GRAVETTE — A Gravette educator who now teaches Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska in Omaha is ending a month at a writing fellowship in Eureka Springs.

Elizabeth (Diane) Newell-Mack, who attended school at Gravette High in the late 1970s, said she has spent much of the month at Eureka working on and honing a manuscript which chronicles her “growing-up years” in Sulphur Springs.

Newell-Mack said, “Many folks wonder how one goes from a high school dropout to an English professor,” alluding to her not graduating with her class at GHS.

She explains, “My mother (Betty Newell) was instrumental in starting the Sulphur Springs Library and my dad (the late Jack Newell) at one time had a book store, Jack’s Bookstore, in Sulphur Springs. I was reading before kindergarten. It runs in the family.”

The petite professor earned her BFA in creative writing and a master’s in English (emphasis oncreative nonfiction writing) after her daughter reached adulthood. Now Newell-Mack, besides being a college teacher, does freelance writing, mostly nature writing.

In keeping with that theme, she said she is focusing on the springs that made Sulphur Springs a one-time popular health spa. The springs, including the Lithia Springs, which in recent years have either been condemned by the state or ceased flowing, may be staging a comeback.

Newell-Mack said the state health department has now freed the springs in the park for consumption after their pumps had been removed following a nearby gas station leak. The Lithia Spring, which was featured in the former Gravette News Herald several years ago, has been restored to a flowing stream of water. These and other natural features of Sulphur Springs will be a highlight in her forthcoming book.

The professor was awarded a Moondancer Fellowship, a month-long residency, at the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs for her nature writings.

While in the area, she has also spent time visiting her mother, who still resides in Sulphur Springs where she served as city recorder for several years.

Heading back to Nebraska and her Universityposition, Newell-Mack will be continuing work on her book and expects future visits to the Sulphur Springs area as she delves into that city’s past, its present and what many hope will be a positive future.

Community, Pages 11 on 06/27/2012