Outpost on the Zumwalt Prairie with CMarie Fuhrman

June 19-24, 2023
Registration: $1,250
Includes writing instruction, meals, and camping
Sold Out – Sign up for the waitlist by clicking on the button below.

The goal of Fishtrap’s Outpost program is to provide writers with an opportunity to experience a remote, natural environment in order to find solitude, connect to the landscape in a meaningful way, and write about their experience. Instructor CMarie Fuhrman will inspire you to explore new ways to invigorate your writing through discovery in the landscape.

From CMarie Fuhrman
Writing is often seen as a solitary activity. Isolation and solitude are prerequisites for producing work that has the power to move people. However, we are never truly alone. The voices of our ancestors, mentors, books, friends, and foes all coexist within us. And all around us, beings graced with melodies, shade, and beauty sit silently by our sides as we create. There are also the people who support us in the editing and improvement of our writing by providing feedback, words of encouragement, and even the occasional cup of tea and snack as we work. 

Throughout this week-long creative immersion, I will serve as your guide to the art of listening. To community.To connecting with the nonhuman on a prairie where generations of beings have directly benefitted one another’s growth and survival, where diversity makes an ecosystem thrive. As a result, writing will no longer be something we do alone but something we share with others, allowing us to channel the wisdom of our ancestors and offer a voice to those who were previously silenced. Expect to examine beautiful writing about the importance of communities (and sometimes solitude), as well as exercises designed to help you find your voice and connect with your environment and other people. All this will occur on one of the region’s most beautiful and varied settings over shared meals, hikes, campfires, and conversations.

CMarie Fuhrman is an author and poet whose work is rooted in the landscape of the West. She is the author of the collection of poems, Camped Beneath the Dam, and co-editor of two significant anthologies, Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry and Native Voices: Indigenous Poetry, Craft, and Conversations. She has published or forthcoming poetry and nonfiction in multiple journals, including Terrain.org, Emergence Magazine, Platform Review, Northwest Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Poetry Northwest, and several anthologies.  CMarie is a regular columnist for the Inlander, Translations Editor for Broadsided Press, and the Elk River Writers Workshop Director. CMarie is the Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University where she also directs the Poetry Program and teaches Nature Writing. She is the current Idaho Writer in Residence and resides in the mountains of West Central Idaho.

CMarieFuhrman.com

What to expect at Outpost

Outpost takes place on The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Zumwalt Prairie Preserve, a 33,000 acre grassland in rural Wallowa County, Oregon. It is a beautiful and inspiring landscape lush with flora and fauna including wildflowers, aspen groves, soaring raptors, elk and deer, plus the rolling grasslands leading out to the horizon. Part of the beauty of being out on the Zumwalt is that you will be off the modern day grid. But that also means you will be an hour from any town or store so it’s important to prepare in advance so you can spend the week immersed in the landscape and your writing. 

The TNC Summer Camp facility has limited solar power, cell connectivity is spotty if available at all, and there is no wi-fi access. Be prepared for weather extremes. The daily temperatures can swing from 100 degrees midday to below freezing at night. Be prepared for wind and rain, sun and heat. Overpack. 

You’ll have fresh nutritious homemade meals served during the week with an emphasis on locally grown ingredients. No one will go hungry or thirsty, that’s for sure. Our camp cook will provide basic regular, vegetarian, and vegan meal options but is not able to make individual meals based on each person’s dietary restrictions. If you have severe food allergies or other dietary concerns, please let us know in advance. Bring your favorite snacks too.

TNC’s Summer Camp gives Outpost participants access to one restroom which includes a toilet, sink, and shower. Due to COVID, we’ll all have to pitch in a little extra to keep things clean and diligent in wiping down surfaces. This is a shared responsibility that includes everyone. The Summer Camp does have a second restroom reserved for TNC staff and volunteers. They have allowed us access to it in years past but that may have changed due to the health restrictions and we won’t know until we get there. There is also one primitive pit outhouse that you can access in a pinch.

Outpost is an hour from any medical facility or store. Please pack all your medications and please don’t take any physical risks while hiking and exploring. Drink lots of water. Seek shade. We will have a first aid kit available and a First Responder on site all week in the unlikely case that someone needs medical attention. If there is an emergency, you will be transported to the nearest hospital in Enterprise, Oregon. The latter has never happened in the history of Outpost and we don’t want to break that good record so please be careful out there.