featuring Crescent Dragonwagon

Episode 2 of the Write Now at The Writers' Colony podcast, hosted by WCDH, titled "featuring Crescent Dragonwagon" was published on March 31, 2020 and runs 43 minutes.

March 31, 2020 ·43m · Write Now at The Writers' Colony

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Summary

Called by the Chicago Tribune, “An earthy, red-headed  yarn-spinning woman,” Crescent Dragonwagon is the much-published author of fifty books in five genres, numerous magazine articles, and two blogs. Presently, at 6:00 p.m. CST on Facebook Live, Crescent reads aloud each evening with tech/text support by Mark Graff. Selections are books she's written and ones written by her mother, Charlotte Zolotowoffers. You can find her delicious recipies (like the lentil soup mentioned in the podcast) on her blog as well as in her cookbooks. Crescent is the developer and leader of the Fearless WritingTM family of on- and off-line workshops and courses, which have helped hundreds of writers write (and in many cases publish) with greater ease, more authenticity of voice, and less angst. One of her best-known students was the late Julia Child, who took Fearless when she was over 80, preparatory to beginning her memoir, My Life in France.  “I loved (Fearless), ” Julia wrote. “And I recommend it often and enthusiastically, to both established and aspiring writers; indeed, to anyone in search of a rejuvenating new way of looking at and understanding life. ” Born in New York, Crescent spent the majority of her life in the South, in the Ozark Mountain resort town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. There, for eighteen years, she ran an acclaimed country inn and restaurant called Dairy Hollow House with her late husband, the writer/historic preservationist Ned Shank.  “You don’t have to believe in reincarnation to believe in reincarnation,” she has sometimes said, “Just live long enough.” Some of her lifetimes in the one life she’s living actually include  growing up in a literary family, the daughter of show-business biographer Maurice Zolotow and children’s book writer/editor Charlotte  Zolotow (she now serves as literary executor to both her parents... writing eight culinary-memoirs, including the James Beard Award-winning Passionate Vegetarian,  Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook, The Cornbread Gospels and Bean by Bean (click here to hear an NPR interview on the latter, in On Point with Tom Ashbrook) …which (along with her life as a chef/innkeeper/restaurateur) led to the distinction of having prepared beans and cornbread for a U.S.  President (Bill Clinton), titled royalty (Princess Elizabeth of  Yugoslavia), and world-renowned feminist (Betty Friedan) She also prepared brunch for 1200 people at Bill Clinton’s first presidential election. … which lead to appearances on Good Morning America, Today, TVFN, & CNN Writing 28 children’s books, including the Coretta Scott King Award-winning Half a Moon and One Whole Star and the Golden Kite Winner Home Place (both illustrated by Jerry Pinkney) … which lead to more than 20 years of periodic appearances and workshops  in schools and universities, initially as part of the NEA-funded  Artists-in-Schools Program the publication of two novels, including New York Times Notable The Year It Rained (published in five languages) and, in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Zindel, the young-adult novel, To Take a Dare. Both are available on Kindle. She’s also published a book of poetry, Message from the Avocados. having the privilege of walking her late mother, Charlotte Zolotow,  through the last five years of her life until her death at the age of 98

Episode Description

Called by the Chicago Tribune, “An earthy, red-headed yarn-spinning woman,” Crescent Dragonwagon is the much-published author of fifty books in five genres, numerous magazine articles, and two blogs. Presently, at 6:00 p.m. CST on Facebook Live, Crescent reads aloud each evening with tech/text support by Mark Graff. Selections are books she's written and ones written by her mother, Charlotte Zolotowoffers. You can find her delicious recipies (like the lentil soup mentioned in the podcast) on her blog as well as in her cookbooks.

Crescent is the developer and leader of the Fearless WritingTM family of on- and off-line workshops and courses, which have helped hundreds of writers write (and in many cases publish) with greater ease, more authenticity of voice, and less angst.

One of her best-known students was the late Julia Child, who took Fearless when she was over 80, preparatory to beginning her memoir, My Life in France. “I loved (Fearless), ” Julia wrote. “And I recommend it often and enthusiastically, to both established and aspiring writers; indeed, to anyone in search of a rejuvenating new way of looking at and understanding life. ”

Born in New York, Crescent spent the majority of her life in the South, in the Ozark Mountain resort town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

There, for eighteen years, she ran an acclaimed country inn and restaurant called Dairy Hollow House with her late husband, the writer/historic preservationist Ned Shank.

“You don’t have to believe in reincarnation to believe in reincarnation,” she has sometimes said, “Just live long enough.” Some of her lifetimes in the one life she’s living actually include

growing up in a literary family, the daughter of show-business biographer Maurice Zolotow and children’s book writer/editor Charlotte Zolotow (she now serves as literary executor to both her parents...
writing eight culinary-memoirs, including the James Beard Award-winning Passionate Vegetarian, Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook, The Cornbread Gospels and Bean by Bean (click here to hear an NPR interview on the latter, in On Point with Tom Ashbrook)
…which (along with her life as a chef/innkeeper/restaurateur) led to the distinction of having prepared beans and cornbread for a U.S. President (Bill Clinton), titled royalty (Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia), and world-renowned feminist (Betty Friedan)
She also prepared brunch for 1200 people at Bill Clinton’s first presidential election.
… which lead to appearances on Good Morning America, Today, TVFN, & CNN
Writing 28 children’s books, including the Coretta Scott King Award-winning Half a Moon and One Whole Star and the Golden Kite Winner Home Place (both illustrated by Jerry Pinkney)
… which lead to more than 20 years of periodic appearances and workshops in schools and universities, initially as part of the NEA-funded Artists-in-Schools Program
the publication of two novels, including New York Times Notable The Year It Rained (published in five languages) and, in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Zindel, the young-adult novel, To Take a Dare. Both are available on Kindle.
She’s also published a book of poetry, Message from the Avocados.
having the privilege of walking her late mother, Charlotte Zolotow, through the last five years of her life until her death at the age of 98