“This town is my favorite place in the entire world. I was smitten the moment I saw the Eureka sign and I moseyed on in and got goosebumps. And still do from head to toe. This place is special. This place has got something: you meet the people and then they become like family. As long as you are not unkind, people accept you. Whether you are a preppy or hippie or stoner. Or a writer or an artist or a depressed mess. People take you in, they love you as you are. That’s what community is about, right? They lift you up if you need a couch. They provide for you if you need a meal. Providing for each other.” — Hilka Irvin, consulting marketing manager of the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow.
The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow (WCDH), turns 25 years old this year. It was founded by local author/teacher Crescent Dragonwagon and preservationist Ned Shank as The Dairy Hollow House. It was the first Bed&Breakfast in Eureka Springs.
“It was magic just from what I saw,” Irvin said. “I’m so bummed I never got to experience it earlier, I got here just a little bit late. You hear from Steve Beacham, who arrived in the ‘70s, Zeek Taylor, Mary Springer, the stories that they tell. The pictures you see. I want that to come back. I want people to be dancing in the streets. I want the weird and the wacky and the creativity. I want it to come back. I think that’s why people come here.”
What started as a local inn and restaurant evolved into a writing retreat destination for more than 2000 writers from all over the world. Applicants must send in a sample of writing before they are accepted.
“You don’t have to be a published writer,” Irvin clarified. “You don’t have to be anybody famous. Just somebody who has the drive and the passion and wants to write. The world is noisy out there. People don’t understand the importance of having a place like this where they can just hunker down and write. We have the backdrop of Eureka Springs. Theres so much to do and explore.”
Hilka referenced two large groups of university students from Missouri who came down for their first such experience. “They said it was life changing.”
The Writers’ Colony has three buildings and 8 suites: three are located in the 515 Spring St. headquarters and five next door at 505 Spring, a building purchased by Marty and Elise Roenigk, owners of the Crescent Hotel, for WCDH 21 years ago.
WCDH is one of the few writing communities in the United States that offers a culinary suite, where writers of cookbooks can experiment with recipes while writing. Crescent was fundamental in making this happen, getting KitchenAid to donate most of the appliances. The culinary suite is in the original building.
Crescent had the front office added to the original building. The dining hall was split in two, to accommodate a common area furnished with a piano and couches. When it was The Dairy Hollow house, the entire room was purposed solely for dining.
The dining area/lounge is open to residents 24/7, for the sharing of nosh and conversation as well as full meals. Chef Jana Jones has been cooking in the kitchen for 14 years. “She’s a staple of this place,” Hilka said. “She’s the mom. So, people come back over and over again saying, ‘I can’t wait to see Jana and eat her food.’ It’s like a reunion every time writers come back.”
Crescent Dragonwagon, who claims to be as prolific as a zucchini plant, has authored more than 50 books, from novels to cookbooks to children’s stories. She is also creator of multiple writing courses such as Fearless Writing. Local artist and author Doug Stowe credits his writing career to taking this course, saying Crescent helped him learn to write with no brakes.
The original board president of WCDH told Crescent that we, as humans, treasure what we measure. “In my late twenties I did my first residency at a writers’ colony. By my mid-thirties I began to think that it would be great to have one in Eureka Springs. I mentioned it to some of the Arts Council people but, you know, nobody was going to do it. Meanwhile, my husband, Ned Shank, and I had started an inn called The Dairy Hollow House. It was actually the first bed and breakfast inn in Eureka Springs. I sometimes feel like Dr. Frankenstein, what the hell did I create?
“Ned and I manned the inn and the restaurant. Towards the end of that we were going to sell the inn. We didn’t have any children, so the logical thing would have been to sell it and make some money for retirement. But we were idealists, and we turned it into a non-profit writers’ colony.
“So, in my late forties, we started The Writers’ Colony. It had been open two months, and Ned went out on a bicycle ride and got hit by a car. He’d be amazed and happy to see this room full, twenty-five years later – longer than it was an inn – of people gathering together and expressing themselves. My private wish back when I started it was, I wanted to give Eureka Springs to the world, and I wanted the world to give itself to Eureka Springs. It was a little more insular in those early days here.
“The way to do that is through writing. Through writing and reading, we can have conversations with people who are dead as if they were alive. This is a dream come true.”
The WCDH is open to the public every third Thursday of the month for Poetluck. Every Wednesday there is a local writing group that has gathered there from the beginning 25 years ago and is also open to the public.
Bookmarked: A Jazz Age Jubilee will be held on August 3 from 3 – 6 p.m. at The Crescent Hotel. The event’s mission is to celebrate 25 years of literary magic in Eureka Springs. There will be live music, an authors’ row, silent auction and costume party as well as hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. Cost is $50.