Regular Instructors

Program Coordinator

Pat Carr has a B.A. and an M.A. from Rice, a Ph.D. from Tulane, has taught creative writing and literature in universities across the South (most recently at Western Kentucky University), and has given workshops at such places as Yale, Brown, and Geneva, Switzerland. She’s published eighteen books, including the Iowa Fiction Award winner, THE WOMEN IN THE MIRROR, and the PEN Southwest Fiction Prize winner, THE DEATH OF A CONFEDERATE COLONEL; and she’s had over 100 short stories published in such places as THE SOUTHERN REVIEW and BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES. She’s won numerous awards for fiction, most recently the prestigious 2013 Porter Prize for Literature. She currently writes on a 36-acre farm near Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Assistant to the Director

Jessie Rex is a certified Master Life Coach and Assistant to the Director at the Village Writing School. After homeschooling four boys, Jessie reinvented her life, following her passion into life coaching. She’s working hard on her book, Four Seasons to a Fabulous Life, and already planning her next book. She takes private clients and will be happy to help you find and fulfill your “soul” purpose.

Jessie performs a million important tasks for the Village Writing School, including website design and maintenance, press and social media, special events, and record-keeping. Her fabulous meals contribute to making Writers’ Night Out such a fun evening each week. www.JessieRex.com 

Poetry Instructor 

Wendy Taylor Carlisle was born in Manhattan, raised in Bermuda, Connecticut and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and lives now in the Arkansas Ozarks in a house she built in 1980. She has an MA from The University of Arkansas and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of Reading Berryman to the Dog (Jacaranda Press, 2000) and Discount Fireworks (Jacaranda Press, 2008) and three chapbooks, After Happily Ever After, (2River Chapbook Series, #15, 2003,) The Storage of Angels, (Slow Water Press, 2008) and  Persephone on the Metro (MadHat press, 2014).

She has been 11 times nominated for the Pushcart Prize and once for Best of Web. She is presently the poet in residence at the Village Writing School in Eureka Springs, AR. www.wendytaylorcarlisle.com

Instructor-Rogers, AR

Arkansas Women Blogger member Jacqueline Wolven relocated to Eureka Springs over 10 years ago from San Francisco with her family sight unseen. She doesn’t regret that for a minute! She works with small businesses and entrepreneurs nationwide to brand themselves and grow into strong values-based business. Her blog is a mix of personal stories and inspiration about slowing down and living simply and solid, easy to understand business advice. She runs the Northwest Arkansas Bloggers community, speaks at blogging conferences nationwide, writes for the Huffington Post and Beliefnet.com, and was recently named a So Fab Writer. You can find out more about her and get inspired at JacquelineWolven.com.

 Instructor/Mentor–Eureka Springs, AR

Gary Guinn, Ph.D. is retired from teaching writing and literature at John Brown University. His novel, A Late Flooding Thaw, was published by Moon Lake Publishing in 2005. His poetry and fiction have appeared in a variety of magazines, including The Midwest Poetry Review, Carve, in which his story was a finalist for the Raymond Carver Prize, The Bryant Literary Review, The Rockford Review, Elder Mountain: a Journal of Ozark Studies and The Arkansas Literary Review. His stories have also appeared in the anthologies Yonder Mountain, from the University of Arkansas Press, and Puzzles of Faith and Patterns of Doubt, from Editions Bibliotekos. He lives in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, with his wife, Mary Ann, and his lab mix, Seamus, and his Corgi mix, Peanut.

Associate Director-Maumelle, AR

Thomas Eaton holds a BA, from the University of Wyoming, an MA, from Southeast Missouri State University, and an Ed.D, from the University of Missouri – Columbia.

He served as Associate Professor of English Education at Southeast Missouri State University where he taught teachers to teach literature and language, was a thesis reviewer, and taught online. He also reviews galleys for new textbooks in composition and grammar for Pearson Publishing, McGraw-Hill, and Bedford-St. Martin. Twice a year, he teaches comparative American/Russian literature at Vinnyestia State University in the Ukraine.

A Wyoming native who grew up on and ran a ranch, Tom also writes western fiction.

His work was published in the William Faulkner Short Story competition, Journey Magazine, the Westering, Outer Darkness, The American West E-zine, The Scavenger’s Newsletter, Big Muddy: Journal of the Mississippi River Valley, and most recently, Rough Country, an anthology of western stories. He has a publishing contract with High Hill Press, Missouri, for his next two forthcoming short story collections, Stories from Mission County and I’m Right Where You Left Me – More stories from Mission County.

Eaton returns to his family ranch in Wyoming during the summer months to fix fence, see family, and come up with new stories from his native west.

“As a writer, I’m somewhat like a turtle — I carry my home with me and when I get homesick — I just fold in my legs and creep within the pages of my stories. Life is a balance and I’m joyful for having found that. Working within a natural world, sharing in teaching, and in writing are all elements that work together. I am excited about teaching creative writing in Maumelle and the opportunity to teach in the Village Writing School. We all have a story to tell and I want to help people to find that story, share it, and send it out to the common human experience.”

For more information, contact Tom  at doctom06vws@gmail.com.