The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow recently announced the winner of the 2021 “My Time” fellowship, which was created for writers who are also parents of dependent children under the age of 18. The WCDH fellowship committee selected DW McKinney out of 64 applications received from writers across the U.S. Her writing proposal and sample was selected by the judges as rating the highest for literary merit and likelihood of publication. McKinney will receive a fully funded one-week residency at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow as well as a stipend to cover travel and childcare.

“It’s an honor to be able to provide an environment that nurtures writers’ creativity and productivity, but it’s especially meaningful for parent writers who have so many responsibilities at home,” said Michelle Hannon, WDCH executive director.

McKinney will be a writer-in-residence at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in August when she will be working on an essay collection composed of her travelogues as creative mediums and educational directives, according to a press release. During her residency, she will outline her essays and curate her anthropological observations and interviews from her time living abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2008 and 2010 and travels in Brazil, Greece, Ecuador, and travels across the United States. Her essays will incorporate discussion on racial discourse, history, and mental health, as well as Americana and culture.

“I can be neither an effective creator nor mother without first caring for myself and providing space for my mind and body to properly unwind,” McKinney said.

ABOUT THE WINNER

DW McKinney is a work-from-home mother of two, ages 2 and 5. She pens a column, 3 PANELS, at CNMN Magazine and serves as the Senior Nonfiction Columns Editor for Raising Mothers. She is also an Associate Series Editor for wigleaf (Top 50). She was a finalist in the 2020 Remember in November Contest in Creative Nonfiction by Hippocampus Magazine. Nominated for Best American Essays and the Pushcart Prize, her other honors include the Shenandoah Fellowship for BIPOC Editors, a fiction residency with the New Southern Fugitives, and a scholarship from The Hellebore Press, in addition to other awards and nominations. She is also a former editor with The Tishman Review and Linden Avenue Literary Journal.

McKinney’s writing has been featured in Narratively, JMWW Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, [PANK], HelloGiggles, and Elite Daily, among others. Born in California, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Dominican University of California and a Master of Arts in Anthropology from Texas State University. She now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Learn more about McKinney at dwmckinney.com.

The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow would like to thank Tony and Caroline Grant and the Sustainable Arts Foundation for generously funding this fellowship.  For more information about sponsoring a fellowship supporting a genre or area of interest you are passionate about, visit www.writerscolony.org/sponsor-a-fellowship.

ABOUT WRITER’S COLONY AT DAIRY HOLLOW

The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is “to nurture writers of all backgrounds, genres, and levels of experience in a supportive environment that builds community, stimulates new thinking, energizes creative expression, and optimizes productivity.”  Since opening its doors to writers in 2000, the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow has made a lasting impact on the arts and literary communities hosting over 1,700 writers from 48 states and 13 countries.