CMarie Fuhrman

CMarie Fuhrman is the author of Camped Beneath the Dam: Poems (Floodgate 2020) and co-editor of Native Voices: Indigenous Poetry, Craft, and Conversations (Tupelo 2019). She has forthcoming or published poetry and nonfiction in multiple journals including Emergence Magazine, Platform Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Cutthroat a Journal of the Arts, Whitefish Review, Poetry Northwest, 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 Upstreet, and Director of the Elk River Writers Workshop. CMarie is the Director of Poetry, and Nature Writing Faculty at Western Colorado University and is the 2021-2023 Idaho Writer in Residence.  She resides in the mountains of West Central Idaho with her partner Caleb and their dogs Carhartt and Cisco.

How did you discover Western?

I first came across Western when looking at MFA programs in the West, then I met and became friends with the Director of the Nature Writing Program at Western and got to know even more. I was instantly attracted to teaching here!

What are some of the highlights of your career?

Being a co-editor on the anthology, Native Voices, is decidedly one of the best projects I have every worked on. It has been monumental in giving voice to Native poets and their craft. Working with Kim Barnes at the University of Idaho is the most important thing to every happen to my writing. Without her instruction, I don’t know if I ever would have been brave enough or wise enough to take my nonfiction/memoir writing to the next level. Along with Kim, I have gotten to meet other writers whom I have long adored, such as Doug Peacock, Luis Urrea, William Kittredge, Jack Turner and so many more. Meeting them and listening to their advice has been paramount. Teaching will always be the most important thing I do–and the greatest challenge. Being asked to teach students by other instructors and students is a great honor. To join the program at Western and teach alongside other writers and educators that I admire and respect will, for the longest time, be the highlight of my literary life.

What most excites you about your field?

I think we are at the dawn of a new generation of fierce and talented Nature writers. More than ever it seems that people are taking to the page and the podium to use their voices to defend wild people and other beings. There is also a wave of Native writers that are making fantastic art. Their poems, science, and prose is fantastic and so important to the ecology of writing. I am excited to watch where all of these writers take us.

Publications (Print)

Camped Beneath the Dam, Floodgate Series, 2019
Native Voices, Tupelo Press, 2020

Publications (Digital)

Nonfiction:

Platform Review: “Lake 8” September 2020
Emergence Magazine: “Coyote Story” July 2020
Contra Viento: “Resound” Spring 2020
High Desert Journal: “Aspen” Fall 2018
High Desert Journal: “What is the West” Summer 2018:
Sustainable Play: “Hells Canyon Revival” Fall 2017

Column:

The Inlander 2019-present

Poetry:

Pictures of Poets: “Ode to the Waitress,” “Camped Beneath the Dam,” “Dear Body,” “Litany” May 2019
High Desert Journal: “Valeria” Spring 2018
Broadsided Press: “Stand” 2017
Taos Journal of International Poetry and Art: “Another Great One Slipped the Mooring” 2017​