Become an Emerge Author

Writers and artists work in the loneliest of all professions, inside our heads. Those daring enough to create and reveal something of their inner natures, are to be lauded. The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow salutes your courage and thanks you for your submissions.

Submission period is open from August 1st until October 1st.

Submissions will be considered for inclusion in next year's issues of eMerge and submitters will be notified prior to publication.

Submission Form

Currently Featured Authors

Jamie Lynn Heller
Poetry is my caffeine. My many roles in life (so far) have included teacher, school counselor, bookmobile driver, furniture factory worker, volunteer coordinator, daughter, aunt, wife, mother, reader and writer. My book Buried in the Suburbs was published in 2018 by Woodley Press (2019 Kansas Notable Book Award. My chapbook Domesticated: Poetry from Around the House was published in 2015 (Finishing Line Press). For a complete list of publications see jamielynnheller.blogspot.com

Posts in this issue: 3

Jessica Cloud
Jessica Neno Cloud was born and raised in Mobile, AL and now resides in Hattiesburg, MS with her husband Daniel and her two children. She earned her M.A. in English literature at The University of Southern Mississippi. Her poetry can be found online in the TEJASCOVIDO project and the online journal Former People. In print her poem “After the Bath” appeared in Constellations magazine in 2019 and the poem “Stockpile the Sun” was published in the Langdon Review: TEJASCOVIDO in 2020.

Posts in this issue: 3

Dani Kuntz
Dani K. is a recent graduate of Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where she studied English-Creative Writing. Currently, she works in analytics at a marketing agency in Little Rock. During her free time, she enjoys hiking, playing PC games, listening to true crime podcasts, and writing about the human condition. Using her poetry, Dani hopes to achieve a sense of empathy with readers.

Posts in this issue: 2

Liza Wolff-Francis
Liza Wolff-Francis is a poet and writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College who served two terms as a member of the Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program's Selection Committee and continues on the organizing committee. Her writing has most recently appeared in the magazine El Palacio: Art, History, and Culture of the Southwest, Steam Ticket, We’Moon, among others. She has a chapbook out called Language of Crossing.

Posts in this issue: 2

Bill McCloud
Bill McCloud is a poetry editor for the Right Hand Pointing literary journal and is the poetry reviewer for Vietnam Veterans of America. His poetry book, The Smell of the Light, reached #1 on The Oklahoman’s “Oklahoma Bestsellers List." His poems have appeared in Oklahoma Today and the Oklahoma English Journal. He is a faculty member of William Bernhardt’s annual WriterCon, presenting sessions on writing and publishing poetry.

Posts in this issue: 2

John L. Swainston
Currently residing in Gardner, Kansas. Retired Finance Executive, College Adjunct Professor, and Army Veteran. A Writer Colony Alumni and member of the Kansas City Mystic Poet Society. An award-winning poet. His poetry has been published in a variety of magazines and in a recent book about the pandemic.

Posts in this issue: 2

Ruth Weinstein
Since 1976, my husband and I have lived on a hardscrabble, 40-acre piece of Ozark land as back-to-the-landers, a group of very determined people. We still garden organically and largely rely on ourselves and our community for entertainment and inspiration. I am also a textile artist working in a wide variety of disciplines. My memoir, BACK TO THE LAND: ALLIANCE COLONY TO THE OZARKS was published by Stockton University Press in February 2020, and my poetry appears in print and online.

Posts in this issue: 2

Joanie Roberts
I am a retired teacher and live in the beautiful Ozarks on Lake Ann in Bella Vista, Arkansas. I think of myself as a beginning author, writer, and poet exploring the worlds of poetry, nature, and photography. I love to capture ordinary moments and reflect upon our natural world and its intersections with our daily life.

Posts in this issue: 2

Ken Waldman
Ken Waldman combines original poetry, old-time string-band music, and smart storytelling for a performance uniquely his. Touring since 1995, he's appeared from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage to the Dodge Poetry Festival to the Woodford Folk Festival (Queensland, Australia). 19 books consist of 16 full-length poetry volumes, a memoir, a creative writing manual, a kids' book. Nine CDs include two for children. In 2022, Cyberwit Press of India will publish his novel, Now Entering Alaska Time.

Posts in this issue: 2

Dirk van Nouhuys
I have a BA from Stanford in writing and an MA from Columbia in contemporary literature. I write novels, short stories, experimental forms, and occasionally verse. I publish regularly in literary and other magazines to a total of about 90 items.

Posts in this issue: 1

Annie Klier Newcomer
When Annie Newcomer lost her brother, John Klier, Jewish Scholar and Russian Historian who lived and taught in London to misdiagnosed cancer in 2007, she was bereft. Writing saved her. Now she teaches Poetry and Play Writing at Turning Point, a center for the chronically ill associated with the University of Kansas. She endeavors to share this joy of the written word with others.

Posts in this issue: 1

Ray Shermer
Ray spent 21 years in radio broadcasting followed by 27 years as a real estate appraiser. He taught real estate appraisal at the University of Missouri, Ozarks Technical Community College and St. Charles Community College. Ray loves writing and always has. After Ray retired he attained the Certificate in Higher Education in Creative Writing from Oxford University. Writing short stories for the Certificate was exciting especially since he was in his seventies. Since then the genre has become his obsession and he loves to write them often. His email is shermerray90@gmail.com

Posts in this issue: 1

Greg Zeck
A native Minnesotan, Greg Zeck taught college English and did freelance business writing in the Midwest. He’s published fiction and poetry in such magazines as Ambit, Bogg, Moon Magazine, and the Spoon River Quarterly. Ten years ago, he retired with his wife Jennifer to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Last year he published a first book of poetry, Transitions, and is coming out this fall with a second book, Lost & Found: Poems Found All Around.

Posts in this issue: 1

Louise Krug
Louise Krug is an associate professor of English at Washburn University. She is the author of two memoirs about brain surgeries that she had in her twenties, Louise: Amended (one of Publishers Weekly's Best 20 books of 2012) and Tilted: The Post Brain-Surgery Journals, recipient of the Hefner-Heinz Kansas Book Award in 2018. She has published essays in The Huffington Post, River Teeth, Juked, various anthologies, and elsewhere. She lives in Topeka, Kansas with her family.

Posts in this issue: 1

Emmanuel Akintoye
Emmanuel Akintoye is a Nigerian. He is a student of the Department of Medicine and Surgery, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. He is a passionate writer and a poet. He is also a budding freelance writer. His pen name is Smarnuel and he is in his late teens.

Posts in this issue: 1

Ruth Mitchell
Ruth Mitchell’s career as a travel writer took her many places. Her gigs as a freelancer educated her in the ways of the world. Her positions as an editor for At Home in Arkansas and Arkansas Business taught her to manage lots of little fires. As the author of Arkansas Heritage, a state-adopted elementary history text, she learned to be accurate. As a novelist she's learning her toughest lesson yet, how to engage readers through stories. Her novel White Oak can be purchased online. She is currently working on a new novel that will really wow readers.

Posts in this issue: 1

Anna Gall
Anna Gall with her husband, Dean live in historic St. Charles, Missouri. Anna travels, gardens, cooks, teaches culinary classes at the local community college, antiques, reads, and writes two blogs on topics she is most passionate about, organic gardening, kitchen creations, home life, and wholeness as a woman. During her summer 2021 residency at the Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow, Anna started her first book, a series of short stories with a culinary theme. Its publication should be in 2022.

Posts in this issue: 1

Megan Kirk
Megan Kirk has operated Eureka Market, the local natural food store in Eureka Springs, for 20 years. In addition to guiding 3 daughters toward adulthood, (two down, one to go) she nurtures a 30-year relationship with photography by wandering the hills of Eureka nearly every day. She is currently working on several photo collections documenting local street art, yard art, Eureka cats, the Beaver Bridge, and people from the knees-down. Megan’s work has appeared locally and regionally in shows. Prints can be ordered by contacting via Instagram @megan_bogle_kirk

Posts in this issue: 1

Lisbeth McCarty
Lisbeth L. McCarty has a B.A. in Professional Writing and a J.D. in Law, both from the University of Oklahoma. In October of 2021, McCarty retired from a long career as an appellate attorney in the area of criminal law, a job where legal writing was necessary. She is excited to be able to now become a full-time, freelance writer. She has a free, monthly newsletter available to anyone which can be found at https://lisbeth.substack.com/.

Posts in this issue: 1

George Plautz
George Plautz has been writing, acting and directing for the theatre for more than forty years most recently with Wasatch Theatre Company where he directed, wrote and/or produced over twenty productions. Three of his full-length plays and numerous of his one-act and ten-minute plays have been produced. After retiring, he has been pursuing playwriting and cooking full-time including a month-long residency at Dairy Hollow in 2021.

Posts in this issue: 1

Pedro Henrique da Silva Lino
Pedro Lino is one of those "nefelibata" kids: that person who lives introverted within their own imagination. Mostly, a polyglot who doesn't speak all that often. In the end, he's nothing but a writer. Still, he occasionally tries to stop writing, but just can't. You may find him daydreaming all along.

Posts in this issue: 1

Mariellen Griffith
She is a writer, artist, photographer and gardener, and has written and published eight books. All are sold through Amazon. Five of the books are about Eureka Springs and two are about the early Indigenous People of Arkansas. Her recent book is Conspiracy in Mars. She is Professor Emeritus at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, having taught for twenty-four years.

Posts in this issue: 1

Zeek Taylor
Zeek Taylor is a recipient of the Arkansas Governor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. Best known for his stylized watercolors, he is also a storyteller, and author of two books. He has appeared twice on the NPR Tales from the South show and his stories, interview, and Q&A session were heard by 130 million listeners worldwide. A segment from a StoryCorps interview with Taylor aired on NPR’s Morning Edition show. He is the author of two memoirs, Out of the Delta and Out of the Delta II, and the art book, Chimps Having Fun. Taylor lives and works in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Posts in this issue: 1

Zhenya Yevtushenko
Zhenya Yevtushenko is one of the sons of the late poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. He is a published translator, a former substitute teacher and funeral home consultant. Currently, Zhenya has resumed pursuing his undergraduate degrees in Political Science, History and English. Zhenya aspires to become a Foreign Service Officer and a literary translator. He resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma and owes his inspiration to his brothers, his mother, and to the love of his life, Olivia.

Posts in this issue: 1

George Freek
George Freek's poetry has recently appeared in "Acumen"; "Miller's Pond"; "The Gentian Journal"; "Ink, Sweat and Tears"; and "The Whimsical Poet."

Posts in this issue: 1

Alison Schuh Hawsey
Over twenty years ago, I began to study and practice Reiki, Mindfulness, and Intuition, leading from working in marketing and communications in corporate American to becoming an Energy Worker, Intuitive Coach/Mentor, Podcaster, and Writer. I live each day with purpose by trusting my vibes to uncover the next adventure. One being working through my insecurities to transform my writing into published work. It is my hope that these shared experiences, aha moments, and funny stories can help you connect to your own whispers of wisdom.

Posts in this issue: 1

Maxine Thompson
Maxine Thompson is the author of 5 novels, The Ebony Tree, Hostage of Lies, LA Blues I, LA Blues II, LA Blues III, a memoir, Lineage, a short story collection, A Placed Called Home, 3 novellas, Katrina Blues, Summer of Salvation, Second Chances, included in 5 anthologies, and has published 5 nonfiction ebooks. She is an editor, a ghostwriter, a literary agent, and an Internet Radio Show host.

Posts in this issue: 1

Violet Treadwell Hull
Violet Treadwell Hull is a multimedia artist studying studio art at UCLA. They most predominantly work with themes of bodily autonomy and the power structures that lie within physical interaction. Their writing is a synonymous practice with their visual art-making as they inform and propel one another.

Posts in this issue: 1

Tom Gorsuch
Tom Gorsuch is a Eureka Springs playwright, essayist, and children’s story author. In the Spring of 2017, his full length play, Dance of Deceit, was performed in Eureka Springs as part of the May Festival of the Arts. Two of his ten-minute plays, Fluffy and Flags of Honor, were performed as part of the Five & Dime Drama Collective Fall Performance Series in 2016. He is a former board member and script reader for Red Eye Collaboration, a Minneapolis avant-garde theater, and he is a founding member of the Five and Dime Drama Collective.

Posts in this issue: 1

Joy Clark
Joy Clark received her MFA from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR in 2020. She works for the local nonprofits Art Ventures and The Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, and is the new 2022 editor for eMerge. Her work can be read in places such as The Kenyon Review Online, Pleiades Magazine, and Bayou Magazine.

Posts in this issue: 1

Former Contributors