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Crescent Dragonwagon, your Fearless leader
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a working, much-published writer
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 The daughter of
two writers, CD has been a professional writer herself since she was
sixteen. She has always worked in many genres --- fiction, non-fiction,
for children, for adults, articles, cookbooks, short and long --- and
has won awards in most of them. The author of more than 40 published
books, she's been
described as an “earthy, yarn-spinning woman” (Chicago Tribune)
whose work is “As delightful to read as it is to cook from… both
inspiring and practical” (Bon Appetit), “original, heartfelt…
exuberant” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), and “sensual, aromatic …
captivating.” (Gourmet Retailers). Her second novel, THE YEAR IT
RAINED, was a New York Times Notable Book, while her children's
book HALF A MOON AND ONE WHOLE STAR won the Coretta Scott King Award and
was a Reading Rainbow selection.
(Pictured left at the door of her old studio in Arkansas; photo by Susan
Storch.)
To see a full listing of Crescent's published work, click
bibliography.
And if you're curious, you can also answer the much-asked question
"Is that your real name?" with
a click.
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Fearless Writing™:
experiential workshops, life-changing results
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Crescent
developed her Fearless Writing™
workshop over fifteen years ago, and has taught it to hundreds of people
--- writers and otherwise --- in a variety of locations and venues.
Fearless grew out of her growing sense that the writers' conferences she
was often invited to speak at were out of sync with both the act of
writing and the needs of would-be or blocked writers.
Too, as a writer, friend of writer, and daughter of writers, she became
ever more interested in "the ways the forces of creation seem at times
to reveal themselves, and at other times hold back. " She began, she
says, to look at "how we can cooperate with these forces, at the
juncture of habit, craft, discipline, and just plain understanding how
writing works through experience... that it is never without anxiety,
but you can learn to tolerate that anxiety once you grasp why it's
there.." Fearless is, she says, is her take on a working map of the
creative process. "Maps don't tell you where to go or which routes to
take. But, once you learn to read them, they give a clear picture of
where you are, and an infinite number of possibilities: you can alter
direction, route, or method of travel. You can bicycle or take the
Concorde."
Students have called her work and the
Fearless Writing™
experience, "energizing", "life-altering", "the beginning of a whole new
personal renaissance", and "inspiring." Noted one Fearless attendee on
her exit evaluation, " Crescent Dragonwagon brings everything she has to
everything she does. That's what makes her everything she is --- and
thankfully, she is generous about sharing that." CD's secret?
Dragonwagon quotes psychologist Richard Price. "You always teach what
you most need to learn. You are your own worst student."
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sensual, award-winning, exuberant food writing
--- part cookbook, part memoir
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 Her
most recent cookbook, PASSIONATE VEGETARIAN, won a 2003 James Beard
Award
(that's her holding the medal up, left, and explains why she looks a bit
like a happy
prized steer at a county fair; photo courtesy James Beard Foundation).
The book was also a finalist for the International Association of
Culinary Professionals Award, and was named Book of the Year by the
American Vegetarian Society.
New York Newsday
described it as “So beautifully written...a direct and logical result of
a life lived richly and fully ...a cookbook seasoned with story: the
story of food memories, love and loss, joy and renewal.” It has sold,
so far, 115,000 copies.
The food Dragonwagon cooks --- sometimes down-home, sometimes haute
--- is always exciting, making clear that there is no need to separate
nourishment, celebration, and sensual pleasure. And, she has the
probably unique distinction of having prepared cornbread for both a
president (Bill Clinton) and a royal (Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia).
You may want to visit
PASSIONATE VEGETARIAN,
which
offers dozens of recipes and
a quarterly essay..
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a little personal background
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Dragonwagon was born in New York, but lived in this Ozark Mountain
resort town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for 33 years. With her late
husband, the preservationist and writer-artist Ned Shank
(pictured left,
photo by Bruce Crabtree),
Crescent owned Dairy Hollow
 House,
a country inn and restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for 18 years.
There she co-founded, with Ned, the only writers’ colony in the world
recognizing culinary writing as a specific literary genre.
After 23 years of marriage ended with Ned's sudden death in 2000, she
eventually moved to the 1795 farmhouse in southeastern Vermont where she
had spent summers as a girl, and where she currently resides.
She continues to write, teach, and travel, sharing her life with
friends, a calico cat named Z
(see right, clicking to enlarge; photo, David Koff), and a garden. She also
spends way too much time working on her house.
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