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

Peggy Harris Dionne
Peggy Harris Dionne grew up as an Air Force dependent and lived in many places around the globe. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Denver, with a B.A. in History, and Texas A & M Commerce, Texas, with a Masters in Psychology and Special Education. She taught elementary and special education students for seven years and is a retired Air Force officer. She loves to ramble the back roads of this country, researching family history, exploring art, fiber arts and music, reading, hiking, and discovering new things. She and her husband and son live in Colorado.

Posts in this issue: 1

Charles Templeton
Charles Templeton is the author of the award winning, bestselling novel, Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam. When Charles isn’t busy working on his next historical fiction novel, he serves on the Board of the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, a writers’ retreat in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Charles also serves as the Acquisitions Editor for the Colony’s online literary magazine, eMerge.

Posts in this issue: 2

Peggy Kjelgaard
Peggy Kjelgaard has served as a global consultant in the field of Knowledge Management in the private sector, a teacher educator in the university setting, and as a regular elementary and special education teacher. In 2004, Peggy retired and moved to Eureka Springs to focus on writing. She published her first novel, Birthmark of Evil, in 2013. She served as Executive Director for the Eureka Springs School of the Arts in 2006. She's served on various governing boards, including the Eureka Springs Arts Council, Equity Bank Advisory Board, local school boards, and the Writer’s Colony.

Posts in this issue: 3

Bill McCloud
Bill McCloud’s poetry book, The Smell of the Light: Vietnam, 1968-1969 (Balkan Press), reached #1 on the "Oklahoma Best-Sellers" List (The Oklahoman). Most recently his poems have appeared in Oklahoma Today, Oklahoma English Journal, NOVUS Literary and Arts Journal, Tejascovido, and The Coronameron. He has a poem in the new anthology Bull Buffalo and Indian Paintbrush: The Poetry of Oklahoma (TJMF Publishing), edited by Ron Wallace. Counted among the fans of his poetry are songwriters Graham Nash and Jimmy Webb.

Posts in this issue: 2

Mellissa Milton
Melissa Milton was born in the Southern U.S. (Arkansas) during the turbulent 1960’s and came of age in the groovy 1970’s. The colorful clothing, interior décor, and art of those decades influences her artistic expression. The family of colors and designs associated with those eras frequently find their way into her artwork, especially in tertiary colors. She tends to use curved, relaxed, flowing shapes expressing an object in new ways which people may have not seen before. Melissa took up artwork late in life, after physical disabilities required her to retire from law.

Posts in this issue: 2

Wendy Taylor Carlisle
Wendy Taylor Carlisle lives and writes with both feet in the Arkansas Ozarks. She is the author of four books: Reading Berryman to the Dog (2000), Discount Fireworks (2008), The Mercy of Traffic (2019) and On the Way to the Promised Land Zoo (2019) and five chapbooks.

Posts in this issue: 1

Laura Lapins Willis
Laura Lapins Willis is a writer and cook who lives in Sewanee, Tennessee. When she’s not in the kitchen or at the computer, you can find her hiking in the woods with her husband and their dog. She is the author of “Finding God in a Bag of Groceries” (Abingdon Press, 2013) as well as numerous essays about cooking and motherhood. She is writing a new book that combines recipes and memoir.

Posts in this issue: 1

Brianne Grothe
Brianne Grothe is a recent graduate from Oklahoma State University where she earned a B.A. in English. Her poetry has been published by her university’s undergraduate literary journal Frontier Mosaic, the national undergraduate journal The Allegheny Review, and Royal Rose Magazine. Besides writing poetry, her passions include destigmatizing mental illness, making connections between sexuality and spirituality, trying to reconcile her desire to be a domestic goddess with her lipstick feminist agenda, and sharing cat memes on Facebook.

Posts in this issue: 1

Scarlett Savoy
Scarlett Savoy lives in the Arkansas Ozarks and likely always will. She has been published in Scholastic Review, Crazy Quilt, Off the Wall, Renegade, and anthologies B and Poised in Flight by Kind of A Hurricane Press.

Posts in this issue: 1

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D., the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of 24 books, including How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a non-fiction book on the Holocaust; The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and Coming Home to the Body. Founder of Transformative Language Arts, she leads writing workshops widely, coaches people on writing and right livelihood, and consults on creativity.

Posts in this issue: 1

Joan Roberts
I am 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 intersection with our daily life. In 2006, I co-founded the Shadowleaves Company and started my blog, Shadowleaves.. In 2015, I started a local writer’s group in Bella Vista, AR, Village Lake Writers & Poets, sponsored by The Artist Retreat Center and Bella Vista Public Library. Our mission is to share the joy of writing and the importance of writing and telling stories for all ages by connecting with each other.

Posts in this issue: 1

Belinda Bruner
Dr. Belinda Bruner reaches into her communities with offerings of her writing, her enrichment curriculum for young people, and with interactive lectures. She comes from the forests of Southeastern Oklahoma where she was reared in a family of singers and story-tellers. She is currently seeking representation for her novel based on her great-grandmother's time with Pancho Villa's militia. She was conceived under a chinaberry tree during the Perseids meteor shower in the 60s. In addition to her skill as a writer, Belinda holds an undergraduate degree in vocal music.

Posts in this issue: 1

Patsy Creedy
Patsy Creedy lives in San Francisco, California. She has published poetry and creative nonfiction in several publications including Transfer Magazine, Dragon’s Leap, Inlandia, RCVRY Quarterly and Your Golden Sun Still Shines, an anthology of San Francisco stories. She has a memoir coming out in early 2021, ‘Without Her, Memoir of a Family,’ by Atmosphere Press. She was a resident at Dairy Hollow in the fall of 2019.

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

Sharon Spurlin
Sharon Spurlin majored in sociology, education, and had 28 hours in French, then taught high school for four years in Independence, MIssouri. Later, she taught global issues, focusing on women and children for the workshops created by the National Council of Churches and United Methodist Women. Sharon shares a synergistic relationship with her friends and family through her love of books. She continues to write as a platform of self-discovery and to explore her love of humanity and for a deeper understanding of human nature.

Posts in this issue: 1

Fred Yu
Fred Yu writes fiction in the Asian Fantasy Martial Arts epic genre. He is a filmmaker, chef, Feng Shui practitioner, martial artist, and for over a decade was a risk manager in Citigroup. Yu’s first publication, The Legend of Snow Wolf, was published by China Books in 2012, followed by a cookbook in 2017, Haute Tea Cuisine. A martial arts instructional book on his knife system, Yin Yang Blades, was recently released in May 2018. His next novel, The Orchid Farmer’s Sacrifice, is pending publication in January of 2021. Yu is currently a full-time writer and lives in New York City.

Posts in this issue: 1

Morris McCorvey
Morris McCorvey served as an artist-in-residence schools for the Oklahoma Arts Council for almost 9 years; Program Coordinator for the Westside Community Center here in Bartlesville for a decade; and, Executive director of the Westside Community Center 15 yrs.; Dad, Coach and Papa 30+ years now.

Posts in this issue: 1

T. Daniel Wright
T. Daniel Wright grew up in Northeast Arkansas. He earned a master’sdegree in Communications and Theatre from Arkansas State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas. His first original play, Colored Eggs was made into the feature film, Changing Hearts. His first novel, Lost Cain, was released in 2015. His latest project, a stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Lady Susan will premiere in the fall of 2021. He currently teaches in Kansas City, Missouri.

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

Darlene Graf
I have lived in the Ozarks for sixteen years teaching and writing. (I’ve also done some house renovating!) I wouldn’t be happy without my menagerie of sixteen chickens (two of which are roosters), a dog, a cat and three Bettas. I left my teaching job in August of this year and have focused on writing more exclusively. I am currently working on essays and poetry.

Posts in this issue: 1

Jeremy Hance
Jeremy Leon Hance is writer and freelance environmental journalist. He is the author of the 2020 travel memoir, Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac. His works has also appeared in Mongabay, the Guardian, HuffPost, the Daily Beast, Ensia, YaleE360, Sydney Morning Herald among others. A story on the Sumatran rhino for Mongabay was chosen for Best American Science and Nature Writing in 2019.

Posts in this issue: 1

Laurence Foshee
Laurence Foshee is a Tulsa, Oklahoman with poetry and prose in Dragon Poet Review, The Drabble, The Tulsa Review, and a forthcoming Oklahoma anthology honoring the memory of The Greenwood District. When not reading and writing poetry, his work in patient transport during the entire first year of the Covid-19 pandemic has driven him to resume pre-health studies and pursue osteopathic medicine. He hopes to find commonalities in helping others within these disparate, higher callings.

Posts in this issue: 1

Anna Gall
Anna Gall with her husband, Dean live in historic St. Charles, Missouri. Anna and Dean love domestic travel, and enjoy nature, the arts, and history. After her office hours as an employee wellness professional, Anna gardens, cooks, antiques, reads, and writes two blogs on topics she is most passionate about, organic gardening, home life, and wholeness as a woman. In the near future, more of her time will be devoted to writing, culinary adventures, the gardens at her 1930’s cottage home in town, and the remote greenhouse situated in the wine country of St. Charles County.

Posts in this issue: 1

Cynthia Gallaher
Cynthia Gallaher is a Chicago-based poet and author of four poetry collections, including Epicurean Ecstasy: More Poems About Food, Drink, Herbs and Spices (The Poetry Box, Portland, 2019), and three chapbooks, including Drenched (Main Street Rag, Charlotte, N.C., 2018). The Chicago Public Library lists her among its “Top Ten Requested Chicago Poets.” She is a two-time alumna of the Writers' Colony.

Posts in this issue: 1

Joan Harris
From Drs. Seuss and Doolittle, to Little Women to John Steinbeck, the love affair with reading continues. Joan has taught school, been a fulltime parent to four sons practiced as a Marriage and Family Therapist and now her joy of reading has expanded to include writing. As a therapist, Joan became interested in bullying – physical and emotional. She created an anger management program used in local schools. Combining the joy of books with her interest as a therapist in reducing childhood bullying and violence, the idea of the Read to Me – Talk to Me series of books began. 

Posts in this issue: 1

Elaine Blanchard
Elaine is a playwright, storyteller and memoir writer in Memphis, Tennessee. She has written and performed three plays: “For Goodness Sake,” “Skin and Bones” and “Good People.” She has written three children’s books: Help Me Remember: Bible Stories for Children, published by Pilgrim Press 2003, Maggie Scott’s Head Got Stuck, self-published by Archway Publishing and Honey Comb, also self-published by Archway. She teaches creative writing workshops. She is the pastor of First Christian Church in Union City, Tennessee. She lives with her wife, Anna Neal, and their cat, Alex.

Posts in this issue: 1

Kathy Martone
Kathy Call Martone is a Jungian psychologist, currently retired and living in Eureka Springs, a small Victorian town in the Ozark mountains. Martone is also a writer and artist. Mysticism is a favorite topic of hers and she loves to weave images, fantasy and the metaphysical into her art and writing. Still Not Dead Yet was published in Not Dead Yet 2: Words to Live By (Cahaba Press, November 2020). Available at Amazon and better bookstores everywhere.

Posts in this issue: 1

Ellaraine Lockie
Ellaraine Lockie is widely published and awarded as a poet, nonfiction book author and essayist. Her fourteenth chapbook, Sex and Other Slapsticks, was recently released from Presa Press. Earlier collections have won Poetry Forum’s Chapbook Contest Prize, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival Chapbook Competition, Encircle Publications Chapbook Contest, Best Individual Poetry Collection Award from Purple Patch magazine in England, and The Aurorean’s Chapbook Choice Award. She also teaches writing workshops and serves as Poetry Editor for the lifestyles magazine, LILIPOH.

Posts in this issue: 1

Sheryl Loeffler
Sheryl Loeffler is a Canadian writer and musician. Her poetry has been published in literary magazines in Canada, the USA, the UK, Austria, and Japan. In 2005, she moved to the Mediterranean island of Malta, returning to Canada in 2006; In May 2014, A Land in the Storytelling Sea, her book of poems, prose poems, and photographs born in and about Malta, was published by FARAXA Publishing, Rabat, Malta. She was elected to membership in the League of Canadian Poets in 2015.She was resident at the colony for two months in 2017. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2019.

Posts in this issue: 1

Adrian Frost
Adrian Frost is a sculptor, installation artist, performance/recording artist, poet/filmmaker, and writer. He was born in Cornwall, England and attended St. Martin’s in London. He was a visiting professor at London University, Reading University, Kingston College in the UK and the Art Institute in Bergen, Norway. His U.S. teaching credits include visiting artist/professor at UC Davis, University of Chicago Midwest, Warwick CC, Rhode Island, and Poughkeepsie CC, NY. His paintings and sculpture have been exhibited in Britain, Australia and the U.S. He currently resides in Eureka Springs, AR.

Posts in this issue: 1

Martin J. Smith
Martin J. Smith is the author of five crime novels and five nonfiction books, including Going to Trinidad: A Doctor, a Colorado Town, and Stories from an Unlikely Gender Crossroads (Bower House, April 2021), about the small former mining town The New York Times once called “the sex-change capital of the world.” He currently lives and writes in rural Granby, Colorado.

Posts in this issue: 1

Kenneth Weene
Ken Weene’s stories and poetry have appeared in numerous publications. His novels and other books, most published by ATTM Press, can be found on Amazon. Ken’s novella "The Stylite " was written while he was in residence at the Writers’ Colony. It is one of three pieces in his Broody New Englander.

Posts in this issue: 1

Gale Acuff
Gale Acuff has had poetry published in Ascent, Reed, Poet Lore, Chiron Review, Cardiff Review, Poem, Adirondack Review, Florida Review, Slant, Nebo, Arkansas Review, South Dakota Review, Roanoke Review and many other journals in a dozen countries. He has authored three books of poetry: Buffalo Nickel, The Weight of the World, and The Story of My Lives. Gale has taught university English courses in the US, China, and Palestine. Thank you for looking at his work.

Posts in this issue: 1

Erica Harmon
Erica Harmon is a fiction writer who loves to explore universal themes through horror and sci-fi. She is the copywriter for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and recently completed a writer's residency at The Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Posts in this issue: 1

Julie Peterson Freeman
Julie Peterson Freeman, née Wren Dubois, has been spotted in dark piano bars and tiny cafes in the oldest sections of cities around the world. At the beginning of her career, one was most likely to find her strolling the cobbled streets in the 18th Arrondissement of bohemian Paris. I spotted her arm in arm with the notorious Amantine Dupin (better known as George Sand), exiting Le Tagada, a quaint and popular bar among artists and eccentrics in the famed village of Montmartre. It was here where the flâneur was created. Bien sûr, none of this is true, except in Julie’s imagination.

Posts in this issue: 1

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.

Posts in this issue: 1

Former Contributors