Write Now at The Writers' Colony WCDH

Melody S. Gee is the author of three books of poetry, The Convert’s Heart is Good to Eat (Driftwood Press, 2022) runner-up for the Adrift Chapbook Prize; The Dead in Daylight (2016, Cooper Dillon Books), long listed for the Julie Suk Award; and Each Crumbling House (2010, Perugia Press), winner of the Perugia Press Poetry Prize. Her poems, essays, and reviews appear recently in Commonweal Magazine, Essay Daily, Lantern Review, Rappahannock Review, Ruminate, The Academy of American Poets. Born in Taiwan and raised in California, she is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and the University of New Mexico. She has taught writing at Purdue University, Southwestern Illinois College, and St. Louis Community College, and currently works as a freelance content and communications strategist. Melody is the recipient of Kundiman fellowships in poetry and fiction, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, an Artist Support Grant from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, two Pushcart Prize nominations, a Best New Poets nomination, and the Robert Watson Literary Prize. She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and daughters.

Deirdre Fagan is the award-winning author of the memoir, Find a Place for Me: Embracing Love and Life in the Face of Death (Pact Press, Regal House Publishing, November 1, 2022), a short story collection, The Grief Eater (Adelaide Books, 2020), and a chapbook of poetry, Have Love (Finishing Line Press, 2019). Her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies. Fagan is also the author of the reference book, Critical Companion to Robert Frost (Facts on File, 2007) and has published critical essays on poetry, memoir, and pedagogy. Notably, her essay on Emily Dickinson’s dash was included in Harold Bloom’s Modern Critical Views. Fagan holds a doctorate in Humanistic Studies (English and Philosophy) and a master’s in English from University at Albany, SUNY, and a bachelor’s in English from University at Buffalo, SUNY, and has taught university courses in writing and literature for over two decades. She is a native New Yorker who has also lived in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Maryland, and currently resides in Michigan where she teaches and coordinates the creative writing program at Ferris State University. Living Now Awards Aging/Death and Dying Category Bronze Medalist, Eric Hoffer Book Award Category Finalist and Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for her short story collection, longlisted for Memoir Magazine’s 2022 Memoir Prize for Books, poetry Best of the Net finalist and Pushcart Prize nominee, Fagan is the poetry editor at Orange Blossom Review and is seeking a publisher for a recently completed poetry collection and drafted second memoir.

Artist Sean Fitzgibbon explores unusual, real places and events through his work.  He has an MFA in art and a passion for making art and visual storytelling. He is a 2021 Artists 360 recipient and a 2023 recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Award for graphic nonfiction “What Follows Is True: Crescent Hotel. He has exhibited work throughout the US.  He also illustrates books and recently completed writing and illustrating a documentary-style graphic nonfiction that explores the Crescent Hotel’s strange two years as the Baker Hospital, one of the darkest and most controversial legends in the town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Be sure to also follow his work on Instagram at instagram.com/seanpfitzgibbon and Facebook at facebook.com/seanfitzgibbonart

More Than Tutus and Pointe Shoes: A Reading List of Ballet Books

Martha Anne Toll writes fiction, essays, and book reviews, and reads anything that’s not nailed down. Her debut novel, Three Muses, won the Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction. Toll brings a long career in social justice to her work covering writers of color and women writers. She is a book reviewer and author interviewer at NPR Books, the Washington Post, Pointe Magazine, The Millions, and elsewhere. She also publishes short fiction and essays in a wide variety of outlets. Toll has recently joined the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

Out of the Ashes: A Story of Recovery and Hope is educator Sallie Crotty’s first book. Previously she has published poems, personal essays, and articles in The Dairy Hollow Echo (an anthology of best selections from The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow’s eMerge); The Drabble; eMerge; Resources to Recover (an online resource for people living with mental illness); The Menninger Clinic’s Annual Fund 2016 publication; Texas Jewish Post; and Capitalines. The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference selected her writing for workshop three times, and in 2018 The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow awarded her a residency. In 2018 Oral Fixation (An Obsession with True Life Tales) selected her to tell part of her story to an audience of nearly 400 people, with the performance later shared on YouTube.

Sallie has served as a middle school English teacher and private writing tutor for numerous students. Known for her creative lessons and individual attention, Sallie uses a writing and reading workshop approach.

Sallie holds a B.A. in English from Sewanee: The University of the South and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. Currently she is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte.

Since 2019 Sallie, a native Texan, has lived in Seattle with her husband. They have two young adult children. She is working on a poetry collection.

Lisa Braxton is an essayist, short story writer, and novelist. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University, her Master of Science in Journalism Broadcasting from Northwestern University and her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Media from Hampton University. Her debut novel, The Talking Drum, was published by Inanna Publications in May 2020. She is a fellow of the Kimbilio Fiction Writers Program and a book reviewer for 2040 Review. Her stories and essays have appeared in Vermont Literary Review, Black Lives Have Always Mattered, Chicken Soup for the Soul and The Book of Hope. She received Honorable Mention in Writer’s Digest magazine’s 84th and 86th annual writing contests in the inspirational essay category. Her website is: Lisa Braxton | Author of the novel, The Talking Drum