Poet and non-fiction author CMarie Fuhrman of McCall has been named Idaho Writer in Residence by the Idaho Commission on the Arts. Fuhrman’s application was reviewed anonymously by a panel of out-of-state judges and was selected based on writing samples, professional accomplishments and audio samples of her reading from her work. According to the review panel, “Furhman is an expert writer with compelling views. Her work draws in the reader, conveying an intimate tone with strong emotional force and challenges us to see narrative structure in new ways.” Idaho’s Writer in Residence is the highest literary recognition accorded an Idaho writer and those selected embody preeminent quality in the literary field. In assuming the title of Writer in Residence Fuhrman joins literary luminaries such as Diane Raptosh (2013), Anthony Doerr (2007) and Kim Barnes (2004). Fuhrman will receive $10,000 and serve a two-year term, starting July 1, 2021, during which she will give at least four readings annually throughout the state.

CMarie Fuhrman is the author of Camped Beneath the Dam: Poems (Floodgate 2020) and co-editor of Native Voices (Tupelo 2019). She has published poetry and nonfiction in multiple journals including Emergence Magazine, Yellow Medicine Review, Cutthroat a Journal of the Arts, Whitefish Review, Poetry Northwest, Platform Review, as well as several anthologies. CMarie is a regular columnist for the Inlander, translations editor for Broadsided Press, non-fiction editor for High Desert Journal, and Director of the Elk River Writers Workshop. She teaches nature writing and poetry for the low residency MFA at Western Colorado University. She resides in the mountains of West Central Idaho with her partner Caleb and their dogs Carhartt and Cisco.

According to Fuhrman, “I have been writing in some form for many years, but it wasn’t until after the death of my young husband and the discovery of my biological mother’s Ute tribal identity that my poetry and prose took on greater focus and urgency. My efforts as a writer are in the tradition of literary storytelling, and my hope is that, by sharing my own personal experiences, I can celebrate the beauty of and bear witness to the difficulties of others, especially underrepresented voices, while encouraging heightened self-recognition, education, healing, and protection of the land.”

More about the Idaho Writer in Residence. 

ABOUT THE PANELISTS            

Leah Francesca Christianson earned an MFA from Miami University, where she was editor-in-chief of Oxford Magazine. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, New Stories from the Midwest Award, and was recently long-listed for The Masters Review Fiction Anthology. Currently, she lives in Oakland, California and teaches creative writing at The Loft Literary Center.

David J. Daniels is the author of two chapbooks, and the full-length collection Clean, winner of the Four Way Books Intro Prize. A former Stadler Poetry Fellow at Bucknell, he is currently Poetry Editor of Pebble Lake Review and teaches at the University of Denver.

Janalyn Guo is a fiction writer and editor based in Salt Lake City. She is the author of the short story collection, Our Colony Beyond the City of Ruins. Her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony and the National Endowment for the Arts and has appeared in various literary journals. She also acquires creative nonfiction for the University of Utah Press.

Ruth Joffre is the author of the story collection Night Beast. Ruth earned her BA from Cornell University and her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She now lives in Seattle, where she currently serves as the Hugo House Prose Writer-in-Residence.

Stefan Karlsson received his MFA in Poetry from the University of California-Irvine, where he served as the poetry editor for Faultline, UCI’s Journal of the Arts and Literature, and taught as a Composition Lecturer. He is currently based in Long Beach, CA.

Julie Strand is a poet and teaching writer living in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. She is the former Program Director of The Cabin in Boise, Idaho and the current Arts Program Director at COMPAS, a St. Paul, Minnesota organization that connects teaching artists with schools and organizations to help people reach their potential through the arts. She received her MFA in creative writing (poetry) from Boise State University.