition.

Erikka O'Toole’s poem, "Collective Memory," won second place in the Kauffman Center “Artful Poetry” Contest. She entered at the suggestion of another WCDH alumna, Annie Newcomer, whom she met at WCDH April 2021.

Christy Prahl was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her poem "Trace It Back to the Animals," which appeared in the spring 2021 issue of Peatsmoke Journal.

John Swainston had poems appear in Blue Hole 2021 (published by Georgetown (9TX) Poetry Festival), Journal of Expressive Writing, Veterans’ Voices, Flapper Press, and eMerge. His poem "Vietnam Memories #1," in Veterans’ Voices, won the TH Norton Award: Editor’s Choice and “Old Barn” won 3rd place in Flapper Press’s Ekphrastic Poetry Contest.

Kenneth Weene’s poem, “We Sit Alone,” was selected by the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry as the winner of the professional poets’ submissions in its second annual Open Poetry Contest.

Wendy Whelan-Stewart had an article accepted by Cambridge Scholars Publishing that she wrote during her stay at WCDH titled "Maggie Nelson's Queer Maternal Ethics."

Lonnie Whitaker's column, "An Ozark Girl's Golf Odyssey," was awarded third place for Best Newspaper Column in The Missouri Writers Guild contest.

Tyrone Jaeger’s 2020 book Radio Eldorado was featured on ULAR Public Radio’s “Arts & Letters” program on 5/23/21. Next month’s program also featured a WCDH alumni. Lea Graham’s 2019 book From the Hotel Vernon was aired on 6/20/21.

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg was featured in in “Kansas City Magazine.”

Two WCDH alumni tied for third place in the Flapper Press Poetry Café Summer Poetry Contest: Jamie Lynn Heller with “Just Off the Highway” and John Swainston with “Price’s Branch Barn.”

Jamie Heller and Annie Newcomer were both featured poets at “Interpretations,” an ekphrastic art/poetry show by the Columbia Art League in Columbia, Missouri.

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 hosting over 1,700 writers from 48 states and 13 countries. For more information, please visit www.writerscolony.org or call Michelle Hannon or Jeanne Glass at (479)253-7444.