Dakota McElhinny

Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Dakota McElhinny also spent time growing up in Morganton, North Carolina. Between the two, he gained the ‘bustling city life’ and ‘rural country life’ experience. After receiving his Associate of Arts degree from Western Piedmont Community College, he obtained his Bachelor of Science from North Greenville University. In addition, Dakota holds a certification in Old Norse Mythology from the University of Colorado, and a certification in Magic in the Middle Ages from the University of Barcelona.

A lover of genealogy, Dakota is a descendant of several of the Mayflower Pilgrims, giving him familial ties to famed authors, poets, and writes such as: Ernest Hemingway, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Currently, he resides in South Carolina, where he serves as Secretary for the South Carolina Writer’s Association; for fun, he also holds a Sealand Knighthood from the Principality of Sealand.

His poetry and short stories have been featured in five different anthologies. "Let My Love" debuted in North Greenville University's The Mountain Laurel (2015); "Box Full of Wishes" appeared in Z Publishing's South Carolina's Best Emerging Poets (2017); and "Beyond One Step" appeared in Z Publishing's America's Emerging Poets 2018: Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas (2018). "Tea For One" debuted in Z Publishing's South Carolina Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Fiction (2018); and "Thamar" appeared in Z Publishing's South Carolina's Emerging Scientific Fiction and Fantasy Writers: The Deep South (2019).

To date, he has sixteen independently published works. The Realm (2016), The Realm: Rise of the Demon Prince (2017), and The Realm: The Chess Master's Ring (2020) make up his YA/older Middle-Grade Epic Fantasy, The Realm Series. Under the pen name Arthur Y. Wharton, he released the middle grade fantasy, The Wall Between the Woods (2025) winner of The Golden Wizard Book Prize 2025, a Royal Dragonfly Book Award Winner 2025, and Literary Global Children's Book Awards Winner in Children's Literature 2026. Time Frozen Mirrors (2018), Black October (2019), Dreams of Glass (2020), The Cutting Room Floor (2021) Half a Truth, Half a Lie (2022), and Envoi (2023) Sweet Nothings & Forget Me Nots (2024) are his seven poetry compilations. Other various works include: The Art of Time (2020) a short story compilation, Crumpet Court Chronicles (2021) a novella in the magical realism genre, How They Changed Baseball: The Black Sox of 1919 (2024), and 50 Birds of South Carolina: Birdwatching in the Palmetto State (2024).