Idaho’s first Poet Laureate (later called Writer in Residence), Irene Grissom, was appointed in 1923 by the governor. Grissom was a Colorado native and graduate of Colorado State Teacher’s College, who moved to Idaho later in life. She wrote three novels and three poetry collections, including Verse of the New West, and served as Poet Laureate until her death in Idaho Falls in 1946.
The next laureate was named to the honorary position in 1949. Sudie Stuart Hager was a former Oklahoman who taught school in Kimberly, Idaho, while writing poetry. Her best-known collection was Earthbound.
Following Hager’s death in 1982, Governor John Evans appointed a five-member panel of Idahoans to select a new Poet Laureate. The panel recommended the name of the position be changed to Writer in Residence and it be open to all Idaho writers of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Other agreed-upon changes included the Writer serving a two-year term, being paid $5,000 annually, and giving 12 public readings of their works each year.
Today, the Idaho Commission on the Arts oversees the Writer in Residence program. Idaho applicants have their writing samples judged by a panel of out-of-state writers, after which the panel makes a recommendation to the Commission. Finally, the governor approves the Commission’s choice.
2021-2023 Idaho Writer in Residence: CMarie Fuhrman
CMarie Fuhrman, who lives in western Idaho, holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Idaho, and a BA from the University of Idaho, in English and Creative Writing. She is co-editor of the soon-to-be-published Cascadia: A Field Guide Through Art, Ecology and Poetry (Mountaineers Press, 2023), author of Camped Beneath the Dam: Poems (Floodgate 2020), and co-editor, with Dean Rader, of Native Voices: Indigenous American Poetry, Craft and Conversations (Tupelo 2019).
Fuhrman has published poetry and nonfiction in several anthologies and journals, like Emergence Magazine; Yellow Medicine Review; Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts; Whitefish Review; Poetry Northwest; and Platform Review.
Fuhrman is a frequent 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 is also Director, with a Poetry Concentration, for the low-residency MFA program at Western Colorado University. As Idaho Writer in Residence, she travels throughout the state to conduct readings and talk about her craft.
2018-2020 Idaho Writer in Residence: Malia Collins
Boise resident Malia Collins was named Writer in Residence in 2018. She received an MA in Literature from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Boise State University. She also studied French literature at L’Universite Stendhal in France on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship.
An associate professor of English and Creative Writing at the College of Western Idaho, Collins is also co-director of the CWI Visiting Writer Series, Writers and Words. She is a teaching artist with the Idaho Commission on the Arts.
Collins’ published works include two Hawaiian-themed children’s books and numerous short stories, which have appeared in a variety of literary magazines. She was also a contributing writer to the book, Narrative Thread: Sewn Stories of Refugee Journeys to Idaho.
Other Idaho Writers in Residence (since 2000) have included Christian Winn, Diane Raptosh, William Johnson, Anthony Doeer, Kim Barnes, and Jim Irons. ISI
