Crescent Dragonwagon (nee Ellen Zolotow, November 25, 1952, New York City) is a writer, teacher, and performer who works in the literary, culinary and dramatic arts and the author of more than fifty books.Dragonwagon's children's books include Half a Moon and One Whole Star.
She has written two novels (one,The Year It Rained, is a New York Times Notable Book), several cookbooks (Passionate Vegetarian is a 2003 James Beard Award-winner), and one book of poetry. Her most recent cookbook, The Cornbread Gospels, was named one of the ten best cookbooks published in 2007 by ABC's Good Morning America.
She and her late husband, Ned Shank, owned Dairy Hollow House, a country inn and restaurant in the Ozark Mountain community of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where she lived for more than thirty years. She later co-founded the non-profit Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow. She now lives in southeastern Vermont, not far from the village of Saxtons River. Her partner is the filmmaker David Koff.
She is the daughter of the writers Charlotte Zolotow and the late Hollywood biographer Maurice Zolotow.
, nominated for both the James Beard and IACP Awards
, Winner, James Beard Award
Children's books
When Light Turns into Night (1975) ISBN 0-06-021740-5
Wind Rose (1976) ISBN 0-06-021741-3 (with Ronald Himler)
Will It Be Okay? (1977) ISBN 0-06-021738-3
I Hate My Brother Harry (1983)
Alligator Arrived With Apples: A Potluck Alphabet Feast (1985) ISBN 0-7857-0010-2
Half a Moon and One Whole Star (1986) ISBN 0-689-71415-7
This Is the Bread I Baked for Ned (1989) ISBN 0-689-82353-3
Winter Holding Spring (1990) ISBN 0-02-733122-9
Alligators and Others All Year Long (1993)
Annie Flies the Birthday Bike (1993)
Brass Button (1997)
Bat in the Dining Room (1997)
And Then It Rained / And Then the Sun Came (2002)
Sack of Potatoes (2002)
Novels
The Year It Rained (1985) ISBN 0-02-733110-5
To Take A Dare (1982) (co-authored with the late Paul Zindel)
Awards
In 1993, Crescent Dragonwagon won the infamous Name of the Year award, handed out annually after a grueling selection process. In 2010, the Dragonwagon Regional was named after her. Crescent Dragonwagon is also rumored to be a personal chef for the Name of the Year High Committee.