Fort Collins Book Fest - Ask Me Anything: Poetry and Essays with Western Colorado University

Craft, revision, publication, education, and beyond — writers, bring all of your burning questions! This panel, made up of faculty, alumni, and leadership from Western Colorado University's MFA program in Creative Writing, seeks to open the floor to writers of all levels to ask whatever's on your mind, with a focus on poetry and essay-writing. No question is too small (or too big). Let us help you get past your roadblocks and get back to writing!

Book sales and signing to follow courtesy of The Crowded Bookshelf.

Sponsored by Western Colorado University Graduate Program in Creative Writing.

Fort Collins Book Fest combines the community’s passion for the literary arts and our unique cultural heritage in a celebration of literature, literacy, and social conversation for all ages. For more Fort Collins Book Fest events, visit focobookfest.org.

About the Panelists

CMarie Fuhrman is a poet and author whose work is inspired by the Western landscape. CMarie is the director of the Elk River Writers Workshop and an award-winning columnist for The Inlander. She is the Associate Director and Poetry Director for Western Colorado University's Graduate Program in Creative Writing, where she also teaches Nature Writing. 

Teow Lim Goh is the author of three poetry collections, Islanders (2016), Faraway Places (2021), and Bitter Creek (2025). Her essay collection Western Journeys (2022) was a finalist for the 2023 Colorado Book Awards in Creative Nonfiction. Her writing has been featured in The Georgia Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, High Country News, and The New Yorker.

Erica Reid’s debut collection Ghost Man on Second won the 2023 Donald Justice Poetry Prize and was published by Autumn House Press in early 2024. Erica’s poems appear in Rattle, Cherry Tree, Colorado Review, and more. Erica teaches poetry in Western Colorado University's MFA program. 

Carol D Guerrero-Murphy has published 3 full length books of poetry: Bright Path Dark River (October 2020, Colorado Authors League Poetry Award); Chained Dog Dreams (2019 Finishing Line Press); and Table Walking at Nighthawk (Ghost Road Press, 2007, WILLA Award).  A long-time teacher, coach, and editor for poets ages 3 to 93, in preschools to prisons, in classrooms, zooms, and letters. (PhD English, Denver University.)