Crescent Dragonwagon (
néeEllen Zolotow, November 25, 1952,
New York City) is a multigenre writer. She has written fifty books, including two novels, seven
cookbooks and culinary memoirs, more than twenty children's books, a biography, and a collection of poetry. In addition, she has written for magazines including The New York Times Book Review, Lear's, Cosmopolitan, McCall's, and The Horn Book.[5]
Dragonwagon is the daughter of the writers
Charlotte and
Maurice Zolotow.[6] Although many of her cookbooks include non-vegetarian recipes, she has been a
vegetarian since the age of 22.[7]
Dragonwagon and her late husband,
Ned Shank, owned
Dairy Hollow House, a country inn and restaurant in the Ozark Mountain community of
Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Dragonwagon later co-founded the non-profit Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow, and was active in the cultural and literary life of Arkansas throughout the 31 years she lived in the state full-time.[3]